Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Gareth Snook on becoming Willy Wonka in hit musical
Gareth Snook who plays Willy Wonka in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory - The Musical. Picture: Johan Persson/
From last year’s film adaptation of Matilda The Musical with Dublin star Alisha Weir to the upcoming release of Wonka, a prequel to the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory starring Timothée Chalamet, it could be argued that we are experiencing a Roald Dahl renaissance in recent years.
However, Gareth Snook, the star of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – The Musical, which is coming to Dublin this December and was inspired by one of the author’s best-known books, says the world never fell out of love with Dahl’s timeless works for it to need a renaissance.
“This is the extraordinary thing about his stories and his books: all the characters are so vivid, and the stories are still cutting-edge,” he says during a quick pre-show chat in his dressing room at Manchester’s Palace Theatre.
“He doesn't pull any punches. Human beings, they’re complicated things. The way he depicts the children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is just extraordinary, it makes me laugh all the time. They're so entitled.
What's extraordinary was in 1964 [when the book was first published], you're talking about children who were born out of the Second World War, really, and you're just thinking, they're so entitled!
“Let's face it, you have to say it – they get everything they want, most children these days. But you wouldn’t associate that with 1964. Wonka says to them, ‘now, look, don't touch the waterfall, don't play with a giant squirrel’. I mean, what child would think messing around with a giant squirrel was going to end well?
“People always think that Willy Wonka is the one that gets these kids into trouble. He's not. He says the line plainly: ‘Don't do it’. Granted, when they do, he does rather enjoy watching the outcome.”
Speaking of those spoiled brats, the actors playing two Golden Ticketholders relish the chance to be as bold as they want to be on stage before meeting their comeuppance.
Marisha Morgan and Robin Simoes Da Silva play Violet Beauregarde and Augustus Gloop and Da Silva says their roles are “very fun to play around with” as Morgan adds: “Super fun!”
Da Silva describes taking on the role of Augustus Gloop as “a very silly, fun thing that you don't expect to do”.
“Knowing that these were such well-known roles, it was exciting to create our own version of them,” he says. Morgan agrees, saying adding their own twist on such iconic characters was a welcome challenge.
“We all know the roles pretty well so for me it was like, what can I bring to it that's new and fresh?”
The staging and costumes have been updated and this version of Dahl’s beloved tale is set in the 1980s – however once I remark that I feel like I’ve seen people who look and act just like Violet Beauregarde all over TikTok, Morgan enthuses about the modern reflections in the production.
“I did say that if it was based in the modern day, she would be a TikTok star, so it’s funny that you said that. There’s definitely references to that but it’s set in the 1980s, she has her side pony and her hair is really curly – although people have their hair styled like that now,” she muses.
“I think we've made it a bit fresh and fun with the computer element, with the Oompa Loompas being AI, the special effects used in the videos, I think has given it a modern feel,” Da Silva says.
Despite those modern nods, Morgan and Da Silva are cognisant of the powerful sense of nostalgia attached to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, particularly its connection for many fans to Christmas, which is when they will be performing in Ireland.
“We'd see audiences from probably ages five and six up to grandparents coming to watch,” Morgan says, noting the strong presence of families in the crowd.
“They've all been exposed to different amounts of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Da Silva says.
“Some of them watched the first film when it came out, some of them read the book as kids and then a lot of the younger kids, this might be their first exposure to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, maybe. But I think it's just adding to the pile of memories that people love.”
When it comes to that captivating, mysterious titular character, Snook, who is a familiar face to theatre fans having played Bamatabois in Les Misérables’ 10th-anniversary concert and Monsieur Andre in The Phantom of the Opera’s 25th-anniversary concert, says Wonka is one leading role he never contemplated as part of his acting career.
“People would ask me, ‘if you have a choice of who you would like to play, what would it be?’ I'd mention all these different characters and Willy Wonka never even occurred to me. And then I got a call from my agent who said they wanted to see me as Willy Wonka. And I said ‘Willy Wonka?!’ I'd never imagined myself, [in the role], it's strange. Then I had a look at it and realised, within a couple of days, the part was mine. It did not take me long to say yes, I can tell you that much.
“But what an extraordinary person he is. I've never played anything like it. [Wonka’s layers] are so interesting. Caro Newling from Neal Street Productions, they produced the original West End and Broadway [productions] as well, she said, ‘Gareth’, and I've known her for 30-odd years, she said, 'you will never stop playing with this character’. And she's absolutely right.
"Every single performance I find something different, something new about him. He's that complex, enigmatic and unpredictable. And he has a wicked sense of humour.”
For Snook, compassion and empathy are at the heart of all his interpretations of the Candy Man, who has been made famous by the likes of Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp in popular culture. He says his actions towards the young Charlie Bucket and his poor family indicate a kind heart.
“What people forget is that it is a really compassionate man who would do this. Who would take this child – he met him in the morning and he doesn't even recognize him throughout the act – and take him up into the great glass elevator eventually into the stars and planets and give him the keys to his factory, his beloved factory that has been his life's passion, and just hand it over to him and sing this beautiful duet, ‘The View From Here’. I think that's the true Willy Wonka, the rest is the showman.”
- Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - The Musical will have its Irish premiere this December at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre from December 5, 2023 to January 7, 2024. Tickets from €26.50 are on sale now.
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