JANUARY 23 • 2020 | 39

J

oshua Bergasse won’
t be in town 
for the touring production of Roald 
Dahl’
s Charlie and the Chocolate 
Factory, but his choreography will be.
Bergasse, whose fascination with 
dance launched at his mom’
s Annette 
and Company School of Dance in 
Farmington Hills, planned the intricate 
footwork for the Broadway run and 
tweaked it a bit for the tour. 
“I was not available to get to the 
bulk of the rehearsals for this tour 
so my associate choreographer, 
Alison Solomon, took over setting 
the choreography for the road,” says 
Bergasse, 47, preparing to direct and 
choreograph a Japanese production of 
The Bodyguard. “She did the Broadway 
show and first tour with me.
“All the dances for the tour are 
essentially the same as the ones done on 
Broadway, but when we did the tour, we 
thought there were a couple of things 
we could do better. I had choreographic 

ideas and the designers had some new 
design ideas. 
“The tour is probably one step better 
than the Broadway production.”
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will 
be staged Feb. 18-March 1 at the Detroit 
Opera House. The musical, 
based on a Roald Dahl story 
about Willy Wonka and his 
invention of the Everlasting 
Gobstopper, takes place 
when Willy is opening 
his factory to a lucky few, 
including Charlie Bucket, 
whose life needs sweetening.
The adventures are 
enhanced with new music 
by Scott Wittman and Marc 
Shaiman adding to numbers 
by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley 
heard in the movie version. The hit 
songs “Pure Imagination,” “The Candy 
Man” and “I’
ve Got a Golden Ticket” still 
ring out.

“All of the songs in this show are so 
different from each other that they gave 
me so many opportunities to do different 
styles of dance,” says Bergasse, who also 
has Jewish heritage in common with 
Solomon. 
“I love Charlie and the Chocolate 
Factory because of the story about 
imagination and parenting; it’
s really 
sweet. I also love the music by the same 
guys who wrote the music for Smash (the 
TV series that Bergasse choreographed). 
I’
m a big fan of Scott and Mark, and I 
love choreographing their music.”
Working on Smash brought Bergasse 
an Emmy Award for 
choreography. He also has 
won the Fred Astaire Award 
for his choreography on the 
Broadway revival of On the 
Town and the Chita Rivera 
Award for the choreography 
of a revival of Sweet 
Charity. Additional award 
nominations have been made 
for Tony, Drama Desk and 
Outer Critics recognition.
“Since Smash, I 
choreographed the Broadway revival of 
On the Town, the Broadway revival of 
Gigi and an off-Broadway production 
of Sweet Charity starring Sutton Foster 
(raised in Troy),” says Bergasse, who 

Local Roots 

Arts&Life

theater

Joshua Bergasse refreshed his choreography for
the tour of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

continued on page 40

details 
Charlie and the 
Chocolate Factory 
will be staged Feb. 
18-March 1 at the 
Detroit Opera House. 
Tickets start at $29. 
(313) 872-1000, ext. 0. 
Broadwayindetroit.com.

JEREMY DANIEL

The cast of the touring 
company of Charlie and 
the Chocolate Factory