Remember that viral Willy Wonka “immersive experience” fail? It’s getting turned into a musical.

June 4, 2024
2 mins read
Remember that viral Willy Wonka “immersive experience” fail? It’s getting turned into a musical.


At the beginning of this year, a failed “Willy Wonka” exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland, went viral – because what promised to be an immersive experience full of fun and sweets was far from it. Instead, it was a mostly barren warehouse, with lackluster decorations and no chocolate. Now, the experience – which outraged some participants to the point of calling the police – is being turned into a musical.

“Willy’s Candy Spectacular”, a musical parody, will premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. Several songs from the musical were released on YouTube ahead of the premiere – including one featuring John Stamos, who sings a song “that traces the fall of civilization back to the disastrous event in Glasgow”.

Billed as the “Fyre Fest of Fudge” – referring to the failed 2017 music festival in the Bahamas – the musical will reveal how the AI-influenced experiment became an outrage-causing failure.

wonka.jpg
Earlier this year, a failed “Willy Wonka” exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland, went viral — because what was promised to be an immersive experience full of fun and candy was far from it. Instead, it was a mostly barren warehouse, with lackluster decorations and no chocolate.

Stuart Sinclair


According to the actor hired to play Willy Wonka in the failed Glasgow experiment, the actors were given “AI-generated scribble” scripts to learn from just days before the experiment opened.

“It was very disappointing to see how many people showed up to this event and basically found me dressed as Willy Wonka in a somewhat abandoned warehouse,” said Paul Connell. BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland.

He said the actors were furious and felt cheated. “[It] at one point it got quite scary because people were angry,” he said. “There was a lot of screaming and groups of people getting very, very angry.”

Some visitors even called the police and Glasgow City Council’s Trading Standards department received at least one complaint about the event, according to BBC News,

One attendee told CBS News that her 4-year-old daughter, who was dressed as Willy Wonka for the occasion, was very disappointed. “She was telling all her teachers in advance how she was going to meet Willy Wonka and it didn’t really work out,” Stuart Sinclair told Anne-Marie Green of CBS News.

The father of three drove two hours and paid $44 for a ticket to the event. “It was all described as a massive immersive experience, a great idea for the kids, chocolate fountains… It sounded really, really good, a good day out for the kids and the family,” Sinclair said. “And when we got there, as you can see from the pictures and stuff, it just wasn’t like that at all. There were four or five props, some jelly beans for the kids. It was promised anyway.”

Sinclair said the actors in the experiment were professionals.

House of Illuminati, the company that ran the experience, immediately canceled the experience and originally said people would receive refunds — but deleted the social media post announcing this. CBS reached out to the House of Illuminati for comment at the time and did not receive a response.

CBS News is awaiting response from the House of Illuminati regarding the musical.

The new musical production comes from Tova Litvin and Doug Rockwell, a Los Angeles-based songwriting and production team behind projects such as the Marvel Rising franchise, Netflix’s “Julie & the Phantoms” and the musical “Sneakerella” on Disney+.

Kraft-Engel Productions, which produced the musical “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory” and several other productions, is also behind the show.



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