Never one to let a potential theatre jaunt slip by, I took
the opportunity of a work meeting on London for an impromptu trip out. I had
studied the theatre listings, and was heading to the half price booth in
Leicester Square to see what I could pick up for that night, but to be honest I
fancied something light and entertaining, and having recently revisited some of
the Roald Dahl books, I thought it would be fun to see how Charlie had been
adapted into a stage musical. One discounted top price ticket later (thank you
box office) I was all set.
On arriving back at the theatre at showtime the first thing
that hits you is the overwhelming smell of sugar. They really take every
opportunity to sugar load the younger members of the audience but it does make
it very easy to get served at the bar! And the Theatre Royal itself is
beautiful. Part of the Really Useful group, it has had large amounts spent on
its restoration and the receiving areas are stunning.
The musical itself was great fun. Very innovatively staged
with lots of clever tricks and effects and a brilliant set. It starts quite
slowly, with lots of focus on the Bucket family’s home life. The scenes where
the TV broadcasts of the golden ticket winners happened were excellent, I have
no idea how they switched those sets so quickly. And the various ways they
realised the Oompa-Loompas were really fun. The production has plenty of magic
and energy to keep both young and young at heart engaged, but still keeps the darker
and more cynical elements of the book. Jonathan Slinger as Willy Wonka was
excellent and brought a new side to the character, very controlled and
measured, fun, but at times with quite an unsettling air.
All the performances were excellent, from both the adult
cast and the Golden Ticket winners, however there is one element of the staging
that began to grate and did a disservice to the younger cast members - the
music is so over amplified that in the livelier numbers their voices just can’t
compete and you cannot make out the words. Mike Teavee in particular was
totally drowned out throughout his big number and many of the other kids were
at times too. The kids in the audience
wouldn’t care, the spectacle was enough for them, but where you have a witty
musical I want to hear what the Lyricist has written so I found this
frustrating, especially in the first half.
Don’t go to this expecting to see the film on stage, only
one song, ‘Pure Imagination’ is used, and at a totally different place to great
effect, that was the point at which most of the older audience members welled
up! But the musical is very close to the book with a few tweaks, and captures
the tone well. All in all it is a big old slice of fun and magical entertainment
that’s not just for kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment