In my nearly half century of Broadway theatergoing, I’ve never witnessed such a second-act reversal of fortune as what’s going on now at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” opened Sunday.
Only in retrospective can you see glimmers of hope in the musical’s desultory first half. Just one song by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman hits the mark in this retelling of Roald Dahl’s tale of four children who win golden tickets to Willy Wonka’s long-shuttered chocolate factory.
In “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” the media-obsessed Mike Teavee (the devilishly good Michael Wartella) and his doting mother, Mrs. Teavee (the divine Jackie Hoffman, fresh from her “Feud” triumph), present a witty send-up of a young Donald Trump Jr., as arrogant as he is obnoxious.
In the first act, there’s also Mark Thompson’s stylishly spare set design, which completely eschews the tacky literalism of Disney Theatrical’s most recent stage ventures for children.
And then there’s Christian Borle in the very supporting role of the shop owner who keeps teasing the young Charlie (Ryan Foust) with offers of expensive chocolate, only to withdraw his beneficence at the last moment. Borle slyly delivers each of those mauvais mots, written by book writer David Greig, on a slippery silver platter.
Otherwise, the first act is interminable. While a game little performer, Foust (alternating at other performances with Jake Ryan Flynn and Ryan Sell) isn’t given much to do but be sweet in his unhealthy addiction to chocolate.
He’s also stuck with a generic mother (Emily Padgett) who panders with the song “If Your Father Were Here.” Yes, Charlie is a half orphan. Most tedious is the living arrangement of Charlie’s four grandparents (John Rubinstein, Kristy Cates, Madeleine Doherty, and Paul Slade Smith), all of whom sleep in the same bed. Yes, this unpleasantly cozy living arrangement is in the show’s source material, but visualized here its weirdness never intrigues — and the jokes about flatulence and bird poop don’t help.
What’s great about Act 2 is that the mother and three of the grandparents completely disappear, and little Charlie takes a backseat to the far more colorful brats and their parents. And most important, Borle as Willy Wonka occupies center stage and never lets go, holding court as he blithely dispatches one kid after another to apparent death. In the new “Groundhog Day,” Andy Karl makes you forget about Bill Murray in the film version. Borle does Karl one better: He makes us forget about both Johnny Depp and Gene Wilder.
Of course, it’s not all Borle. His Wonka material is good. So, too, are the staging of the multiple deaths by candy overload. “Veruca’s Nutcracker Sweet,” which shows the young Russian ballerina snob (Emma Pfaeffle) being torn apart by giant squirrels, is right up there with the doll scene from “The Tales of Hoffman,” as choreographed by Joshua Bergasse.
Wittman and Shaiman, along with veteran director Jack O’Brien, are the men who gave us “Hairspray,” after all. They understand the skewered malevolence of a Wonka. They and Greig don’t have a clue how to offer up the fuzzy goodwill of Charlie’s home life.
Someday I’d like to know the negotiations that go on behind the scenes between songwriters and producers when it comes to sticking hit songs from the movie into the stage version. Do the creative people squawk and put up a good fight? Or do they just surrender and give the kids what they already know?
You can almost overlook the addition of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket” and “The Oompa Loompa Song.” They’re both minor stuff, and it just seems lazy not to have written new versions. To begin the show and then reprise “The Candy Man,” however, is all wrong. Images of Sammy Davis Jr. and the Rat Pack belong in another show about 3,000 miles away.
17 All-Time Great Tony Awards Performances, From 'Dreamgirls' to 'Hamilton' (Videos)
"Cabaret" (1967)
Joel Grey sang "Willkommen" to the big time, winning both a Tony (and later an Oscar) playing the M.C. in this musical set in the early days of Nazi Germany.
"Promises, Promises" (1969)
OK, the song "Turkey Lurkey" frankly doesn't make any sense -- and the whole office holiday party is kind of shoehorned into the plot. (The show's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," however, became a big hit for Dionne Warwick.) But Michael Bennett's choreography is head-bobbingly, arm-spinningly awesome.
"A Chorus Line" (1976)
The full "I Hope I Get It!" opening number from the quintessential backstage show -- amazing how long CBS let the numbers run back in the day. Bonus for "Gilmore Girls" fans: That's Kelly Bishop as the haughty dancer who says, "I had it when I was in the front."
"Sweeney Todd" (1979)
Angela Lansbury won the fourth of her five Tony's playing the daffy Mrs. Lovett, the baker of "The Worst Pies in London," in Stephen Sondheim's dark musical.
"Dreamgirls" (1982)
Jennifer Holliday's rendition of "And I'm Telling You..." has been widely imitated, and this is the performance that is most often imitated. A-ma-zing.
"Cats" (1983)
Andrew Lloyd Webber continued his domination of Broadway with this feline musical starring Betty Buckley as Grizabella. Interestingly, the breakout ballad "Memory" was one of the few songs whose lyrics didn't come from T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats."
"Grand Hotel" (1990)
Michael Jeter, perhaps best known from the sitcom "Evening Shade," was a rubber-limbed sensation playing a tipsy bookkeeper in the number "Let's Take a Glass Together."
"Rent" (1996)
Jonathan Larson's rock opera version of "La Boheme" gained extra poignance with his unexpected death after the first Off Broadway preview. The show became a phenomenon, and launched the careers of Idina Menzel, Jesse L. Martin and Taye Diggs.
"Chicago" (1997 revival)
Bebe Neuwirth and Ann Reinking displayed all the athleticism of Bob Fosse's original choreography in the hit revival of Kander & Ebb's musical about the dawn of celebrity criminals (which led to the Oscar-winning 2002 movie).
"The Lion King" (1998)
While Disney's stage version of the animated movie swept most of the major awards in 1998, we chose the opening number from the 2008 telecast -- celebrating the show's 10th anniversary and with clearer shots of Julie Taymor's magnificent puppets and stagecraft.
"Wicked" (2004)
Idina Menzel may have had some cold-induced pitchiness on the final note, but she (and co-star Kristin Chenoweth) are still pretty sensational on the now-standard showstopper "Defying Gravity."
"The Drowsy Chaperone" (2006)
Sutton Foster shows off while insisting that she doesn't want to show off no more in this delightful number.
'Spring Awakening" (2007)
Duncan Sheik's rock musical about rebellious teens shook up the staid world of Broadway with a just-mouthed rendition of "Totally F---ed" performed by very young Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff, John Gallagher Jr. and Skylar Astin.
"Gypsy" (2008 revival)
Everything came up roses for Patti LuPone, who won her second Tony Award playing the irrepressible Mama Rose in the classic musical about showbiz striving.
Neil Patrick Harris' Tony Opening Number (2013)
It's hard to fill a space as cavernous as Radio City Music Hall -- but NPH did just that with a "bigger" number (written by "Hamilton" composer Lin-Manuel Miranda) that included high steps, high notes, leaps, magic, shout-outs to "How I Met Your Mother" fans and even Mike Tyson. Wow.
James Corden's Tony Opening Number (2016)
The hard-working late-night host (and a Tony winner himself) did his own version of a dream-big number, running through a dozen classic Broadway musicals from "Les Miz" to "Fiddler on the Roof" to "Annie."
"Hamilton " (2016)
Audiences at home finally got a chance to see a slice of the buzzed-about hip-hop hit, which even scored an intro from Barack and Michelle Obama.
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A look back at some of Broadway’s highest kicks (and notes) over the history of the Tony telecast
"Cabaret" (1967)
Joel Grey sang "Willkommen" to the big time, winning both a Tony (and later an Oscar) playing the M.C. in this musical set in the early days of Nazi Germany.
