By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
If you never thought life would be anything short of catastrophe, you could use a jolt of sunnyside-up optimism served up with a side of snarky comments, all garnished with sweet music. Audiences of all ages will be thoroughly entertained by the Baldwinsville Theatre Guild’s version of “Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka,” running through Aug. 4, at the First Presbyterian Education Center.
Co-directors Korrie Taylor and Ceara Windhausen assembled a massive cast of four dozen players plus nine musicians helmed by pianist Erica Moser to stage the 2004 musical based on Dahl’s 1964 novel, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and the subsequent 1971 film which starred Gene Wilder as Wonka, the world’s most eccentric chocolate magnate.
BTG’s Wonka is ably portrayed by the ever-dependable leading man, handsome Ben Sills — an engaging singer and quick-witted actor. Sills may lack Wilder’s comic neuroticism, but he makes the character entirely his own with every quick quip and wink of the eye. Sills’ varied talents are showcased on Wonka’s tender show-opener “Pure Imagination” and a buoyant “Golden Age of Chocolate” sung in tandem with the Candy Quartet — Erin Keefe, August Samchisen, Cameron Walker and Eric Zeigler.
Although Sills plays the title character, the real star of the show is young Nathan Carr as Charlie Bucket, a lovable ragamuffin whose poverty-stricken family negotiates life’s twists and turns by thinking positive and staying together. In fact, the importance of family is one of the show’s strongest themes and it’s underscored by several notable family connections between cast members.
As Nathan Carr astounds on tunes like “Think Positive” and the rousing Act One closer, “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket,” his younger brother, Maddon Carr, makes his stage debut as one of the cute-as-pie Little Loompas. Ben Sills’ real-life wife, Erin Sills, appears as Mrs. Teavee, who duets on “I See It All on TV” with son Mike Teavee, played with gizmo-geek gusto by Collin Dean.
Co-director and producer Korrie Taylor cast her husband, the award-winning actor Josh Taylor, as the wise-cracking newsman Phineous Trout and her two children, Tatum and Trent, as Little Loompas. Korrie’s mother-in-law, BTG matriarch Deborah Taylor, plays one of Charlie’s grandmas, the one who’s not-so-secretly reading “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
The script’s action centers on Willy Wonka’s effort to find a successor to take over the chocolate biz. To that end, he has a hidden five Golden Tickets amongst his famous Wonka Bars. The finders of these tickets will be given a full tour of his tightly guarded candy factory as well as a lifetime supply of chocolate. During the tour, Wonka tempts each of the bad children to disobey his orders with something related to their individual character flaws. One by one, each child disappears from the tour, until eventually Charlie Bucket is the only remaining contestant.
The “bad” children — who are really not that bad — are the gluttonous German boy, Augustus Gloop, played by Seth Pagliaroli, last seen in Syracuse Stage’s “Elf,” Veruca Salt, a nasty, spoiled British brat forcefully portrayed by red-haired Ilsa Denton, gum-chomping Violet Beauregard played by an expressive Miss Ryan Ortleib, who delivers her lines between chews in an authentic Southern drawl. The fourth bad child is the aforementioned screen-obsessed Mike Teavee (played by long-haired Collin Dean).
Among the production’s magical moments are baritone Cameron Walker’s version of “The Candy Man,” actress Kathy Egloff’s hilarious portrayal of a heavily accented Deutschland dowager, and David Minikheim’s turn as a nut tycoon and Michaela Oney’s portrayal as Violet Beauregard’s competitive mother.
Charlie’s cherished family members are played by several talented local theater vets — David Gilmore, Janie Wainwright, Michael Whitney, Andy Butchko, Susan Pitonzo and Deb Taylor.
Willy Wonka once observed that, “A little nonsense, now and then, is relished by the wisest men.” So it is with this show. BTG’s “Willy Wonka” is a scrumdidilyumptious treat, so be sure to take a bite!
“Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka” continues at the First Presbyterian Education Center, 64 Oswego St., at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 2 and 3, and closes at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4. Tickets cost $28, and $24 for students and seniors; baldwinsvilletheatreguild.org; 315-877-8465.
