"Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl.

Good Companions Musical Theatre, Derby.

Derby Theatre.

It seems that the last time that this musical was performed on the Derby Theatre stage was back in 1986, when Derby Theatre was known as Derby Playhouse, but thirty nine years later, it's back; bouncier, bigger and better than ever. Wait! Strike that, reverse it.

It's based on the 1964 book by Roald Dahl and features an original score composed by Marc Shaiman with lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman and a book by David Greig. The soundtrack also pays homage to the Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley score from the 1971 film with songs from the film, which starred Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, including "The Candy Man," "I've Got a Golden Ticket," "Oompa Loompa Song," and "Pure Imagination."

The world-famous Willy Wonka is opening the gates to his mysterious sweet making factory…but only to a lucky few. Young Charlie Bucket and four other golden ticket winners will embark on a life-changing journey through Wonka’s world of pure imagination including chocolate waterfalls, nutty squirrels and the great glass elevator, all to be revealed by Wonka's army of curious Oompa-Loompas.

Charlie Bucket's role is shared by James (Saturday matinee and Sunday evening) and James (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee). I got to see James this evening. This young man has such a lovely voice, almost choristic in parts, which makes you wonder what that voice is going to sound like in another decade. Extremely comfortable on stage and charismatic to watch.

Young Charlie's role is shared by Finley (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee) and Jude (Saturday matinee and Sunday evening). Friday evening was Finley's turn to get all of the "aaahhs".

Willy Wonka is played by Joe Woffinden, who makes his debut for Good Companions as Willy Wonka. Having seen Joe previously in "Chess", and stating at that time what a great voice he had for the character in that musical, this time around we got to hear the more musical theatre side of his voice, but when we first meet Mr Wonka himself, there's a song called "It Has To Be Believed To Be Seen" and you get that more serious voice again, just for a short spell. Joe has charisma and captured the wonderful sarcastic side of Gene Wilder's version, as well as the darker and childlike side as shown in the film by Johnny Depp. There's even a couple of cheeky sideways glances into the audience at times, as if we have been let in on a secret. As debuts for theatre companies go, this is a cracker.

Grandpa Joe, who accompanies Charlie to the Wonka Factory, is played by Steve Dunning. Another charming and quite childlike performance who lives out all of his dreams through Charlie. Lovely physicality in this role as well.

Grandma Josephine is played by Lisa Scott-Savage, Grandpa George is played by Ollie Hands and Grandma Georgina is played by Heidi Hands, who all share that big old bed together.

Mr Bucket is played by Tom Banks and makes an appearance with Young Charlie during the tear-jerker "If Your Father Were Here", sung by Mrs Bucket, played by Claire Jarman. You really get that feel of just how stretched Mrs B was through Claire's portrayal of this hard-working woman who would always find some time for her boy, as well as the Grandparents.

Augustus Gloop's role is shared by Evan (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee) and Stefan (Saturday matinee and Sunday evening). Friday, I saw Evan, who has an obvious flair for comedy, and yodelling.

Mrs Gloop is played by Deborah McPherson, and you can see where young master Gloop gets his comedy and yodelling from!

Veruca Salt's role is shared by Olivia (Saturday matinee and Sunday evening) and Emily (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee). Friday was the turn of Emily, who also got to show off some pretty mean ballet moves as part of her character, as well as an almost demonically deep voice when she wanted to stress to her Father, and anyone else, what she wanted!

Mr Salt is played by Jake Perry, who also managed to squeeze in a ballet move at the end. Another lovely comedy role for Jake.

Violet Beauregard's role is shared by Millie (Saturday evening and Sunday evening) and Olivia (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee). Friday night showcased Millie. I wondered how they were going to recreate the scene where Violet turns into a giant blueberry, but they did and Violet seemed to magically turn into a big, round blueberry right before everyone's eyes! There's a brilliant song that goes along with Violet's character called "The Queen Of Pop" - because she is always chewing gum - and is as catchy as anything that Meghan Trainor has released.

Mr Beauregard is played by Phil Stanley, who we don't really get to hear his silky-smooth vocals too much in this show; just a small section on "The Queen Of Pop", but it's the child characters that are to the fore in this musical, so I'll have to wait until Phil's next musical to hear Phil's rich vocals.

Mike Teavee's role is shared by Owain (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee) and Louie (Saturday matinee and Sunday evening). Owain took to the stage on Friday, and it looks like this young man has quite a future in physical theatre because there's quite a bit of throwing himself on the floor, to which his timing by the way is spot on. A convincing young comedy actor as well.

