Willy Wonka Experience actor breaks silence on disastrous tour

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. open image in gallery Paul Connell said he was given 15 pages of ‘AI-generated gibberish’ One parent complained of arriving to find a “disorganised mini-maze of randomly placed oversized props, a lacklustre candy station that dispersed one jelly bean per child, and a terrifying chrome-masked character that scared many of the kids to tears”. “I’m constantly applying for more acting jobs and comedy work, then I got a phone call on Thursday saying, ‘Congratulations you are going to play Willy Wonka, we will send you over the script and dress rehearsal is tomorrow’,” Mr Connell said. But I stayed up all night learning it, thinking this would make sense in the dress rehearsal when I see all the tech.” open image in gallery Parents were not happy with the Wonka Experience But at the Friday evening dress rehearsal hours before opening, he turned up to find the “immersive and enchanting” Willy Wonka experience was, in fact, an empty warehouse with a few plastic mushrooms. “We as actors were brought in last minute and we just did our best for the kids.” open image in gallery Gene Wilder’s Wonka in the iconic original movie Stuart Sinclair, who travelled two hours to attend the experience with his family, told The Independent: “It was nothing short of shocking.