Can Charlie Bucket challenge the glory of Matilda as the Dahl legacy sweeps through London's West End?
The lad who finds the golden ticket to Willy Wonka's fantasy factory is set for a very long run indeed.
The collaboration of Hairspray's Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman with Scots playwright David Greig, directed by Sam Mendes, designed by Mark Thompson and with crucial magical staging illusions by Jamie Harrison of Glasgow's Vox Motus company, is a triumph in every department. The show's opening cast, including a perfectly pitched Wonka by Douglas Hodge and Nigel Planer as a sprightly Grandpa Joe – as well a quintet of superb young performers, headed by Jack Costello's Charlie – is without a weak link, but the production is so well put-together it will survive, and develop, as any number of new names add to that list.
The dovetailing of Greig's book with Whitman and Shaiman's songs is seamless, the latter brilliantly advancing the narrative, especially in the first half, and the former including subtle updating in the relationships within the Bucket family unit, the capitalism of Veruca Salt's pinstriped father, and the temptations and obsessions for 21st-century children.
As a telling of Dahl's tale, the production could not be clearer, and the second half's succession of lavish stage pictures as we explore the factory piles wonder upon eye-popping wonder, with Harrison's Oompa Loompas and nut-sorting squirrels among the most memorable ingredients, and best-loved by my young companions.
Grown-ups will love it too, not least for the way Shaiman and Whitman – and choreographer Peter Darling – embrace the whole history of musical theatre in song and dance.
From The Sound Of Music to Oliver!, Busby Berkeley to Starlight Express, Les Mis to Hairspray – I lost count of the references to cherish. Multi-layered, marvellous and magical – just like Dahl's book.
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