WILLIE WANKER AND THE HERSHEY HIGHWAY

The Candy Man can ... lead you into a giant butt

By JENNA SCHERER

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Who doesn't love seeing cherished childhood films turned into smutty drag shows? No, I'm serious. It's awesome.

No one's better at adapting the hell out of a thing than Ryan Landry, the ringleader of local legends the Gold Dust Orphans. This time around, the Orphans have turned their pens and strap-ons upon Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the 1971 kiddie classic that has us all spending the rest of our lives in search of a Golden Ticket.

For this (musical!) extravaganza, the Orphans have pulled out all the stops. Co-directors Larry Coen and James P. Byrne deploy a cast so large you might be shocked they can all fit on Machine's tiny stage, and more set pieces than a show at the Huntington. And I'm not even counting the Barbie doll portion of the ensemble.

Megan Love brings her big ingénue eyes and slammin' vocal chops to bear upon a dragged-up Charlie Bucket. Here, Charlie's ramshackle house is just plain invisible, and his beloved Grandpa Joe (Billy Hough, who also wrote the music), is a big ol' pothead.

All the movie's sundry characters are in on the game, with slight alterations. The aggressively German Gloops (Miss Kris and Neil Graham) are chocolate-chomping Nazis, complete with a heil-happy song-and-dance number. Mike Teevee (Jonathan Popp) is hooked on his Wii, Violet Beauregard (Liza Lott) is popping out babies like it's going out of style and Veruca Salt (Penny Champayne, also the costume designer)—well, she's still a spoiled little bitch.

Then there's Mr. Wanker himself (Landry, channeling Johnny Depp more than Gene Wilder). His top-secret factory is a den of tasty iniquity, complete with vaginal-looking candy equipment and the fabled Everlasting Knobgobbler. Landry replaces the so-not-sexy Oompa Loompas with a Supremes-style girl group called the Cocoa Cuties (Afrodite, Robin Smith, Claire Philippe and Samantha Brior Jones). These girls and guy-girls not only get the best songs in the show, but also the hottest costumes.

And there are plenty of hot costumes. And puppets. And big group numbers. Willie Wanker is backed by a freaking five-person chorus, who evoke everything from a trippy parade to a roomful of cows. Lord knows how set designers Windsor Newton and Lady Tomb Raider fit all those backdrops backstage, but they are plenty and glorious.

Willie Wanker lacks the political bite that characterizes most of Landry's work. Unlike The Plexiglass Menagerie, which set Tennessee Williams' drama in post-Katrina New Orleans, or even All About Christmas Eve, in which Eve's dark secret resided in her pants, Willie Wanker has no driving allegory.

Instead, this show is surprisingly, well, sweet. Behind all the gonads-looking candy machines and bedazzled swastikas, Landry's message is the same as his source material's—those with pure hearts and worthy ambitions will always win out in the end.

But first they have to be willing to—y'know—climb inside a giant anus.

WILLIE WANKER AND THE HERSHEY HIGHWAY

UNTIL 5.24.09

GOLD DUST ORPHANS

MACHINE

1254-1256 BOYLSTON ST.

THE FENWAY, BOSTON

866.811.4111

FRI-SAT 8PM; SUN 4PM

$30.75-$35

GOLDDUSTORPHANS.COM