Edinburgh Fringe: Viral Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience made into musical and to debut at Edinburgh Festival

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Musical parody of Willy’s Chocolate Experience to debut at the Edinburgh Fringe

It became a viral sensation for all the wrong reasons – and now a musical parody of Scotland's infamous Willy Wonka event is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe.

In February, Willy’s Chocolate Experience gained internet notoriety after images of a sparsely decorated warehouse in Glasgow staffed by actors dressed as Oompa Loompas and other characters spread worldwide.

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The botched £35-a-ticket 'experience' sparked dozens of memes after frustrated attendees called the police, and it was even referred to in the House of Commons by Tory MP Penny Mordaunt.

This summer, a musical mockery of the event titled Willy’s Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody will have its world premiere at the Fringe from August 9 to August 26.

Speaking ahead of its run the Pleasance King Dome, creator Richard Kraft said: “The process of creating a brand-new musical, which usually spans years, is being condensed into just a couple of months.”

The producers stress the musical is a “parody production” and there is no involvement from organisations that own the copyright to Roald Dahl’s book Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and its different adaptations It is also “not sponsored, endorsed by or affiliated” with House of Illuminati, the organisation behind the Glasgow event.

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The first three tracks from the show have been shared online – including actor John Stamos performing the opening number Willy’s Candy Spectacular. The song has been dubbed as a “post-apocalyptic opening number that traces the downfall of civilisation back to the disastrous event in Glasgow”.

Songwriters Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner said: “We love musicals with epic opening numbers. And we thought – what could be more epic than John Stamos singing about the end of humanity and linking our species’ demise to an underwhelming immersive experience in Scotland?”

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