After enjoying Matilda and Billy Elliot, we were thinking of going to see the new production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that had opened in the Spring and had quite a lot of hype. We then found out that they were doing a special Children in Need Gala Performance of it so we decided to try get tickets for that. So on Thursday 7th November, I got on my gladrags in the staff loos and we headed off to London and met the same friend we had seen Billy Elliot with. There was a red carpet at Theatre Royal Drury Lane but sadly we weren't allowed on it and we made our way up to the rafters.
The show was very good. Lots of big and clever sets - I really liked the TVs that they met the golden ticket winners in. The first half was all about Charlie at home and everyone winning the tickets. The finale of the first half was getting to the factory but you didn't go to it till the second half. It seemed like quite a long build up to it. The first view of the chocolate land was good, but not good enough in my opinion. It was like a stand alone island so it didn't encompass the walls of the theatre which disappointed me. There were lots of clever effects with big film screens. Including the opening which was a Quentin Blake cartoon on how chocolate is made on sort of the curtain. It was exciting that Wonka was Douglas Hodge who we sort of knew and he was very good. The oompa loompas were clever and did lots of good puppetry sort of things. The Great Glass Elevator was special at the end.
At the very end we were excited that Pudsey and Terry Wogan came on to the stage and were presented with a cheque by the cast for a lot of money - can the show really make half a million in one night?
Just after we saw the show a series started on Channel 4 called the Sound of the Musicals about West End theatre. The first episode was all about Charlie so it was interested to see how it was made.
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