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This article was published 04/06/2022 (1252 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For director Matt Lenz, the touring production of Broadway musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is much like one of Willy Wonka’s famous Everlasting Gobstoppers: it’s always changing colours.

Lenz — whose work was last seen onstage here in the touring production of The Sound of Music in 2018 — declines to take a cookie-cutter approach with the show, choosing to let it develop its own flavour as it plays out on stages across North America.

“When we first went on tour in 2018, we did a lot of changes then, a lot of tweaking,” says Lenz, who was the associate director for the Broadway show. “And then this current tour has continued to evolve, even in terms of the scenery and the ways we’re transitioning from scene to scene. It’s gotten tighter and more relevant; we’ve realized elements of the story that we want to bump up.

“And also we’ve just continued to learn about it. As a director, every time I come back to this one, it’s not about saying, ‘Let’s make sure we’re doing it the way we were doing it…’ Sometimes it means tweaking a line or two or changing the staging, and sometimes it’s just where we put our emotional and philosophical focus.

“There’s room for it, because it’s such a weird playground.”

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — based on the beloved 1964 children’s book by Roald Dahl about five lucky Golden Ticket winners who get a tour of secretive candyman Willy Wonka’s fantastical factory — has already been through quite a few changes.

The musical, with book by David Greig, music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray), got its start on London’s West End in 2013 in a production helmed by Sam Mendes.

It was then quite extensively reworked for its 2017 Broadway debut with Tony-winning director Jack O’Brien, with one of the main changes being the casting of young adults in the child roles (with the exception of the protagonist, Charlie Bucket, who is played by a rotating cast of three child actors: William Goldsman, Coleman Simmons and Kai Edgar).

Lenz, 58, says the casting change softens some of the hilarious but grim comeuppance Dahl doles out to children in the story, in which the entitled youngsters Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregard, Mike Teavee and Veruca Salt are punished for their self-absorption and greed.

“You can push the boundaries a little bit more knowing that the audience understands on a conscious level that they’re adults playing kids. When you have actual kids, that stuff happening to actual kids, it’s a little less… funny. It’s hard to laugh at.

“Of course it’s all outrageous and it’s done with this crazy flair, but at the end of the day, they’re getting a severe punishment for disobeying.”

The current touring production, which features Non-Equity actors, was just 10 weeks into its run when, like every other artistic venture, it was cut short by the pandemic on March 13, 2020.

Much of the original cast, however, has returned, including Cody Garcia as confectioner extraordinaire Willy Wonka. It’s a role that’s been immortalized onscreen in two memorable performances: Gene Wilder in the 1971 film and Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s 2005 adaptation, which Garcia, 28, says comes with some baggage.

“I definitely felt some pressure on me from the very beginning — whether I was feeling external pressure or putting that pressure on myself, I’m not sure — but I’m not trying to emulate Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp; I’m doing my own thing.”

The San Antonio, Texas-born actor says the character’s wild energy, which is jovial but a bit terrifying, comes naturally. “I’m truly unwell,” Garcia says with a laugh, “so the maniacal aspect of it isn’t something that I really had to strive for. Not to toot my own horn, but I think that’s why I work well for this role, because I’m already a maniac.”

For director Lenz, Wonka’s character is more than just a madcap genius; he also has something to say about artistic temperament.

“Such hubris and ego,” he says of Wonka. “I almost think the book was written coming out of the subconscious. It’s a cautionary tale, obviously, but there’s so much deep, strange, human psychology that runs through it. The audience maybe notices that, maybe they don’t, but as a director working with actors, it’s keeping them engaged in something that could just be silly.

“I don’t know that this is the sexiest thing to say in an article, but I think Willy is very much the journey of a creative artist, the good, bad and the ugly, with all of the ego but also all the vulnerabilities… he isolates himself, but then he realizes, ‘I can’t just create, I have to give this away.’”

jill.wilson@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @dedaumier