First night: Sam Mendes' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is very engaging but rarely elating
Who, in their right mind, would choose to be an Oompa-Loompa? They are, after all, effectively a sweet-toothed slave-labour force. Still, they are full of vim, ingeniously created (a hectic hybrid of human and puppet), and, in one number, they roller-skate about like crazy and thus can be included in the more successful aspects of this much-anticipated stage musical version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.