Let’s start with the positives, Weird Al was perfectly cast! Loved the prejections on the arc around the stage. Use of theremin was cool. That’s about it. Go go dancers were annoying, did they need to do golden ticket song five times? It was annoying the first time. I didn’t like the way they cut away from the movie to show singers, should’ve taken a tip from Nightmare Before Christmas production. Stamos sounded winded from just one song. Seemed like it was not well rehearsed, often long awkward silences while waiting for stars to come onstage. Even merchandise was a disappointment, really, no kids sizes for anything? Overall, meh. Would not recommend to others. Generously awarding three stars.

This was the weirdest and most unfortunate experience we've ever had at the Bowl. It felt like a high school production at the first rehearsal -- songs were off track, cues were missed all over the place, and the stage would literally go empty for significant amounts of time. This may have been interesting in concept, but the execution was terrible. Either show the whole movie with live orchestra, OR perform out the ENTIRE show with live actors. This "in between" experiment was very awkward. Please don't do it again.

This miscast and badly produced musical was doomed from the moment the audio didn't sync with this classic movie. It was painfully staccato with the movie being abruptly cut off for what? For actors missing cues? Did these people even rehearse? The commitment to the show was hit or miss with some actors in costume and others dressed to the nines. Mrs. Bucket was going to a cocktail lounge and Charlie (Finn Wolfhard) was ready for his appearance on a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade float. Speaking of Finn, he may be great on Stranger Things, but he looked like he was forced into performing for a family get-together. Totally wooden. All around the singing was painful. I was shocked to learn that John Stamos plays Willy Wonka on Broadway! Egads. The "Golden Tickets" vignettes were cringe-worthy. High school play is right. Thank goodness for Weird Al and his energy and custom-made suits! We all know he would be the perfect Wonka. The orchestra was good. There's something. What a miss.

Shannon nailed it... the orchestra seemed fine and would have been nice while the movie played without disruption. Perhaps they could have rehearsed and saved the singer bits for pre-show, intermission, and a little something afterwards. I felt like I was watching a bad variety show from the 70s. Weird Al was the only person on stage who could sing. And the violin player was quite good, as well. I had some good laughs at how inane and poorly performed it was, but I don't think that was what they were going for. And definitely not funny when you consider the amount of dough I spent on tickets.

Honestly. I don't think I've ever seen a bad show at the bowl, so this was a first. Weird Al, Elle King and Richard King performed well. But even their mics were turned on after they'd already started singing. And their cues to start were very delayed. All the other performances were outright bad -- it seemed like they were running the 1st night of tech rehearsals. John Stamos and Giancarlo Esposito couldn't carry a tune. Whoever produced/stage managed did an awful job -- all the songs felt delayed, missed cues, very jarring openings. Throughout the night our group commented whether there was something going wrong backstage -- there were so many missed cues and periods of time where the stage was black/empty while we just waited for someone to start their performance. The 'Golden Ticket' songs were underwhelming and actually annoying -- there was a giant stage with approx. 6 dancers in a corner doing what felt like a High School theater dance routine. Very disappointing.

This is by far, the worst show I've seen at the Hollywood Bowl. It was poorly conceptualized and the whole productions is amateurish! It's as if we were watching a high school show - no offense to HS show that are better with this one. Jon Stamos and Giancarlo Esposito are both bad singers. Why cast them? Weird Al is perfect as Willy Wonka but even with his part, there are few times that the mic is off. The only good singer is the gal who sang the Veruca part of the movie. Overall, I gave a generous one star! I want my money back!