Day: June 21, 2023

Second show of a 2 show day after getting a train direct from the matinee of Annie at Woking.

I saved over half the face value with an ATG offer for opening night.

It is adapted from the Roald Dhal story about a well-loved polite child who lives in poverty who wins a competition to tour Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory along with 4 spoilt rich kids. Wonka has devised tasks to choose a worthy child to win a valuable prize.

The special effects largely rely on computer graphics projected on a screen and the stage (which doesn’t help anyone in the stalls) and the audience’s pure imagination, with a glass elevator at the end on wires over the stage. In addition, the oompa loompas looked like human-sized budget cyborgs but the show was amusing.

6/10

I got a small ATG card discount for this classic musical about an orphan dreaming for her family.

It stared Craig Revel Horwood as Mis Hannigan, who runs the orphanage. He was fab-u-lous – as was everyone else (including the dog).

There were quite a few school parties in, and they were reasonably well behaved apart from a bit of sniggering and chatting when they realised Miss Hanigan was a Strictly judge in drag.

10/10