Cast: Douglas Hodge, Nigel Planer, Clive Carter, Jasna Ivir, Paul J Medford, Iris Roberts, Billy Boyle, Roni Page, Myra Sands, Alex Clatworthy, Jack Shalldo, Jack Costello, Tom Klenerman, Isaac Rouse, Louis Suc, Harrison Slater, Jenson Steele, Regan Stokes, Polly Allen, Tia Noakes, Ellie Simons, India Ria Amarteifio, Adrianna Bertola, Jade Johnson, Mya Olaye, Jay Heyman, Adam Mitchell, Luca Toomey.
Synposis: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tells the story of Charlie Buckett, a boy who has very little, his family is impoverished living on the breadline. He wins a competition to gain access to the legendary chocolate factory of famous chocolatier Willy Wonka as well as a lifetime supply of chocolate.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the epitome of a musical of two halves; beginning in a poor desolate scrap yard and ending with extravagance and aplomb with spectacular special effects. We see Charlie Buckett, a young boy who spends his free time gathering trash and collecting Wonka chocolate bar wrappers from the street. To Charlie this is happiness and his goodness and sweet nature is personified in the show’s opening number ‘Almost Nearly Perfect’. What should be a sickly over sugary number is kept palatable with childlike innocence in the role shared by Jack Costello, Tom Klenerman, Isaax Rouse and Louis Suc. Unfortunately, and as a sign of things to come, you’ll do well to remember the song once it’s final notes have been sung out despite enjoying it’s simple staging and boundless energy from Charlie. When Charlie learns about the competition to win a golden ticket to enter Willy Wonka’s elusive factory the genuine heartbreak you’ll feel for him as he can’t afford to buy a bar of the chocolate is truly touching.
As the golden tickets are snapped up one by one the audience is treated to seeing the winners revealed on a giant television screen mounted on the stage and interviewed as local celebrities. The announcement of the 4 other golden ticket winners is the focus of the first half and each receives their own set piece and musical number in which to introduce themselves to the audience. Mendes’ styling’s are at their finest here as his appreciation for the big screen comes into play.
First up we have Augustus Gloop, the German over eater who is brilliantly portrayed in his limited time on stage as a food obsessed, plump and friendly but semi-disgusting child with a fondness for yodelling alongside his overbearing mother. His introductory ‘More of Him to Love’ will have you clapping along in your seats and laughing hard. The second golden ticket is won by Veruca Salt, a primadonna princess whose wish is her daddy’s command and simply screams her every whim at him. She is brought to life in her fluffy pink tutu and with exceptional dancing feet by Polly Allen, Tia Noakes and Ellie Simons. Violet Beauregarde is the next ticket winner; modernised by Mendes to an American teeny bopper rapper with her L.A agent dad and entourage in toe. Violet epitomises everything Charlie isn’t; loud, brash, vain and self centred and her entrance to ‘The Double Bubble Duchess’ amplifies the fact that her life and Charlie’s are worlds apart. The fourth and final reveal is that of Mike Teavee; no longer the boy who constantly watches TV as in Dahl’s book but now the boy addicted to computer games. His entrance is the weakest of the group with a number made up of video game effect noise and Mike running around like he’s in his very own version of Call of Duty.
We finally meet Willy Wonka at the very end of the first act as he introduces himself to the audience and the winners of his golden tickets as the fanciful and mysterious chocolatier with a penchant for the extraordinary. His introduction is somewhat muted, understated and it felt that something was being held back. Perhaps it was the underwhelming nature of the musical number in which he is revealed, ‘It Must Be Seen To Be Believed’, but as the first act came to a close with Wonka inviting us to come in to his factory there was a distinct lack of impression made which the second half would need to come out blazing to reverse.
The second act revealed what the audience had been waiting for; the Oompa Loompas. Easily the stand out element of the show the inventiveness of their design and the way they contribute to the numbers is a credit to Peter Darling’s choreography. They bring the element of fun and sparkle that was missing from the dark and dreary world Charlie was used to and are a revelation; stealing each musical number they are in with a much needed vivacity and exuberance that really did light up the stage at the almost 2,200 capacity theatre.
As with the introductions in the first act, the annihilation of each child saw its own set piece brought to life. The first demise is that of August Gloop, too greedy to head Wonka’s warnings about drinking straight from the chocolate waterfall. Sucked into the factories drainage; his demise is a well staged comical piece that brings the fun that is often missing in this tale of good children being rewarded over the bad ones. Second to be removed is primadonna Veruca. She can’t accept Wonka’s ‘no’ to her own personal squirrel and eventually her and her father are cast out as bad nuts – all whilst giant sized squirrels ridden by Oompa Loopmas surround her. The sublime and slightly ridiculous staging here are great to behold. Violet Beauregarde meets her maker in a piece of gum that makes her body expand until she explodes. Her expansion is a clever piece of costume design and it is to the audience’s delight as she explodes on stage. Mike Teevee’s demise is the musical number that most sticks in the memory as he transports himself into a TV sized mini me through Wonka magic. The Oompa Looma set piece deriding the expansion of the television genre whilst dancing, and at some points roller skating, around the stage with TVs on their heads would not look out of place in a Pet Shop Boys video with it’s electro pop synths and dance moves. The Oompa-Loompas once again bring the fun and steal the number.
Once all the other winners have been disposed of it’s just Charlie, Grandpa Joe and Willy Wonka and we are treated to the most spectacular of the effects, and the one which delayed previews due to problems, the glass elevator. Without giving too much away this is the effect you will leave the theatre talking about as we see the culmination of Wonka and Charlie’s relationship played out in ‘Pure Imagination’. Douglas Hodge’s Willy Wonka gains more prominence throughout the second act from his opening ‘Strike That! Reverse It!’ to announcing he is giving his factory up for Charlie to take over the helm. Hodge’s portrayal of the genius but lonely inventor grew in stature during the show bringing charm and charisma to the slightly unhinged chocolatier.
The production is colourful and spectacular and the Oompa Loompas are a triumph. Mendes is great at finding dark and twisted ways to showcase the cynicism of the show; from the chocolate seller who exclaims her product will rot your teeth and give you the trots to the modernisation of the golden ticket winners and their own TV news report to show off what makes them truly unbearable. What’s missing in this production is musical numbers you’ll walk away from the theatre humming and a sense of exhilaration and longing to return.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is currently booking until May 2014 and you can book your tickets here
