"This big but tentative show doesn’t burst with flavor of any kind, not during its exposition-crammed first act. Only in its second half does the show acquire a distinct taste and it isn’t confectionary...The idea of macabre punishment seems to have acted as a stimulant on the creative faculties of everyone involved as the show turns increasingly surreal...Most gratifying is the transformation of Borle...Willy switches into dissing diva mode with a skip in his step and a fork in his tongue."
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"Joyless, shapeless and grating...a stale Necco wafer of a musical...O’Brien directs this dull, clunky adaptation of the book and movie with none of the wit of the former nor the dreamy wonder of the latter. Maybe kids will enjoy the gaudy design and veneer of sassy satire, but when you bite down, there’s only empty shell. Younger audiences can cheer, but adults are bound to conclude that 'Charlie' is like what happens with an Everlasting Gobstopper: lots of sucking."
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"A show like 'Charlie' ought to have been a treat...So why did the thing turn into a hideous, cheap-looking, melted Whitman’s sampler? The glib answer is: too many cooks...The longer answer begins with Dahl. On the page, 'Charlie' immediately reveals itself as a bad candidate for stage musicalization...I doubt this musical would have proved at all likable even if an apt style and thrilling visuals had been found for it. The story is too maudlin and, at the same time, too angry."
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"The new production feels like the result of late-night script meetings and second-guessing. The artistic choices don’t seem wrong so much as exasperated...The effort to rejigger the story into something new has also opened a few plot holes...Despite its problems, the show is still watchable, in part because Dahl spun his modern fairy tale so nimbly. And it has some real bright spots. There are catchy songs interspersed with the wonderful Bricusse-Newley songs from the 1971 film."
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“The new songs are fast-moving genre pieces that mostly go down without hiccups. O’Brien’s direction never lets the pace slacken, even if indigestion might result...If your tastes in candy and drama differ from mine, there is enough here at least to provide some amusement. And it is a legitimate treat to see how Wonka’s small-sized servants, the Oompa Loompas, make their appearance...The musical’s clotted and confused message left me longing for a steaming bowl of cabbage surprise."
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"It’s goofy, loud and imaginative—superlatively so...It’s not as theatrically inventive as 'Matilda,' and it probably won’t share that show’s canny ability to appeal to adults as well as kids...The supporting cast does well by the Shaiman and Wittman numbers, which fill out the characters with considerable humor...The moments of pleasure for this adult viewer were decidedly scattershot...Grown-ups will serve their purpose as ticket buyers, and their tykes will get the sugar rush."
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"The candy man can’t. 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' is a middle-of-the-road musical with a pale score, a flavorless book and a dearth of eye candy that could have at least made it a spectacle...Heading a large, game and polished cast, Christian Borle has panache as Wonka. He plays the chocolate maker as snarky, not all that sinister...But this Ooma Loompa Doom-Pa-Dee Do-Over still needs work."
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"The uncanny darkness of Dahl’s imagination has been lightened and brightened in helmer Jack O’Brien’s mechanized production...While visually droll, too many of the gimmicks distract from the story and encourage the cartoon treatment of characters as caricatures. Happily, the character of Charlie Bucket escapes this mishandling...Ryan Foust was the best thing in the show...As played by Borle, Willy Wonka's much too charming and lacks the aura of stranger-danger."
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