Theatre Under the Stars music directors welcome the chance to work outdoors in Stanley Park

Sean Bayntun and Eliza De Castro sound off on bringing to life the bold characters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Legally Blonde: The Musical

By emily lyth

Abby Woodhouse as Elle Woods and Peter Ricardo as Willy Wonka. Photo by Emily Cooper

Theatre Under the Stars presents Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Legally Blonde The Musical from June 27 to August 16 at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park

THERE’S A SPECIAL quality to watching a theatre production unfold under a starry sky. Perhaps it’s because the twinkling cosmos add a bit more magic to already-whimsical stories; or maybe it’s that seeing a play outside on a warm July night bridges Vancouverites’ equally matched adoration for nature and the arts.

Theatre Under the Stars captures that vibe year after year. This summer is no different; starting June 27, the company is launching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl, where it’ll run for a month and a half in rotation with Legally Blonde The Musical.

When Stir connects with Sean Bayntun, music director of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, he shares that working on the open-air stage—framed by a backdrop of towering cedars—is a welcome change of pace for almost any artist.

“We spend so much time inside in theatres,” Bayntun reflects, “and you can sort of lose perspective, especially when you’re working on a 12-hour tech day. You go in and you spend so little time in daylight and so little time actually experiencing the sun. So this is really nice to just be outside and be in nature. Fresh air, you know, wind in our hair—it’s great!”

Roald Dahl’s novel has been adapted for the screen several times over the years. First there was Mel Stuart’s 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder as the titular chocolatier; then Johnny Depp took on the role in Tim Burton’s 2005 remake. Most recently, Timothée Chalamet starred in a 2023 prequel. In essence, the story follows four kids who find Golden Tickets hidden inside chocolate bars and win a tour of the mysterious factory run by candy maker Willy Wonka. His kingdom of sweets is chock-full of imaginative characters and twisted elements that come to light as the kids misbehave, and one by one, are ejected from the tour.

Sean Bayntun.

“So many of Roald Dahl’s books have this weird kind of fantasy,” Bayntun says. “Good prevails, but the evil, some of it can be pretty visceral. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, four kids presumably come to some sort of pretty unfortunate—and in some cases, gory—fate. So in that sense, it kind of reminds me of some of the old Brothers Grimm fairy tales, where they’re actually pretty dark stories.”

Bayntun notes that when it comes to the characterizations in the show, the music does a lot of heavy lifting. When gluttonous Augustus Gloop appears, for instance, the band plays an Austrian polka theme. Spoiled brat Veruca Salt is frequently accompanied by balletic songs that reference Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Competitive gum-chewer Violet Beauregarde’s music has a ’60s and ’70s soul vibe, while screen-obsessed Mike Teavee’s soundtrack is steeped in heavy industrial techno. Oftentimes when the Oompa Loompas come onstage, there are hints of their original movie tunes.

“The music is a pastiche of a whole bunch of different styles,” Bayntun explains. “The show itself is kind of anachronistic—you have elements from the Depression, you have elements from modern day, elements from the Industrial Revolution. And musically, I feel like that’s kind of matched in there as well. You can’t actually set a time when the show was occurring, because all of the characters sort of seem to live in their own different times.”

Being an al fresco performance, the production comes with some added challenges. There’s the unexpected ambient-sound interludes, like birds chirping and planes soaring overhead. And as Bayntun adds with a laugh, “You’re out in the elements—like if it rains, bring a poncho!”

Theatre Under the Stars at Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl. Photo by Shawn Bukhari

Diving beneath the sparkly surface

Over a separate phone call with Legally Blonde music director Eliza De Castro, she echoes Bayntun’s love of staging shows at Malkin Bowl.

“Definitely a highlight of the whole process is that I don’t have to spend time in a dark, black theatre for long hours,” she says. “One of my favourite parts is just before the show starts, sitting in what I call my conductor’s hidey-hole—where I’m like, half outside and half inside—and looking out to the audience before the show starts and feeling their excitement, but then looking up to the sky and seeing the stars and the sunset and the forest. It’s just so special having that outdoor experience.”

De Castro recalls being enamoured with the style in Legally Blonde when she first watched the hit 2001 film years ago. Reese Witherspoon stars as Elle, an ultra-fashionable sorority girl who defies the “dumb blonde” stereotype by establishing herself as a successful lawyer.

“As a young kid,” De Castro shares, “you look up to those Hollywood early-2000s classics, and you’re like, ‘Wow, how can I be like them? How can I dress like them?’ But more importantly, I was always taken aback by how positive Elle was, even back then. I related to her bubbliness and her energy—and how she could be that, plus be a smart girl as the movie progressed.”

“How do women support each other? How can we lift each other up in the world, despite how different we all are?”

Eliza De Castro. Photo by Canna Zhou

Originally from Brisbane, Australia, De Castro moved to Vancouver at the beginning of 2023 to participate in the TUTS BIPOC Creative Fellowship that same year. She worked alongside Bayntun as a music director fellow for The Prom, a coming-of-age musical about a queer teenage girl who faces backlash for wanting to bring another girl to prom as her date. Last season, she returned to TUTS as music director for School of Rock.

“Being the music director has a lot of responsibilities,” Bayntun says. “Obviously you have to teach the music and maintain it, but you also have to work with the band.” And there’s even more for Bayntun in particular to keep track of given the fact that he also doubles as keyboardist. The son of a piano teacher and a lifelong player himself, he went on to get his bachelor’s degree in music and master’s in classical piano performance.

The seasoned music director says that De Castro already has a great ear and a stellar eye for detail. (“I’m a big Eliza fan,” he shares.) That conscientiousness bodes well for Legally Blonde, which—just like its star character—is full of complex themes beneath its picture-perfect surface.

“We’ve had a central focus on the story of womanhood and what it means to be a woman in this world,” De Castro says, “and the different sort of biases or challenges that we can face no matter who we are—whether we are Elle as a blonde who is looked over because of her looks, or someone like Enid in the story, who is maybe looked at in another way because she’s just a smart girl who may not be aesthetically pleasing to some. So I think this part of the story talks a lot about, you know, how do we support women? How do women support each other? How can we lift each other up in the world, despite how different we all are?”

So whether you’re catching Legally Blonde or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Malkin Bowl this summer—or both—don’t be surprised if you find yourself mulling over some deep messages while gazing at the venue’s picturesque backdrop.

“The cast and I had a moment a couple days ago,” Bayntun says, “where we were just standing onstage and looking at the sun setting and twilight coming on, and the silhouette of the trees in the background. And it was just like, this is probably the most beautiful theatre in Vancouver.” No objections.  

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