Sunday 9th March 2014 by Will Langdale
 |
| The great gates of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory |
With the vast success of Matilda the Musical, staging a musical version of another beloved Roald Dahl novel was always going to be a challenge, but it’s one that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory very much rises to. It’s a very different beast to its 11-Olivier-award-winning cousin, and Charlie sidesteps comparison by taking a distinctly forthright approach to musical adaptation. Matilda enjoyed a Christmas season in a temporary theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon before making its way to the West End. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has never had the luxury of a comparatively quiet preview period, and the show wastes no time in making sure it blasts generously from the stage at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane right from the start.
For those of you who were cruelly robbed of Roald Dahl as a child, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory follows the impoverished Charlie Bucket and his Grandpa Joe as they are led on a tour of a mysterious and wonderful chocolate factory run by the eccentric Willy Wonka. Charlie travels with a group of nasty children who meet various gruesome confectionary-related ends. Directed by Sam Mendes, the show manhandles the story into a huge, bombastic set full of bright setpieces and lavish special effects (Mark Thompson). Especially once the second act has firmly established itself, the show is a real treat for the eyes, with plenty of weird and wonderful sets as the show moves from room to room at the factory. Even in the relatively downtempo first act, the detail of the ramshackle Bucket house is fantastic, and its grim palette is punctuated by the various lurid introductions of Charlie’s future companions in the factory.
While the characters are a little black and white – the horrible characters are truly horrible, and the Bucket family are angelically sweet and deserving – this opens up some extremely entertaining possibilities for the actors. Charlie himself is warm and relatable at his best, and does an admiral job of providing a contrast for the rainbow of delightfully awful children he meets. In particular, Mike Teavee and Veruca Salt stand out as excellently played, but Violet Beauregarde probably gets the best song of the lot with The Double Bubble Duchess. Another memorably wacky scene is Veruca Salt’s squirrel-related demise, which is as amusing to watch as strange it sounds.
There’s no doubt that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an excellent show for families, though there are places where a more adult undercurrent could have been further explored. It seems as though Douglas Hodge, as Willy Wonka, agrees, citing influences as diverse as Marcel Proust and Thom Yorke. There are moments when Charlie highlights the cruel and unusual exploits of Wonka, wondering if some of the other characters have been killed or seriously maimed, and it’s a shame that these dark allusions are handwaved with scenery and squirrels rather than explored with some of the depth Hodge clearly has an eye for. Though immensely enjoyable, there’s something ideologically disturbing just under the surface of the story that’s unsatisfyingly unaddressed.
Willy Wonka is a daunting challenge simply because Gene Wilder’s 1971 version is so nuanced and powerful that he all but created the character. While not as surprising, Hodge’s mix of playful ditziness, untamed genius and a jarring disregard for his charges makes this Wonka iteration a compelling one. The glass elevator scene is incredibly beautiful and Pure Imagination (taken from the Wilder film) is another stand-out song, though it has to work hard on the heels of such sustained levels of eye-popping scenery.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is well worth seeing, particularly, though not necessarily, with children. It captures the magic and playfulness of the book and without a doubt brings new aspects of the story to the table in its stagecraft. If you want to see something spectacular, memorable and entertaining, this is a show that will deliver solidly on all three counts.