Every festive season Leeds Playhouse tick off the work of a brilliant children’s writer and this time it’s the undisputed master of devilish delights Roald Dahl.
It’s a doubly bold move taking on his most beloved book that had already spawned West End and Broadway versions of this production, two film versions, and Gene Wilder’s cinematic take on mysterious sweet factory owner Willy Wonka is rightly seen as the definitive version.
Wonka launches a worldwide competition for five kids to visit his factory if they can find a golden ticket in one of his chocolate bars, and among the loathsome children who win is Charlie Bucket. He’s a decent kid full of ideas living in grinding poverty with his single mum, and four grandparents who share a bed in the attic. Once inside the factory all hell breaks loose as the impish Wonka looks for his successor.
There’s lots of work to do to dispel the previous versions which James Brining’s typically lively direction, aided by David Grieg’s book that stays largely faithful to the source, manages to do in this reinvented musical, deftly balancing the dark side of Charlie’s journey with Dahl’s own twisted sense of morality to the delight of a full house.
If there wasn’t enough pressure to satisfy the adults and their little ones who know this story backwards, Brining had cast a roster of two boys and girls in the lead role. It’s right to update Charlie to make the role gender neutral, but tonight eleven-year-old Isaac Sugden offered a wonderfully assured performance way beyond his tender years.
Sugden’s singing voice was strong on numbers like wistful opener Almost Nearly Perfect, but his subtle acting made Charlie’s nobility felt natural instead of being nauseatingly saccharine, which would have delighted Dahl. Sugden proved he’s a performer with a very bright future ahead of him.
Despite some well-played vignettes introducing the other irritating other kids – Mike Teavee, Violet Beauregarde, Augustus Gloop and Vercua Salt all played here by adult performers – the first half spent a little too much time setting the scene for a mainly young audience.
Everything clicked in place when Gareth Snook stalked the stage as Wonka, and he really made this role his own seemingly indifferent to children being maimed as the tour gets underway. There was always a twinkle in Snook’s eye deftly balancing Wonka’s dark streak with his eccentric sense of right and wrong. The producers had wisely kept some of the first film’s songs in this production, and West End veteran Snook delivered the iconic Pure Imagination beautifully.
As it’s impossible to build a factory onstage Simon Higlett’s design used clever props, alongside Simon Wainwright’s vibrant video design, recreating the various confectionary misfortunes that befell the children.
The new songs like You Got Watcha Want from Tony winners Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Wittman were witty, often tongue twisting, confections of lightness and darkness helping keep young fans focused on the action.
The tricky Oompa-Loompa question was dealt with by reinventing them as a team of robots who appear as each kid exits the factory in wonderfully gruesome ways, much to the satisfaction of the whole theatre who were glad to see the back of those idiots. The hard-working ensemble made the most of Emily Jane Boyle’s bright choreography, which could have come straight from panto.
For many the Playhouse’s festive show is their first experience of theatre and this devilishly fun show proved to be their golden ticket into the magic of live performance. And for young and old fans of Dahl’s brutally honest offer to children’s imaginations this was a timely take on how the simple decency offered by the Charlie Buckets of this world will triumph every time.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical is at Leeds Playhouse until 28th January 2023. To book www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk or 0113 2137700.
Reviewer: Paul Clarke
Reviewed: 30th November 2022
North West End UK Rating: ★★★★