Mrs Teavee is played by Ellie Mallinson, who is no stranger to having spot on timing, and there's a section when young Mike has been transported to a giant TV and appears tiny. I won't give any spoilers away but this bit with the tiny Mike interaction is very comical.

Jerry Jubilee who is a reporter and News Anchorman is played by Rob Chilton. I love Rob's costume, which is absolutely befitting of a U.S. TV anchorman. The sections with Jerry and Cherry are all played to a camera which is then screened on a giant TV screen above the stage so that we get the feeling of that "breaking news" scenario, which is very clever. Playing to a theatre crowd is different to playing to a camera, but Jerry and Cherry never missed a cue to camera.

Cherry Sundae, the news anchor link, who just happens to be at exactly the right place for when those golden tickets are revealed, wherever they may be in the world,  is played by Lauren Adams, who makes her debut for Good Companions Musical Theatre. A fantastic pairing with Rob and Lauren and the chemistry makes it feel as if these two TV news personalities have been working together for a while; in fact there's one scene where the chemistry slightly overflows.... but I won't say anymore!

And I mustn't forget to mention that the cameraman for these scenes is Tom Banks.

Mrs Green is played by Louise Simcox. This is a brilliant role, if only a fleeting series of cameos. Mrs Green sells greens, and then Wonka chocolate, and then goes back to greens when the furore over the Wonka Bars dies down. Louise has some marvellous lines regarding her wares that she has to sell, and I especially liked the one about the tomatoes. Go see it if you want to know what the line is, but every time that she is on stage she delivers a nugget of comedy gold.

Martin Counter is Hoffa, the Chief Oompa Loompa with the ensemble playing the rest of the Oompa Loompas.

Cassie Barrett, Emma Chadwick, Rachel Wallace, Angela Plant, Brian Counter, Cat Howourth, Charlie Torry, Charlotte Hanser, Gary Rowley, Harriet Basile, Owen Williams, Olivia Thompson, Ross Trail and Sydney Hemstock make up the Ensemble.

There have been two teams over show week, Team Lollipop (Sunday matinee and Sunday evening) and Team Candy Cane (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee)

Directed by Phil Simcox, this is a massive show to put on, and not the easiest I would imagine as well, but the hard work that has been put in by everyone, certainly shows, not only in the quality of the performance and the production, but by the reaction from the audience, which by the way was another sell out evening.

Dave Adey is the Musical Director. Once again you can see the work that has gone into the musical side of this show, and one song that highlights this is the one that opens the second act and sung by Wonks called "Strike That, Reverse It". This is in the style of the old Gilbert & Sullivan style patter song, similar as well to "The Museum Song" from "Barnum". It's very quick and there are lots of words to fit in. That is just one song that shows musically how difficult the music for this show is, and what a great job Dave Adey has done.

Choreographed by Cat Howourth, one of the areas best choreographers. I said that this show is a big one, so big choreography is needed, and that is what we got in bucket loads. The finale and bows, which was almost a show megamix, was a brilliant showcase of the various choreographed pieces.

Sound design is by Mascd Audio and the operation of the sound was by Phil Simcox and Jonty Banks. There were a few missed cues with the mics but only seemed to be in the second act, as far as I could remember. On a personal level I would also have liked the volume on the music slightly lower as some of the vocals, and not always during the singing was slightly overpowered, but that's just my personal observations. Apart from that the sound was fine.

Lighting design is by Jamie Vella. At times it was almost like a club lighting design, which kept the whole vibe of this production very fresh and up to date. Colourful, vibrant and modern feeling.

The costumes were wonderful, and you instantly knew who everyone was just from what they were wearing, and I was so glad to see the final costume for Charlie Bucket at the final bows. Wardrobe Co-ordinator was Alison Watkins and the costumes were thanks to Carole Pratley and Alison Watkins.

Sets are courtesy of Aberystwyth Arts Centre with some brilliant projections by Simon Birchall, which included scenes like Augustus Gloop sliding up the pipes across the back of the stage - clever stuff indeed. The live videography was by Tom Banks and the recorded videography was also by Tom and Derby University.

Making sure everything ran smoothly behind the scenes onstage were Josh Allsopp, John Miles, Robin Knott, Ian Tricklebank, Dave MacAllister, Simon Knott and Heath Parking.

Seb Probert will be on hand to sign the show on Saturday evening's performance.

Here's something that I didn't know! Roald Dahl was inspired to write "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" during his time at Repton School, in Derbyshire! He and his schoolmates were sent chocolate to test from Cadbury's in exchange for their feedback, which gave him the idea of the eccentric Chocolatier.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is at Derby Theatre until Sunday 11 May. Another show that has the sweet smell of success all over it.