Willy's Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody

Enjoyed the silliness of the show and the songs were good, really great singers. Definitely feels like a work in progress, which makes sense as it has been put together quickly (this news story broke in Feb 2024). Once polished, it has potential to be really fun. Hopefully they drop the scratch and sniff cards, added nothing to it and they were all quite gross! The storyline and costumes could do with refining - even as a group of 4 we all had different interpretations of what was going on (there were 2 people on stage in Wonka outfits at one point?). BUT impressive given the short timeframe and we did really laugh. Very happy for the viral sad oompa loompa!

I loved this show ! Made fun of the fiasco in a very camp and funny way ! Was my favourite thing I saw at the fringe this year

A fantastic show, hilarious parody of the viral / disastrous Willy’s candy experience in Glasgow. The songs were excellent and brilliantly performed my the cast. Recommended.

I went to see this show on Saturday and I liked it!
Yes , the show was affected by members of the cast having covid but the improvisations were funny and worked. I don’t understand why people felt they deserved a refund???
The songs were catchy. The cast were enthusiastic. Their voices were terrific!
Yes it was Americanised, but guess what? It’s an American production!!
This is a parody, not a documentary, and it’s fun.
Have an hour off the serious dramas and enjoy a few laughs and great singing.
An enjoyable hour at the fringe.
Update: I went back to see this show today (24th Aug). What a difference a full cast makes!!! I LOVED IT!
It was funny, slick and a top quality show!. I’m so glad I saw it as it was written. A definite 5 stars now. Thanks everybody.

There's so many much, much better shows out there. I wouldn't spend your money on this; I certainly regretted doing so. There's potential there, sure, and to the cast's credit they were all very enthusiastic and seemed to be having a lot of fun on stage, but this is excessively expensive for what you get and I would not recommend it to anyone. I guess in that sense it honours the source material.

This is such a good time! High camp with earworms galore! Julie Dawn Cole is ALWAYS a privilege to experience live. The cast is uniformly outstanding.

So, I booked this show prior to arrival expecting it to be semi-decent given the credentials of the production team. Then I read the reviews, and I was expecting a s**t show. But it was actually much better than that. The lead, the Scottish Wonka, had a very strong voice and carried the show. Old Verucca, looking very glam, as narrator was a nice touch. The songs were very easy to listen to, nothing overly memorable, but not terrible. And performances were generally of a good standard. The book was thin, however, and it will never make it to any major stage.
The tech worked, although I don’t understand why the cast relied on stage mics rather than head mics as this limited movement. Some of the tracks relied overly heavily on pre-recorded vocals which is sad and a little bit of me dies when I hear this as it’s another nail in the live performance coffin.
The lighting design was, let’s say, enthusiastic rather than well conceived, but overall the tech worked, which is not always the case at the Fringe.
Overall, not a bad show, and well performed on the whole. Certainly not deserving of the the dire reviews, although we saw a full cast, well rehearsed and on time.

The only redeeming quality about this show, was maybe the fact that it makes the original Glasgow experience sound a lot better.

This was the most disappointing of all the shows I saw at the Fringe, which is highly surprising when considering how many people were involved in the production. I must stress that it not only fails on not delivering on the premise - but that the show itself is really poor. The 'Americanisation' has been mentioned repeatedly, but also the nonsensical story, which attempts to be unnecessarily emotional, and lacks any deeper message or theme. The ending is bizarre and was unconnected to whatever else was meant to be going on earlier. Not to mention the absurd inclusion of the 'Hof' character, or a God-awful Scottish accent of the main Wonka character. The list can go on - a child on stage while talking about 'm*th labs', and using swear words; poor jokes which do not land; unprepared cast members. The story writing was a complete failure and a testament of the lack of care that producers had for this. What really did not sit right with me was how the show appeared to mock the victims of the Glasgow fraud that happened in February, by introducing a song that jokes how stupid it was that the parents phoned the police. I am not saying that this Wonka case should not be ridiculed for what it is - we all laughed at the memes - but ridiculing working class people who were clearly victims of fraud by bourgeoise rich elites, who then had the nerve to strip them of their identity and make it American (only the villain remained Scottish) - was of really poor taste and offensive.

While it is certainly unfair to hold the cast accountable for the fact that many had COVID - the production team should definitely be questioned on the fact that the show was not cancelled on those days, and no refunds or alternatives were offered. The fact that one of the key songs of the production was lip-synced by another member of the cast, or the fact that a cast member was introduced to the play as an emergency and practically taken from the audience the day before, is an insult to all paying to see a production. If this was 'Work-In-Progress', it should not have been shown at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe, for there was no evidence of 'work' or 'progress'. This production requires a re-write - not simply just an edit. Or even, just get binned.

The key highlight of the entire production was Julie Dawn Cole - especially for her honesty, who inexplicably and absolutely beautifully enunciated that the director was a 'w*****r'.

This is a train-wreck. Don't bother. Save yourself some time, and give your time to a performer who cares for their art and their audience.

Having seen this show and read some of the reviews here, I'd like to chime in and offer some thoughts in defense of this production. Here they are in no particular order:

1) The basic premise of this show is pure gold. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who goes, but they use the disasterous Glasgow experience as a launching point for a plot that is truly bonkers in a fun way. I kept being reminded of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" while I watched. I hope it eventually becomes a similar filmed production.

2) This show has a definitely "work in progress" feel to it. It's like you're sitting in on a workshop as the creators throw everything up on the wall to see what works. I've been to workshops before and there is a certain hit/miss feel to each moment that is just part of the experience. Does everything work? No. But the parts that do work are really, really good. What you have here is the seed of something really cool, and I consider it a blast to be part of this stage of the journey, warts and all.

