CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY MUSICAL

This is my review for the Charlie and the chocolate factory musical for my silver arts award.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY MUSICAL

UNIT-1 PART C

ARTS REVIEW: CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. JULY 2016

Intro

I struggled to choose what event to see and review as none really appealed to my main interests of animation and special effects. As a younger child I saw the most recent film edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and enjoyed how it was made using different effects. I was interested in seeing how they would incorporate some of the effects into a live action show. I attended the evening performance which was from seven thirty to ten o'clock. Jonathan Slinger played Willy Wonka, Barry James played Grandpa Joe and Archie Durrant played Charlie Bucket.

The performance was held at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, one of London's most famous theatres. The theatre has a lot of history and was impressive to walk into. It's also famous for past 'haunting' allegations made towards it.

Main in-depth review

Act One

Overall, I really enjoyed the show and it was very well made in every aspect. At the start, we were introduced to Charlie at a garbage dump which represented that Charlie and his family were very poor. The dump scenery was large and could move for different parts of the play. The dump's lighting was very dark and gloomy which again gave the illusion of living in a horrible area. Charlie's family shack was very sparse and was made out of stuff they had found at the dump. It also opened and closed for similar reasons as the dump, which allowed for greater movement of the actors. The grandparent's bed was a very good and funny effect as the bed they shared was in four sections, with each section being able to move around the stage adding to the humorous effect of their musical numbers.

The build up to Charlie Bucket finding the ticket was effective because it contrasted the weird world of Willy Wonka to the sad and glum situation of Charlie. They introduced a television effect, which was used to show the other four children getting their tickets. This was my favourite effect and was very well executed. There was a small TV on the floor which the Bucket's watched, and a massive TV in the background which served as a mini stage of sorts showing us, the audience, what was happening on the TV screen. The houses on the massive 'TV' were bright and had a high contrast to the foreground of the mucky world that Charlie lived in. The changing of costumes and backgrounds for the large TV must've been very rapid as there were only short intervals between each TV performance. I really enjoyed this part of the show and each musical number in the big TV's reflected really well the personality of each child who won a ticket. As Act One ended with Charlie finding the final ticket and going to the factory gates, at one point, I felt there was too much going on to know what was happening, TV news reporters left and right and SO MUCH CAMERA FLASHING.

The music was very well arranged and you could easily get the tone and feeling of what the song was trying to portray, from stereotypical country themes to sad songs to energetic ones, all of them each had their own unique feel to themselves. It was used in way that it could portray a good, happy style of feeling or a sad or scary feeling just by using music in the way that they did.

My favourite part of Act 1 has to be when Charlie wrote a letter to Mr Wonka suggesting lots of sweet ideas for his family. He also adds that he wants to be able to go to the factory to meet him. When he finishes the letter, he folds it up into a paper aeroplane and when he throws it, it is guided up to one of the seating areas to the side. The effect was really well made and looked incredible as you couldn't even see the wire, if there were any used!

Act Two

In the second half, inside the factory, each 'downfall' of every child was very well done. The effect of Augustus Gloop falling into the pool of chocolate was clever as they used a trap door and then we saw him moving through a giant tube. The mechanical squirrels used to trap Verruca Salt were also effective and this effect was most like the film that I had previously seen. My favourite effect was the one being Mike Teevee's downfall as it was the only one of the downfalls to include an effect which used televisions on set, clearly pre-recorded prior to the main show. They showed a miniature version of Mike, and then they used puppetry/animatronics to depict him being taken home by his mother in her handbag.

The glass elevator was one of the most genius things I have ever seen because of how they managed to use a blacked out background and then put the elevator on the top of a black covered moving platform, that went up and down as well as left and right, to blend with the background to give the elevator a floating effect! And at the very end, during the final sequence. When the factories lights went dark, but one, Mr Wonka sang his solo, and Charlie waved to him at the end and Mr Wonka somehow disappeared. Most likely through a trap door. Overall, this was a very well made musical with very interesting techniques used throughout the entirety of the play to keep the viewers as interested as possible.

Overall, I believe that this was a very well-produced and interestingly made musical. All of the unique effects make this musical what it is. It is developed by a very skilled group of performers and directors and it is clear that they put as much effort into the musical as possible. I enjoyed the musical and I would quite gladly go and see this musical again if I could.

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2 Comments

  • Kheira Bey

    On 13 October 2016, 22:36 Kheira Bey Contributor commented:

    A very perceptive review Elliot and sounds like you definitely enjoyed it, will have to see it for myself! Good luck with the rest of the award :)

  • Emrys Green

    On 15 October 2016, 15:41 Emrys Green Voice Team commented:

    Am glad you enjoyed it!

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