Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory is a musical which looks to present spectacle on a grand scale - a sense of the surreal, a sense of wonder and, for want of a better word, magic - but also deep emotions; a huge challenge which this production met magnificently.  It delivered a series of spectacular set pieces and offered up to the audience one brilliant song after another, comic turn after comic turn, and moving scene after moving scene. The audience was transported to different ‘worlds’; the shop, the factory exterior, the home of Charlie, the factory interior, and the characters who inhabited them, all of which were convincing – both settings and characters - and which swept the audience along with their emotional coherence and power, however fantastical they may have been.

The Musical Direction (Jessamy Bowditch) and the Direction and Choreography (Martine Burt) were all of professional standard. The musical numbers were wonderful, opening with the barnstorming The Candy Man, with its striking entrance by Willy Wonka which included his impressive catching of the cane thrown to him from quite a distance. The Ensemble demonstrated in this number, and every time they were on stage, their great acting and dancing ability; the brilliance of the Choreography was matched by the brilliance of their performances. The Gum Chompin’ Divas and the Oompa Loompas were equally stunning, their dancing sharp and tightly together and the squirrel dance with Veruca was an absolute delight.

Particularly striking was the high energy across the performances as a whole, principals and ensembles, acting, singing and dancing. A notable example of this was Mrs Green the vegetable seller (Liv) who gave a stand-out performance, including some smart and sharp improvisation at one point, with an energy and ‘oomph’ that delivered a powerful charge to the opening scenes in which there is a considerable amount of narrative exposition, which in hands other than those of WOW might have risked dragging.

The Bucket family made a lovely ensemble, both humorous and moving,  each contributing to the organic whole and bringing out the elements of the others. Grandma Josephine (Amelie), Grandma Georgina (Olivia) and Grandpa George (Tyler) created an excellent trio and Mrs Bucket, Charlie’s mother, (Zoe) gave a superb performance. Her song If Your Father Were Here was stunning, beautifully sung and packed with emotion, one of the highlights of the show, and she was totally convincing in her role as the mother of Charlie, the loving relationship between the two of them being very clearly and very strongly presented. This was the case too with Chalie’s relationships with his Grandpa Joe (Thomas) and with Willy Wonka (Isaac). All of these powerfully-presented emotional relationships gave a depth to the story, a balance for the visual spectacle and comedy, and were a testimony to the acting strength of all four (Charlie, Mrs Bucket, Grandpa Joe and Willy Wonka).

In addition to being thoroughly entertaining, this production put across clearly and strongly a message about love; both the positive and nurturing kind, as with Charlie and his family and Willy Wonka, and the negative and destructive love of the ‘wrong’ things, as represented by the other golden ticket winners and their families. As one of the representatives of the positive side, Grandpa Joe gave a wonderful performance, in both acting and singing, the latter shown very strongly in the songs Charlie, You and I and I’ve Got a Golden Ticket. He so skilfully presented such a sweet and endearing grandfather, so charmingly innocuous, that it was all the more funny when he delivered the line after Veruca’s demise, ‘she was a pain in the arse’.

Particularly striking was the way the adult characters brought out elements of Charlie’s character, through their interactions with her, and the way Charlie brought out elements of their characters. The performance of Charlie (Imogen) was a triumph, demonstrating great confidence and an assurance and maturity beyond her years. The role is a very demanding one to perform and the quality of its delivery was astounding for an 11 year-old, both in the acting which brought out the emotions of the character and her relationships with her family and Willy Wonka, and in the singing of numbers like Willy Wonka! Willy Wonka! and A Letter from Charlie Bucket. Bravo!

Astounding too was the tour-de-force performance of Willy Wonka (Isaac) who succeeded with aplomb, éclat and élan, both in fleshing out the emotions and motivations of the character and in delivering Wonka’s high-octane panache, eccentricity and energy to create the drama and spectacle needed for this show. When for example, early on, he was about to embark on his venture into the wider world beyond the Factory, he displayed a lovely blend of confidence and nervousness. The role of Wonka is a very demanding one indeed and this actor had the stage-presence and the acting, singing and dancing ability to carry it off with honours. There was a maturity to the performance, as exemplified by the way in which Wonka stood very still while listening to Charlie singing her ‘Willy Wonka! Willy Wonka!’ song. A relatively small detail, perhaps, but representative and very effective; a less mature actor might well have been inclined to move feet or arms in response to Charlie’s song. Both acting and singing were superb in Strike That, Reverse It and Wonka’s renditions of It Must Be Believed to Be Seen and Pure Imagination were absolute highlights.

