Willy Wonka disaster leads to Fringe Golden Ticket

Real life stories have inspired many a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe but few quite as strange as Willy’s Candy Spectacular.

Producer Richard Kraft was inspired by news coverage of the disastrous Wonka-themed event in Glasgow which was shut down by police after just one day following complaints from angry parents.

Willy’s Chocolate Experience promised ticket holders “a chocolate fantasy” but having paid for a £35 ticket, they instead found a sparsely-decorated warehouse with a handful of hired actors.

The images and reactions to the disaster became an internet sensation, watched and read about all over the world.

A month later, Kraft began working with songwriters on a show and convinced director Andy Fickman to join them.

He eventually managed to recruit cast members from the Gene Wilder film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, to join the project.

Kraft said: “I remember reading about it all in the US, and wondered what it was all about.

“It looked like there was an Oompa Loompa in a meth lab. And I’m sitting there thinking: 'This sounds like a musical'.

“I had a press release before I had a show but still we had this crazy idea that we could launch it at the Edinburgh Fringe.”

First on Kraft's list was the so-called "Sad Oompa Loompa".

An image of Glaswegian actress Kirsty Paterson in a green wig had gone viral. At the time she said she felt overwhelmed and anxious.

“People forget that was done without my consent,” she says.

“It was awful. I just wanted to stay in bed and hide under the covers.”

But she decided to engage with the attention and that’s when Richard came calling.

He asked Kirsty to play herself and a narrator of the story alongside a huge cast of musical veterans like Shelley Regner of Pitch Perfect, Cassandra Parker from Cabaret and Eric Petersen, who was able to revive the Scottish accent he used for two years on Broadway in Shrek the Musical.

Although the producers of the show have stressed that the musical is a parody and has no association with the original event or those who own the copyright to Dahl’s book, there are plenty of Wonka connections to keep fans happy.

Not least the casting of two of the child stars of the 1971 film version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Paris Themenn played Mike Teevee while Julie Dawn Cole played Veruca Salt.

“If I’d known there’d still be so much interest, I’d have lied about my age,” she says.

“I retired from showbusiness 15 years ago and I never imagined I’d be back.

“Those of us who are still around call it the Wonka effect. They’re having a rotten day and then someone mentions Wonka and their faces light up and they’re like children again.”

She says she was angry when she first heard about the Glasgow event.

“People are very protective of Willy Wonka so to rip people off about what is their childhood dreams was just unforgiveable but hey, we turned it into a musical so maybe it can have a happy ending.”

Kraft is more forgiving of House of Illuminati, the organisation behind the Glasgow event.

“I don’t think there’s much difference between the dreams of my favourite dreamer Walt Disney and the guy who put on the thing in Glasgow.

"Some people have good taste, a good budget and can execute their plans but all dreamers are the same.

“This is a celebration of dreamers. We dreamed up a story and we may end up on Broadway.”

In February this year, hundreds of parents were persuaded to pay up to £35 a ticket for the Wonka experience in Glasgow which promised "surprises at every turn".

But those who eagerly turned up at an industrial area in Whiteinch described it as "little more than an abandoned, empty warehouse".

A handful of embarrassed actors tried to make the best of some sad-looking props and a bouncy castle.

The promised chocolate fountains and "chocolatey delights" were conspicuously absent.

Children were instead offered a half-cup of lemonade and a small ration of jelly beans.

The production also featured an unsettling character called "The Unknown" who is absent from the traditional Willy Wonka plotline.

As tempers rose, police were called. Within hours the event was abruptly cancelled, leaving some families unable to get in at all.

Billy Coul, the director of House of Illuminati, later promised full refunds would be processed, and admitted that artificial intelligence (AI) was used to generate much of the marketing for the event.

Plans for a full Broadway musical inspired by the fiasco are now well underway.

Although creators originally planned a staged reading for the Fringe, the production now includes costumes and choreography to give a sense of the bigger show they’d like to eventually create.

The story revolves around Willy holding a press conference the day after the event is shut down and “delivering a masterclass in the art of the non-apology apology”.

Other numbers include Lower Your Expectations and I Coulda Gone to Law School.

Kirsty Paterson believes the popularity of the original novel and its many spinoffs is down to the happy ending, as good-hearted Charlie is rewarded for his quiet perseverance.

“It’s the story of someone who has been very unlucky but he finds hope and success and I feel that my story is the same. I’ve won the golden ticket people! I’m at the Edinburgh Fringe.”

Willy’s Candy Spectacular is at Pleasance Dome at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from August 9th to 26th at 3pm