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.

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