Few things perplex Americans about our Anglo-Saxon cousins more so than their British sensibilities.
That’s partly because we share, basically, the same language with the Her Majesty’s subjects. But the similarities between the Yanks and Blighties pretty much ends there. All you have to do is tune into a few hours of BBC programming to realize that what works there, often doesn’t here. British culture is often an acquired taste.
The Vintage Theatre is shining a spotlight on that rift as it brings one of the best works of one of Britain’s most celebrated authors to the stage in Aurora. “Willy Wonka,” a musical, runs through Oct. 30.
Everyone knows Roald Dahl’s sweet story: A goodhearted English waif in some gritty urban nightmare hopes to find one of a few golden tickets to tour the famous and mysterious Willy Wonka chocolate factory and win a lifetime supply of chocolate. The poor and dire Charlie Bucket scores a ticket against all odds and joins four obnoxious children and their even more obnoxious parents on the tour. Falling victim to their own personal flaws, one by one, the naughty children are plucked off the tour, leaving only Charlie.
The story of Charlie and the Bucket family may not be the best child-centric novel Dahl ever wrote — James and Giant Peach, Matilda and The BFG are indelible — but the tale of chocolate rivers and Oompa Loompas is certainly his most quintessential. Like Dickens, Travers, and Barrie, Dahl mastered the tale of a goodhearted child triumphing over a cruel and treacherous adult world.
The problem is, that to make those stories work, really work, the child protagonist must really suffer, something Americans are squeamish about. We’re OK with alluding to things like a very hungry child, or almost feeding him to a crocodile, but we take child abuse best when it’s slathered in animation, innuendo and music. The Brits like their cruelty served piping hot and in your face, like their tea.
And so when Dahl’s sumptuously dark-chocolaty “Charlie” gets translated to American, then to cinema, then to stage, well, you get something tepid that Dahl or the Brits probably wouldn’t much care for.
It isn’t that the show itself, and this Vintage production, doesn’t roll out a buffet of audience-pleasing scenes, songs, and familiar memes, but at the end, you walk away with a collection of audience-pleasing scenes, songs and memes.
This musical adaptation by Leslie Bricusse and Tim MacDonald is more of a tribute to what Dahl’s dark story really is and Gene Wilder’s riveting, slightly unnerving Willie Wonka.
While much of the show, too much, elbows for space on the stage apron, the large cast brings a remarkably fluid and energetic romp through a giant candy factory to life.
Eddie Schumacher, as Wonka and the Candy Man, creates his own version of a role that Wilder owned outright for generations. With stellar vocals and affable snark, he lets the story and the show pivot around him. But that’s the problem that even Dahl pointed out when the first movie was made in 1971. The story isn’t about Willy Wonka, it’s about Charlie.
Charlie, a girl in this rendition, played by Ahslynne Bogema, peals off some walloping notes with a voice way beyond her 12 years. But the best songs, lines and action belong to everyone else on stage. She’s often lost on stage with much bigger personalities.
Even Schumacher’s wily Willy gets eclipsed by the portly German brat, Augustus Gloop, played by Eli Testa. Exuding confidence, thick ham and impeccable timing, Testa nearly wrapped the show around his secondary part.
The show floats along through the familiar story with ho-hum songs that belie the talents of Broadway songwriters Tim McDonald and Leslie Bricusse. When the trusted favorites “Pure Imagination” and “Candy Man” get their turn, you can practically feel the audience sigh with pleasure. There are those of us, old people, however, who still cringe at the ditty ruined forever by Sammy Davis Jr., a formidable talent who squandered it by making this musical oddity his signature brand.
The entire cast brings a veritable regiment of talent to the show, which just doesn’t seem to have enough places to go. Neither stylized nor campy, the show settles for being simply musical.
It doesn’t mean that there isn’t some of the usual staged magic that the Vintage company has made its trademark. This is a house that effectively pulled off Miss Saigon, complete with a helicopter landing. Set designer Gov Landrum and team pull off some distinctive candy factory magic throughout the show, and they cap it off with a flying scene featuring Charlie and Brian Walker Smith as Grandpa Joe.
At the end, the cast and crew leave the audience feeling like they’ve had dessert without dinner. Not exactly sustaining, but sweet nonetheless.
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“Willy Wonka”
Through Oct. 30 at Vintage Theatre. Tickets start at $22 ($16 for one Monday performance Sept. 26).303-856-7830 or vintagetheatre.com