3) I agree with the critique that parts of the story have been too "American-ized," and I offer that thought as an American (living in the UK). Having lived in Glasgow I was expecting an experience that celebrated the uniqueness of that city a bit more.

4) It's apparent from the other reviews that the first performances were badly affected by a COVID outbreak in the cast, which is hardly their fault. It's too bad that audience members were not offered a refund or a chance to exchange for a different date. At our performance everyone seemed to know their parts pretty well so either people are recovered or their understudies have grown into the roles.

5) It was so cool to see Julie Dawn Cole. She stole the show for sure. And Kirsty Paterson was a lot of fun as well.

6) As fun as they were (see above), I think the "meta" elements of the show are among the least effective. They detract from the central themes of the show that are really strong, particularly the idea that failure is not the end of the world. If the focus of the show were sharpened to highlight that theme even more, I think the emotional core of it all would really move people.

7) Overall I'd say it's totally worth a look, provided you know what you're looking at. :)

When the show began, it seemed quite promising. However, it is clear that much further development is needed. The music was okay although there was backing singing on the track which meant that the actors sometimes lipsynced instead of singing. Some actors even forgot their lines when they had them right in front of them. The 'scratch and sniff' card seemed cool at the beginning however it seemed to become quite irrelevant as the show went on. Most of the numbers on the card smelt the same. It was clear that there were cast members missing but props were being forgotten and lines were missed. This could have been much better. I wouldn't recommend it.

What a terrible show. Poorly produced. Poor songwriting, unfunny jokes and clearly a production team that don't care about their audiences.

Avoid this show, there are so many better ways to spend your money at the Fringe.

Grossly over hyped and unfortunately over here!

When writing reviews of other shows that haven't quite worked, I've always tried to find a positive or a reason to give some kind of excuse for poor quality.

With this joke of a show, I unfortunately cannot find any redeeming factors primarily because I genuinely don't think the producers actually care and thought they'd just show up, market the hell out of it and that would work! Irrespective of the actual show quality!

Their decision to put this total turkey of a show on at the Fringe is an insult to their audiences, an insult to the Fringe and an insult to the thousands of performers at the festival who have put their heart, money, skills and desire to entertain to perform in Edinburgh.

Utter drivel - even if you already have tickets, don't bother. Go hike up Arthur's Seat for nothing. You'll at least be spending your time doing something worthwhile. By far the worst thing I've ever seen at the fringe.

I’ve never posted a review here, but this show has Moved me in how much of a waste of time it is that it compelled me to warn others.

If you’re reading these reviews thinking “wow, these people hated this show! I’ve got to see it now!” it is not a fun show for that. It’s bad - but not in the fun way. It’s clear the writers completely phoned it in & it feels like the (unfunny) jokes are being made with malice rather than earnestness.

I see a lot of shows at fringe - and a lot a of them bad - but at the very least they are all being made by artists who earnestly believe in the product they are making. This is not the case for this show.

Honestly, this show is so representative of the story it's based on, its a complete disaster. Started half hour late, half the cast were missing but decided to continue ahead with the only reason I assume being to avoid refunds. To be honest I'd pay to never see this again. Songs were terrible, singing was bad, story made little to no sense and everything was over Americanised. Also, it's not funny. Please please please do not waste your time seeing this show. This is the worst show I have ever seen.

Truly awful. Not funny. Way too American. Bad songs. Worse writing. Started 30 mins late cos of some COVID stuff and the smelling scratch card they gave us all smelt the same. Maybe we all have COVID too. Shocking show.

Started half an hour late. Part of the cast was struck by covid. 6 microphones on the stage which don't really help. Would do better with headphones ( i know they are expensive but it would do them good.) almost every actor is American which doesn't really give us the feel that it is set in Glasgow. Some of the concepts were good but this show needs a lot of work in order to be better. Worst show I've seen at the fringe.

An unfortunate miss for me. It seems somewhat ironic that a show about a disastrous event was something of a disaster. You cannot fault the cast for trying their hardest, seeing as there were several cast members who had become ill with COVID, but unfortunately the enthusiasm of the cast could not save this show from an incredibly weak book and a severe lack of musical cohesion and a largely forgettable score. I would save your money.

This was a bit of a miss for me. They did well since that a lot of the cast were down with covid. Had a few laughs at the start with the Wonka character but became chaotic towards the end. Julie Dawn Cole was the highlight!

A fun show - really enjoyable which should improve. The fundamentals are all there - catchy songs, talented and committed performers, and some good jokes. Clearly lots of issues with tech and covid but the cast bravely struggled through. Needs work, and please lose the fake Scottish accent, but great potential.

Despite many members of the cast having covid, the show went ahead and people stood in at the last minute. This show needs further development but was an enjoyable way to spend an hour.

This is the worst show I have seen all fringe, if not ever.
The show started 30 minutes late only to be told that half the cast is missing but instead of a refund they plowed ahead with this abomination. It's so ironic that this show about a really poor experience turned into one itself. The jokes were lackluster and not for UK audiences. Now to the musical part, the music itself was dreadful and the singing was worse. The actors were not professional and somehow didn't know how to sing into the microphone, and willy Wonka himself decided to do a dreadful Scottish accent for the whole performance. For some strange reason they decided to swear in every other sentence or have a reference to a meth lab which is hardly sensible for a show designed for kids (12+) and about willy Wonka. Save your money and time don't bother.