One of my earliest memories is reading to my three-years-younger brother Richard.  His favorite book was Roald Dahl's 1964 classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so I must've read it to him four or five times cover to cover.  Yet we didn't see the 1971 movie adaptation in theaters.  Almost nobody did.  The movie bombed in its theatrical release and found an audience only via TV reruns.  We watched it each time it came on and now, like most Gen-Xers, I know it pretty much by heart.

So when Capital Playhouse decided to open its summer 2010 Kids at Play program with the musical stage version Willy Wonka, it stepped where angels (and Tim Burton) should fear to tread.  There's no way to win.  Either you reproduce the movie as closely as possible, or you venture into risky new directions.  Director Troy Fisher clearly leaned toward the former approach, with a few surprises thrown in as candy sprinkles.

Dahl aficionados know both films deviate from the book, but Dahl revised his own work in later editions so it hardly matters.  When I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas were un-PC African pygmies - oooops - and Charlie Bucket never had to burp his way out of any Fizzy Lifting Drink misadventure.  Even in 1964, critics debated whether the novel was too dark.  It is, after all, a kind of slasher movie for children, with a cavalier Wonka knocking off underage guests for such peccadilloes as excessive gum chewing.

For several reasons I'm not usually eager to review children's theater.  One, I'm not children, so presentational narrative isn't really my bag.  More to the point, neither the kids involved nor their parents sign on for candid criticism when they audition, so my critical hands are a bit tied.  If your child was an Oompa Loompa in this production, then rest assured he or she was the very best one.  And if your child was Clarke Hallum, the 11-year-old who played Charlie, then your child has quite the singing voice.

This'll be the only Kids at Play 2010 show to include adults in its cast.  As occurs with sketchy frequency at Capital Playhouse, artistic director Jeff Kingsbury is in the show, but it's hard to grouse because he makes a terrific Grandpa Joe.  I also liked Hunter Wood's unorthodox take on Mike Teavee's dad, and Fisher takes a page out of John Waters' playbook by casting the very large, very male Gregory Conn as the buxom Frau Gloop.  The young leads are charming as well.  Bailey Boyd's Veruca Salt even mimics movie actress Julie Dawn Cole's Surrey accent, begging the question:  Doesn't the script claim she's Brazilian?

As we were going to press, Capital Playhouse decided not to run Wonka past its first weekend, but at least we know the company won't skimp on technical polish just because kids are involved.  Bruce Haasl's set designs are inventively fluid, and Jack Jones' lighting creates magic, especially in Violet Beauregarde's final moments onstage.  So where does Kids at Play go from here?  The remaining shows this season are The Sound of Music (singin' Nazis - I hate those guys!), Seussical, Elton John's Aida, and ... The Mikado?

Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado?  Man, these kids are getting ambitious in their old age.

I guess the highest compliment I can pay Capital Playhouse's Willy Wonka is that my brother would've really enjoyed it when we were kids - but he still would've made me reread the book. 

LINK: Capital Playhouse's Kids at Play program