Imagine, a right proper Charlie
/Douglas Hodge plays Wonka
A new stage musical version of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory opened last week at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The show will garner awards for production and Douglas Hodge as a charismatic Willy Wonka will be feted and adorned with well-deserved gongs. What amazed though was not that the show is amazing. It is right? But more amazing is how something this good, left me feeling slightly cheated. Scrub that, reverse that. I will try and explain. A multi-million dollar production with special visual effects, directed by Oscar winning, Bond-rebooting genius Sam Mendes. Songs by the guys who did Hairspray and a lyricist who makes Billy Crystal's songs zing at the The Oscars. It just couldn't fail. Or could it?
My first experience of musical theatre, other than Panto and a school production of Bugsy Malone, was at The Palladium about twenty years ago, when I saw the same Sam Mendes' version of Oliver! The leading lady's parents, sat just in front, were engulfed by the emotion of it all, weeping throughout. Musical theatre, at its best, does that. It can move you to tears, even, or maybe because of, the sheer unabashed joy of it all. But last night, Charlie was a game of two halves. A long over sincere (slightly plodding) opening hour, only revitalised before the break by a caricature "fat German eats too many sausages" song (!?) and then the arrival of Wonka. The second half is a stunner: pacy, witty, funny and extraordinary in its visual chutzpah and an undoubted technology triumph. The Ooompah-Lumpahs are memorable, the set-peice fight with vicious roller skating Squirrels, surreally brilliant. Its so so fantastically inventive in a way that the Burton + Depp movie was depressingly not. But still, why not a triumph?
Well, a SPOILER follows, so quit here if you are seeing the show sometime. A 2 hour 15 show should have at least one memorable tune. Something to humm on the Tube on the way home. And this show DOES. It is gorgeously done and starts with a simple opening tease… "Make a wish. Count to three."
We are back with Gene Wilder at the top of a staircase, swiping his cane across the chests of the children desperate to run down the stairs and devour the set. Pure Imagination. A show this good still needed a memorable song and it found it. Not in the world of the imagination, but from the dusty DVD on the shelf. The audience almost collectively gasped and then fell under the spell, again. The theatre last night was sold out. It will be. For years.
UPDATE. The show website now shows a 2 minute trailer which…gives the whole game away
