Musical on Glasgow’s Willy Wonka expertise options authentic actor
An upcoming musical parody based on the infamous Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow is to feature two child stars from the original 1970s film.
Julie Dawn Cole and Paris Themmen played the original Veruca Salt and Mike Teavee in Mel Stuart’s 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory which starred Gene Wilder.
The pair will now be returning to narrate ‘Willy’s Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody’ at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.
The musical comedy is based on an ‘immersive’ Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow earlier this year which descended into chaos after parents paid £35-a-head to turn up at a near empty warehouse.
Julie Dawn Cole and Paris Themmen at the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival opening night. The pair will be narrating the musical parody in August
Actress Kirsty Paterson pictured playing a glum-looking Oompa Loompa at the disastrous Willy Wonka Experience in Glasgow. Paterson is set to perform a song in the upcoming stage show
The cast of the original 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with Gene Wilder (middle) as Willy Wonka, Cole as Veruca Salt (left) and Themmen as Mike Teavee (right)
‘Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ promised to transport children into a ‘magical realm’ full of sweet treats and ‘enchanting experiences’ but left them in tears after they were offered just two jelly beans, a quarter can of limeade, and a small, uninspiring bouncy castle.
The disastrous event made headlines, with one of the actresses going viral after a picture of her dressed as an Oompa Loompa while standing behind a table of test tubes was shared widely on social media.
Kirsty Paterson quickly became known as the ‘sad Oompa Loompa’ with social media users likening the depressing set up to a meth lab.
It has since attracted so much attention that a musical parody inspired by the events is set to debut at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 9 to August 26.
The show will feature Ms Paterson, the ‘sad Oompa Loompa’, alongside Cole and Themmen who will be narrating.
Ms Paterson will be performing a song in the upcoming stage show.
The Glasgow experience, set up by organisers House of Illuminati, became the subject of national mockery in February after families arrived for a fun day out only to be met with a near-empty warehouse (pictured)
Despite organisers posting pictures on social media of thousands of sweets and lollies in the days leading up to the event, it was claimed by one parent their children were handed just a couple of jelly babies and a quarter of a can of Barr’s limeade
Ms Paterson has since gone viral for her role as an Oompa Loompa in the Glasgow event
Running at Edinburgh Pleasance King Dome, Cole will be narrating from August 9 to 18, after which Themmen will take over.
The two child stars shot to fame following the movie, but while Cole, 66, continued a career in acting, appearing in Casualty, Doctors and Emmerdale, Themmen quit to take on real estate and film production among other ventures.
Describing the inspiration behind the musical, the show’s website reads: ‘What happens when a man fueled by a billion dreams and zero dollars turns to AI to create an immersive experience in a dingy warehouse in Glasgow that outrages parents, terrorises children, and becomes an international media sensation?
‘What started as a scam, sham, and a fiasco has now reached its inevitable conclusion… from the wreckage of a disaster of this magnitude, our team of Broadway and Emmy Award-winning songwriters think it clearly screams out “MUSICAL.”
The show has been directed by Andy Fickman and produced by Richard Kraft.
Director Richard Kraft (pictured) said: ‘The process of creating a brand-new musical, which usually spans years, is being condensed into just a couple of months, with the team sharing their progress through social media’
(pictured: Fringe performers in 2023)
US Producer Mr Kraft said: ‘It was only in March that I came up with the notion for a stage musical.
‘I had a press release before I had a show. Then a great team of top songwriters wrote our score of 16 tunes.
‘Next, the perfect director, Andy Fickman, signed on. And now our dream cast has assembled to premiere this crazy idea at the Edinburgh Fringe.
‘Even in my purest imagination, I couldn’t have seen this all coming together so beautifully and so fast. It is simply scrumdiddlyumptious.’
The show’s creators have emphasised that the musical is a parody and is not sponsored, endorsed or affliated with Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Illuminati, Willy’s Chocolate Experience, The Roald Dahl Story Company or any organisations that own the copyright.
Julie Dawn Cole is best known for her role as Veruca Salt, the spoilt brat who belligerently begs her father to get her the goose that laid the golden eggs
She’s a qualified psychotherapist but regularly revisits her childhood role, having starred in 2010 Edinburgh Fringe show Willy Wonka Revisited: The Veruca Salt Sessions (pictured left in 1971 and right in 2017)
Cole shakes hands with leading man Gene Wilder in a scene from the iconic 1971 film
(L-R) Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum and Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Paris Themmen played television mad Mike Teavee in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (pictured left in 1971 and right in 2023)
Michael Bollner, who played chocolate chomping chubby Augustus Gloop (pictured), still lives in Germany
The chubby-cheeked child star is now an accountant in Munich after turning his back on acting in order to complete his studies (pictured in 2014)
A beloved English character actor, Roy Kinnear (pictured left of Wilder) had already worked with The Beatles on their 1965 film Help! before starring as Henry Salt in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Albertson with Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory co-star Peter Ostrum take it easy between takes on the set of the 1971 film
Producer Mr Kraft said: ‘It was only in March that I came up with the notion for a stage musical.
‘I had a press release before I had a show. Then a great team of top songwriters wrote our score of 16 tunes.
‘Next, the perfect director, Andy Fickman, signed on. And now our dream cast has assembled to premiere this crazy idea at the Edinburgh Fringe.
‘Even in my purest imagination, I couldn’t have seen this all coming together so beautifully and so fast. It is simply scrumdiddlyumptious.’
A number of tracks in the musical have already been released online.
Cole and Themmen reunited with other cast members in 2015 on NBC Today in which the child stars agreed that given the chance, they’d happily reprise their famous roles.
Themmen said at the time ‘we think of ourselves as part of a family. Maybe a bit of a dysfunctional family, but a family really’.
