Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical at Bristol Hippodrome review

This lavish production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical is quite literally a show of two contrasting halves.

Set in the fictional grey town of ‘Grimechester’, it’s based on Roald Dahl’s classic rags-to-riches story of young Charlie Bucket who spends much of his time visiting the local rubbish dump in search of items for his poor and elderly family.

But despite his poverty, Charlie possesses a vivid and creative imagination, as well as ambition. When he hears that mysterious chocolatier Willy Wonka is opening his factory for the first time in 40 years to five lucky children who find golden tickets in their Wonka chocolate bars, he’s desperate to find one.

At two hours and 30 minutes (including the 20-minute interval), the show starts slowly and the first half drags as we are introduced to the Bucket family and the five winners of the golden tickets.

But once the monochrome and threadbare set of the Bucket family shack makes way for the dazzling appearance of Willy Wonka in the second half, the stage explodes into technicolour as the eccentric chocolate maker shows the children and their families around the factory.

Fans of the two films of this story will be thrilled to see that director James Brining’s Leeds Playhouse production is pretty faithful to the screen versions.

OK, the Oompa-Loompas aren’t the small, orange-faced characters we grew up with - they’re now silver-clad robotic dancers - and only a couple of the songs from Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s original score remain including The Candy Man, but it hasn’t been too tinkered with to appease the woke brigade who have already tried to rewrite much of Roald Dahl’s work.

And there are some strong individual performances, most notably from Gareth Snook (as Willy Wonka) who combines the charm of Gene Wilder in the original film with the creepiness of Johnny Depp’s character in the remake.

Snook has a great voice, and I’m not sure whether it was a sound issue, but on the faster songs I couldn’t make out a word he was singing.

There are four young actors playing Charlie on this tour - two of them girls - but on press night, it was young Isaac Sugden who played Charlie Bucket with complete confidence and a Yorkshire accent so strong, you’d a thought he was a relation of Sean Bean or Dicky Bird.

Another stand-out performance was from Michael D’Cruze as Grandpa Joe. The chemistry between him and Charlie Bucket worked well, particularly in the first half, although it seemed to run out steam by the time they were on the factory tour.

Of course, the theme that runs through this tale, and it’s also the name of the stand-out song, is ‘pure imagination’ and, for me, that’s where this likeable musical falls short.

Obviously, logistics mean that ‘real’ chocolate rivers and toffee apple trees might prove tricky to pull off but there seems to be an over-reliance on psychedelic coloured digital projections and CGI.

A little more imagination when it comes to old-fashioned stagecraft might make this golden oldie shine even more.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical is at Bristol Hippodrome until October 8. For tickets, go here.

Scroll through our gallery for some amazing photos from the show here: