FIVE STARS

 

I rarely go to the West End. Why bother when Oxford has such riches of plays and shows? But Sam Mendes doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had to be seen.

Having turned down the second Bond to do it, one suspects he committed himself utterly to doing it properly just to match the expectations of Roald Dahl’s immortal book. It had to be spectacular, it had to live up to expectations, it had to be magical and Sam Mendes nailed it. Absolutely. 100 per cent.

We had upper circle seats at The Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, third tier and still £50 a go, a considerable expense as a family, yet it was worth every penny.

The musical opens with a Matthew Bourne-type urban scene where little Charlie Bucket is playing on a rubbish tip, dreaming about chocolate. He returns home to his irascible and defiantly humorous grandparents (Uncle Joe is Neil from The Young Ones) and two weary parents, living in abject poverty.

Using a recycled TV they find at the tip, the Buckets watch the Willy Wonka golden ticket competition in awe, each winner and their family featuring on a mobile TV screen set above our heads.

Their vices — greed, screen obsession, fame/celebrity and petulance, are more relevant today than when Dahl wrote them as a warning back in the ’60s, as the boys frantically playing computer games in the interval proved (along with the little girl in the bar having a tantrum because she didn’t get the right J20 drink).

And then Charlie finds a pound note, buys his winning bar of chocolate and a hushed awe descends both on stage and off as we all come to terms with the potential of his golden ticket.

The second half opens to Willy Wonka unlocking his splendid gates and inviting us all into his infamous factory, and from then on we are taken on a journey of immeasurable awe and wonder.

Each scene is better than expected: the visual, all-singing-and-dancing depths of the factory surprising and delighting us as it sweeps on and on, never relinquishing us from its breath-taking hold for a second.

The squirrel room, Mike TV’s departure and the oompa-loompas tap-dancing energy in particular were astonishing, but nothing was less than spectacular. The sheer effrontery and ambition of the sets, the sorcery and inventiveness, the attention to detail were mind-blowing, until finally we were left with Willy Wonka (Douglas Hodge), Charlie Bucket and Uncle Joe ready to embark on their grand finale.

You can’t spoil the ending because we all know what happens, but taking the lift into a starlit sky was magical, and left us in no doubt when the curtain finally fell that we had seen something extraordinarily special. Yes, Sam Mendes pulled it off, but if it was his vision, then the cast carried his dream high on their shoulders.

So go see it, it’s worth every bit of effort.

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Runs until May 2014