I’ve nearly forgotten about the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story, the film and story I’ve grew up on and watched many times as a child. My memory of the film was rebooted at the Make A Wish fundraiser night in late February where we saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney to support Make a Wish, an Australian not-for-profit organisation that helps grant wishes to children facing life threatening illness. The musical is a lesson in the consequences of childish behaviour and by partnering with Make a Wish, it is also a reminder that some children are less fortunate to be blessed with good health.
One of the most enduring characters in cinema was adapted from Roald Dahl’s classic novel ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. Willi Wonka, Charlie, Grandpa Joe were created in the 1971 film by Gene Wilder and directed by Mel Stuart, creating a story of wonder, fantasy and imagination with a surprising edginess that relays a morality tale.
The Sydney stage performance is an entertaining adaptation of the film, the story reimagined for today and some scenes, as we are taken on a guided tour of the chocolate factory with Charlie and the child brat golden ticket holders, will shock you. It is a dark tale after all.
The basics of the story remain unchanged: Charlie Bucket is a good kid, sweet, dreamy and impoverished boy, subsisting largely on cabbage while wishing for Wonka bars; Willy Wonka is an inventive candymaker isolated for years in his mysterious factory. The drama takes place when Wonka agrees to open the doors of his factory to five children (and their chaperones) who have found golden tickets hidden in candy bars.
Willy Wonka has always known the importance of a good edit and the adults will find nuances in actor Paul Slade Smith’s Willy Wonka very amusing. “You see,” Willy Wonka said unsuccessfully cautioning Violet Beauregarde against sampling his magical chewing gum, “I haven’t got it quite right yet.”
The use of adult performers, the creative team says, allows not only for greater precision when singing complex lyrics, but also permits the show to embrace moments that are even darker than Dahl’s original story: Violet, after eating the not-yet-ready gum, not only swells up like a blueberry but also explodes, while Veruca, the Russian ballerina insistent on taking home one of Wonka’s squirrels, is torn apart by the rodents (in the book, they toss her down a garbage chute). I thought at first in a fit of laughter, “Gosh there are kids in the room” but then thought it was quite ridiculous and so funny!
Now one of the unforgettable characters are the Oompa-Loompas — the short, cacao-loving factory workers Wonka says he found on a trip to Loompaland and how they were portrayed on a stage musical was brilliant and left me in a fit of laughter and surprise. They used ‘humanettes’ human-puppet hybrids in which the performers’ heads are visible above the puppets’ bodies and they appear in a chorus line singing the “The Oompa-Loopa Song”.
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory Musical is entertainment plus particularly when I was seated next to Queen of Desserts, Pop Princess Anna Polyviou too! Take the kids, the whole family as you will hear everyone squeal with surprise and laughter. A rare experience for stage performances these days.
See.Taste.Do was invited as a guest of IP Publicity
