Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

It was a pleasure to return to the Gwyn Hall to see MMTC ‘s production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Katie and Neil for their hospitality on the night. The musical based on the book by Roald Dahl includes many of the songs from the film plus additional numbers by Marc Sharman and lyrics by Scott Willman.

It can be a complex musical to stage technically but Director Anthony Argyle had gone with rear projections, with stage props and trucks for the bed, Wonka’s shop etc.  The orchestra under the extremely capable hands of MD Matt Hampson were well balanced and produced a lovely sound.

This show has a large cast of characters and follows the story of Charlie Buckett, a young boy growing up in a family who can only afford to live on cabbage but  loves chocolate. There are some lovely cameo roles in the show and I really liked the performance of Karen Webb as Mrs Green and Caroline Minns, Sally David and Jonny Morgan as the grandparents.

Cherry and Jerry, the reporters who linked a lot of the show together, were played by Stephanie Wright and Neil Perks, their experience on stage was evident with their performance.

The story follows the 5 children who win Golden Tickets to the Willy Wonka chocolate factory and  the company can be proud of Charlie Baker, Leah Mills, Lily Aubrey and Jacy Richards for their performances as Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde and Mike Teavee well done all. Their respective parents/guardians were taken by Sophie Bevan as Mrs Gloop, Lee Bentley as Mr Salt, Conar Pope as Mr Beauregarde and Carly Davies as Mrs Teavee.

Sally Thomas gave a lovely performance as the widowed Mrs Buckett and I liked her rendition of “if your father were here”  

Grandpa Joe who accompanied Charlie to the factory was played by the experienced Keith Ivett who jumped out of the bed he shared with the other grandparents as soon as he heard that Charlie needed an escort to the factory.

However, the two standout performances on the night I watched the show came from Evan Crutchley as Charlie and Andy Walters - Burnett as Willy Wonka.

Evan is to be highly commended for his role, for such a young boy to give such a mature performance is a credit to him, I don't think he hardly left the stage following his first entrance and performed all his musical numbers really well. I think Evan had great stage presence and I am sure will be one to watch in the future.

Andy played the iconic role of Willy Wonka really well, I liked his characterisation and he nailed his vocal numbers. It was also lovely to watch the relationship between him and Evan, one which they had clearly worked on during rehearsals , and shone through in the show.

The ensemble worked really well, and of course the Oompa Loompas were frightening to the youngsters in the audience but well played by all on stage.

Congratulations to Anthony, Matt and all the cast and crew for taking us on a tour to a World of Pure Imagination.

 

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