With Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical, Hong Kong in for a sweet treat, say stars
The Broadway musical’s lead actors Daniel Plimpton and Oliver Wong talk about adapting Roald Dahl’s story to the stage ahead of its Hong Kong debut in November
Pure imagination will take hold in Hong Kong this November as the Broadway musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory makes its debut in the city. The recent announcement, made at Felix on the 28th floor of The Peninsula Hong Kong hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, was met with considerable buzz.
For those unfamiliar with Dahl’s 1964 bestselling novel, the story revolves around Charlie Bucket, who lives in poverty and starvation near Willy Wonka’s mysterious confectionery factory. When Wonka hides five golden tickets in chocolate bars for a secret tour, Charlie miraculously finds the last one.
Alongside four horribly spoiled children, Charlie enters a surreal wonderland of chocolate rivers and singing Oompa-Loompas. Led by the eccentric Wonka, the tour becomes a test of character. One by one, the greedy children succumb to their vices, meeting bizarre, comically cruel fates. Only the polite, patient Charlie survives the tour unscathed, winning the ultimate prize and a future beyond his family’s wildest dreams.
The novel has since sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and has been translated into dozens of languages.
Playing the enigmatic Wonka for the show’s Asia run is Daniel Plimpton, a New York native and veteran theatre actor.