By Randi Bjornstad
It’s hard to believe that the original Willy Wonka movie, which starred the late great — zany, even — actor Gene Wilder, had its first release in 1971, meaning that the story is into its third generation of entertaining children and their parents.
The movie based its plot on Roald Dahl’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and its story was described as follows:
A sweet boy from a poor family dreams of finding one of five golden tickets hidden inside chocolate bar wrappers which will admit him to the eccentric and reclusive Willy Wonka’s magical factory. One after another, tickets are discovered by ghastly children – but will the lad find the last remaining one and have all his dreams come true?
Well, yes. As luck would have it, a deserving and kind boy named Charlie Bucket finds the last golden ticket, and he takes his grandfather with him on his tour of the chocolate factory, one of the prizes along with a lifetime supply of candy. (The dark side of the original plot is what happens when the winners tour the factory and must conform to Willy Wonka’s rules, or else.)
In 2004, the story was turned into a musical, which appeared on Broadway and starred Johnny Depp.
Since then, several other versions of the story have been developed for children’s theater troupes, and Willy Wonka Kids, which opens on Oct. 11 for four performances at the Wildish Community Theater in downtown Springfield, is one of these.
Becky Hope directs the production, with musical direction by Mary Poppen. The songs include many from the original film as well as several new ones created for the youth production.
In announcing the show, Hope acknowledged that Roald Dahl is well up on her list of favorite authors.
“I’ve always found his stories very empowering, while being just a bit delightfully grim,” she said. “Growing up with the original movie with Gene Wilder, it was hard for me to try to recapture the magic of that particular version, so I chose to move things in a different direction, less scary and zany and more caring.”
The Rose Children’s Theatre cast is “full of heart and are doing a beautiful job of portraying the lessons the story has to teach,” Hope said.
Willy Wonka Kids
When: Evenings at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12, and matinees at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 12-13
Where: Wildish Community Theater, 630 Main St., Springfield
Tickets: Adults $13, students and senior citizens $10, children through 6 years old $7, available at the ticket office or online at rosechildrenstheatre.org
Information: Telephone 458-215-0220; email rct@rosechildrenstheatre.org; or online at rosechildrenstheatre.org
