Infamous Willy Wonka event gets stage musical & debuts demo tracks

The disastrous viral Willy Wonka experience is hitting the stage with a satirical musical as its premiere date and demo tracks are announced.

‘Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ was anything but the “chocolate fantasy” promised and went viral after it left children in “tears”.

Ultimately shut down when police were called, the infamous event was slammed by multiple participating actors who claimed they had not been paid and hailed it as the “worst gig ever”.

While the organizer and founder of the Willy Wonka Glasgow experience claimed the event “ruined” his life, it didn’t take long for the experience to be capitalized on. Originally, there were rumors of a movie being made, but in the end, it was a stage play that came to fruition.

‘Willy’s Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody’ was first announced in March and will star Full House’s John Stamos as a headliner.

The satirical comedy inspired by the failed pop-up will debut at the “world-renowned” Edinburgh Fringe Fest at the Pleasance King Dome from August 9 to 26.

While the original event may not have hit the mark, the musical’s creative team boasts an impressive resume from High School Musical to Once Upon a Time.

To hype fans up, the musical’s official YouTube page has already released three demo tracks that are expected to make the final show.

The first sees John Stamos take the lead and perform ‘Willy’s Candy Spectacular,’ a “post-apocalyptic opening number” that describes how the original infamous event in Glasgow led to “the downfall of civilization.”

There is also ‘Where Dreams Go To Fly’, an “uplifting number” that encapsulates the “unbridled optimism of the impresario.”

Emmy-award winners Doug Rockwell and Tova Litvin, the writers behind the song, stated, “There’s such a fine line between soaring optimism and crushing defeat. In our song, we’ve tried to capture the range of emotions one goes through when creating art, even when that art is mind-numbingly awful.”

The final demo track released so far is ‘Dreamed To Dare,’ which follows excited attendees as they prepare to enter ‘Willy’s Chocolate Experience’.

In a surprising twist, actress Kirsty Paterson who was cast as the original event’s Oompa Loompa makes a cameo, alongside TikTok’s Sharpe Family Singers.

More songs will be released leading up to the show’s debut, and a timeline can be found on the official site showing the dates for all 16 songs.

Whether the parody musical does better than the experience that inspired it will have to be seen, however, there is no doubt the production quality is already miles better.