The Bitter Without Sweet

If a major point of children’s theater is to put on a show that leaves kids wanting more theater, then the Brea Curtis Theatre’s current edition of the musical version of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is best forgotten.

At the least, director Janice Kraus’ staging feels as if it’s lumbering with lead-weight boots. At worst, the show commits the greatest sin of children’s theater: to be boring.

One sensed that Saturday afternoon’s audience was far more excited at spotting their little neighbor or brother or sister waddling across the stage playing one of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory workers, the Oompa-Loompas, than anything about the show itself.

Perpetually marred by sloppy miking, unsure singing and as bland an Act 1 as any children’s theater production in memory, this “Charlie” is no way to lure kids away from the computer games and multiplex theaters.

Dahl’s tale is etched in caustic irony, a bitter--then barely sweet--fable about how the king of chocolate makers, the brilliant, reclusive Willy Wonka, reemerges from obscurity and offers a visit to his top-secret factory to the first five kids who find golden tickets wrapped in Wonka Bars. Act 1 of the musical by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse lays out the global competition for the tickets, with some spoofing of CNN-like international TV coverage before there was a CNN.

Charlie (Vince Olmo, alternating with John Mekjian) is the one nice kid of the five winners, and, of course, the poorest. Entering the factory--a feat it almost seems will never, ever happen in this show--Charlie is surrounded by the Kids From Hell: Augustus Gloop (Keith Daley, alternating with Matthew Carvin), spoiled rotten Veruca Salt (Jessica Holloway, alternating with Megan Mekjian), Impossibly Bossy Violet Beauregarde (Lauren Tellkamp, alternating with Cara McMorrow) and TV-addicted Mike Teevee (Greg Parker, alternating with Joseph Hill).

The kids don’t realize that they’re actually in a kind of hell, in which Willy (Joel-Steven, alternating with Geoffrey Draper) proceeds to punish nearly all of them for their naughtiness. (A caution: Some younger kids may find some of the fatal punishments, such as Veruca’s getting sucked down an egg chute, a tad disturbing.)

What can make “Charlie” an interesting musical is the contrast of Dahl’s near-grotesqueness with the beautifully elegant and wistful Newley-Bricusse songs, including “Candy Man,” “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket” and “Imagination” (the song highlight which, inexplicably, like Newley’s and Bricusse’s names, is missing from the program credits).

Nothing, alas, is interesting here, including Joel-Steven, who has the only good singing voice but a mechanical acting presence. Olmo’s Charlie isn’t as huggable as he should be, and he’s completely upstaged by the talented, boisterous pair of Holloway and Tellkamp.

The uncredited set resembles a section of “It’s a Small World” more than Willy’s magical factory. And possibly because of the sheer volume of teen and preteens in the group dancing scenes (count them in the dozens), Kraus’ choreography is more marching than dancing.

BE THERE

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Brea Curtis Theatre, 1 Civic Center Circle, Brea. Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $7.50-$9.50. (714) 990-7722. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.