US actor Paul Slade Smith goes from Broadway to Melbourne for Willy Wonka role

The world of pure imagination is heading to Melbourne in a couple of months to fill our lives with edible flowers, chocolate fountains and everlasting gob stoppers.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is already adored by children who have read the book and seen the films, but the stage musical offers a whole new level of enchantment.

US actor Paul Slade Smith plays the world’s most amazing chocolate maker, Willy Wonka, in the show and was in Melbourne this week to celebrate its arrival here in August.

“I was in the original Broadway show and feel the role is very much a part of me in Australia,” Smith said.

“I really feel I have found the role now and am relaxed about it. In a way, the show is about Willy Wonka saying goodbye to this world that he has created in the chocolate factory and bringing people inside is his way of letting go.”

Paul Slade Smith will continue his role as Willy Wonka in the Charlie in the Chocolate Factory musical when it lands in Melbourne in August. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

He is preparing to perform with five different Melbourne boys who have been cast in the role of Charlie and said each boy brings a new dynamic to the show.

“They all have different rhythms and movements which change the way I react,” he said.

“Some speed up, some slow down, some look at me, some don’t but that makes sense.

“They each have their own version of it and all actors change with each performance but, more than any show I’ve ever done, this really takes a different ride every night.”

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is at Her Majesty’s Theatre from August 9.