Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Kings Theatre review: A timeless stage delight

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory has become a firm household favourite - I've read it to them several times. While there may have been grumbles in some quarters about Dahl's choice of language recently, his plots and characterisation remain timeless.

This musical version takes songs from the Gene Wilder-starring 1971 film version and puts them with new songs created for its 2013 West End stage debut. There are a few changes and tweaks to the book's plot, but none of them should damage your enjoyment of the show.

Flynn Hughes played Charlie Bucket on press night (he shares the role with Callum Prideaux), and he thoroughly deserves the ovation he receives at the curtain call. This 10-year-old shoulders much of the first act, and does it with aplomb.

Timothy Quinlan's Willy Wonka retains that curious mix of childlike wonder and a slightly sinister edge - and he makes the character his own, it's no retread of Wilder or Johnny Depp's 2005 film version.

The opening act can be a little slow at times, but the Bucket family's scenes with the bed-bound grandparents are a joy.

However, act two rattles along as each of the golden ticket winners gets dispatched in a series of cartoonishly grisly ways (I definitely don't recall Violet Beauregarde or Veruca Salt's demise being quite like that...).

The ticket winners and their parents are uniformly excellent, but my pick has to be Jacob Bailey as the sausage-loving Augustus Gloop.

The arrival of the Oompa Loompas always puts a smile on my face, regardless of the version, and it's no different here. Their numbers feature some imaginative choreography while the songs are laced with dark humour.

Of course Pure Imagination is the show's best known song, and the cast render it well here.

There are numerous laugh-out-loud moments throughout the show - the scene where they dodge the invisible booby traps was a particular favourite, with Mike Teavee's (Callum Tickner) effort earning much mirth.

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And the finale with The Great Glass Elevator is beautifully handled and impressively staged - the production values on this Kings Theatre-produced show are as high as we've come to expect from them.

All-in-all, this show is the sweetest of treats. And with tickets becoming almost as rare as Wonka's own golden tickets, book now or risk missing out.

Go to kingsportsmouth.co.uk/whatson-event/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory.

Until Sunday.