Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, CYGAMS - Chelmsford

This was a bright and lively show which wowed from start to finish. The orchestra under the experienced baton of Bryan Cass made an excellent sound adding to the overall quality of the production.

The open stage with the LED Screen at the back gave lots of space for the cast to work and the opening number The Candy Man gave us a taste of the evening to come.

The Bucket family comprising Mrs Bucket, Grandpa Joe, Grandma Josephine (Bethany Irvine), Grandpa George (Finley Adams), Grandma Georgina (Gingerlily Mohammed) and Charlie, were all well cast and brought family warmth together. Olivia Surgett as Mrs Bucket gave a strong performance as the loving but hard-working mother trying to care for her family. Her number ‘If your Father Were Here’ was a particular high.  All the grandparents worked well together but Elliott Greaves as Grandpa Joe – had great comic timing, he brought a cheekiness to the role as well as delivering someone 7 decades beyond his own years to life convincingly.  

Josh Burtenshaw as Charlie was the star of the show for me. He delivered a quiet confidence in the character with the excitement and passion of a young inventor as well as great stage presence and performance skills. I look forward to seeing what else this young actor can achieve.

Gene Gardner as Willy Wonka had a huge role to fill. Gene has good stage craft and knows how to work an audience, but I thought it took him a while to really find his feet in the role.

The other main characters in this well-known story are the other gold ticket holders of Augustus Gloop and his mother, Veruca Salt and her father, Violet Beauregarde and her mother and Mike Tevee and his mother.

All did a good job in maintaining the characters throughout with some great character observations and portrayals. However, I struggled to understand any of the lyrics in both Violet’s song ‘The Queen of Pop’ sung by Edith Clements and Mrs Teevee’s song ‘That Little Man of Mine’ played by Phoebe Hooper which I think was partly down to poor diction from both girls and possibly some sound issues. I know we were not alone in struggling to understand, as this was a topic of discussion in the ladies toilets during the interval! When singing busy songs on stage it is vital to ensure that the audience can hear what is being said. I also struggled a little with the Russian accent from Georgia Holmes as Veruca but found it much easier to understand her father played by Sam Acton, proving that diction and annunciation especially when using an accent is so important.

There were some other extremely strong performances from Freddie Estall as Jerry and Bella Dorey as Cherry Sunday.

The set throughout was great with some great set pieces to depict various locations and some very well perfected costumes giving colour and life to the big company numbers.

The choreography was well delivered and probably the strongest part of the whole production.

This was good all-round feel-good show, delivered by a solid cast of talented young performers.