Theatre Review: Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Wales Millennium Centre
Photo by Johan Persson
Summary
Rating: ★★★★
Running dates: 3-20 May 2023
Where to see it: Wales Millennium Centre
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes (including 20 minute interval)
Keywords: Musical, Nostalgia, Imagination
Review
A fantastic and imaginative production which translated both the book and the film productions to
the stage perfectly! How they managed to get Augustus Gloop stuck in a tube, Violet Beauregarde
turning into a blueberry and Mike Teavee shrunk into a TV was incredibly impressive.
They truly did capture the wonder and adventure of Roald Dahl’s most famous book without the special effects
Tim Burton used.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a very well known story about a boy winning a golden ticket to
go and visit his favourite chocolate’s factory and meet the mysterious Willy Wonka, the inventor of
imaginative sweets and the tastiest chocolate. He is accompanied by his grandfather Joe and four
other golden ticket winners, which each have unfortunate accidents along the tour of Wonka’s
factory.
One thing that really stood out to me was how well the set design, lighting and costumes all worked
together to create amazing visuals for the audience. Through using contrasting colours they were
able to play with a number of effects to create magical moments. For example, in one song Mr
Wonka himself shows off his magical sweets in his factory which explode, the production managed
to show this through lighting and make the sweets fly and explode at the characters feet. This was
truly impressive and enabled you to lose yourself in the show.
Photo: Johan Persson
Going into the show I had seen both Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movies therefore, I was
curious to see how they would translate some of the key moments I remember from the movies.
The team did a fantastic job at translating the majority of these moments from the screen to the
stage, the glass elevator, the TV shrinking room and even the room filled with squirrels had the
same character. I was however, slightly disappointed by the boat scene flowing down the chocolate
river. On the whole the set design was absolutely amazing and they came up with innovative ideas
to illustrate Dahl’s crazy imagination, however the boat itself looked like foam spaghetti wrapped
around the characters and stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest of the set.
The cast all gave amazing performances, between the acting and the choreography there was a
real sense of fun in each actors performance. I was especially impressed when Mrs Bucket played
by Leonie Spilsbury incorporated British Sign Language into her acting and choreography. When I
was walking out of the theatre I heard a number of conversations between families where the
children were asking about BSL and why she was doing this, which was lovely to hear and see that
theatre is becoming more inclusive and raising the awareness around BSL and the deaf
community. I was also pleasantly surprised when I looked in my programme at the cast list to see
that the production had cast two female Charlie Bucket’s unfortunately I did not get to see either of
them perform however, it was great to see this inclusivity within the production!
Overall, the production was amazing and you were able to get lost in this classic Dahl storyline.
The cast gave amazing performances and the set design, lighting and costumes all added to the
storytelling perfectly!
Standout Moment: Augustus Gloop being sucked up by the tube after drinking from the chocolate
waterfall.
See if: You want a nostalgic night full of imagination and magic!
Last impression: A classic story told perfectly for families of all ages to enjoy.
Written by Cerian Millin