This production was clearly very much a team effort and crucial to the overall balance of the show were the wonderfully comic characters of the other golden ticket winners and their families, and the TV reporting team from ‘Chocolate Tonight’ covering their stories. The TV anchor Jerry (Jubilee) and chief chocolate correspondent Cherry Sundae (Matilda) made a great comic double act, fizzing with energetic enthusiasm as they covered the breaking news of the various golden ticket winners. Equally full of energy were the performances of all the ticket winners. Mrs. Gloop (Dulcie) and her son Augustus (Milly) were excellent and delivered strong singing and dancing in the number More of Him to Love, backed by a wonderful chorus in lederhosen. The costumes here were stunning, as indeed were all of the costumes throughout the show. The quality and striking nature of them added hugely to the overall impact of the production and congratulations go to Martine Burt for their design.

Mr. Salt (Seth) presented a very engaging and slightly sinister calm and poise, like a Russian oligarch, and his daughter Veruca (Felicity) was delightfully horrible. Their song ‘When Veruca Says’ was great. Mrs. Beauregarde (Maelei) gave a brilliant performance across the board: singing, dancing and acting and Violet Beauregarde (Elsie) sparkled with ‘attitude’ and delivered superb acting for her age (10). Both shone in the musical number The Queen of Pop. Mrs TeeVee (Caitlin) is a great singer and strong actor and her performance in That Little Man of Mine was fabulous. Her son Mike (Oliver) joined in, upping the tempo and adding to the humour and ‘swing’ of the number. He maintained the surly, tech-addicted teenager character very effectively throughout his time on stage. In the first song  of Act II, Strike That, Reverse It, all showed their strong acting ability, responding to Wonka’s provocation.

The spectacle and emotional impact of the dramatic sets  and stage furniture underlay the power of the show as a whole, from the pre-curtain-up vast projection of an industrial iron structure, through the Bucket family home and the Chocolate Factory itself , to the amazing glass lift at the end. Equally impressive were the smoothness and efficiency of the set-handling by the Stage Crew. Congratulations to them  for managing so well all the various elements.

The necessary sense of a surreal world was achieved to no small degree through the superb technical effects including a giant projection screen, which served brilliantly for screenings of the TV news network updates. The effect of Violet Beauregarde blowing up and then exploding was cleverly delivered, culminating in a shower of purple pieces of paper falling from the flies. The skill of the Technical Team was constantly and consistently displayed, as when Willy Wonka, having stamped on Mike TV’s mobile phone shook it and the rattle of the maracas (or similar instrument) sounded perfectly in time with the shakes. Similarly, when the characters negotiated the set of stepping stones on the obstacle course, the accompanying ‘boings’ were perfectly in time with their steps.

Other clever technical effects included the synchronised television image of Charlie reaching in to get the chocolate bar, and Charlie and Grandpa Joe each climbing a ladder, with a projected image of the ladders moving downwards to create the illusion of climbing. In addition to the many spectacular set pieces there were also plenty of nice little touches such as the laundry line, which appeared only briefly but to great effect, and the squirrel crossing the stage in a little car.

Great skill was shown too throughout by the Lighting Team in helping to create the spectacle, as with the night back projection turning to the town in daylight, and with the purple lighting effect as Violet Beauregarde turned into a blueberry. The Orchestra was superb, both in the overture and entr’acte and in the backing for all of the musical numbers. The excellent standard of their playing combined with all of the other elements – set, technical effects, lighting, performances etc, to create the magic, the mystery and the drama.

It is hard to believe this was a youth group production, such was the standard and quality shown by all and in every department, and hard to overstate their huge achievement. With this production WOW has surpassed itself.

 

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