"Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" 

The Attic Theatre School.

Nottingham Arts Theatre.

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.

Performed by the talented students aged 5–12 years, this was a marvellous chance, not only to see how talented they are but to see one of my favourite musicals again, and even though this cast is probably the youngest I've seen perform this Roald Dahl magical spectacle, every single one of them absolutely shone and gave it all 110%.

There were no programmes to say which actors played which parts, so unfortunately, I can't give any names to the roles played.

The young man playing Charlie Bucket on Sunday afternoon - I believe that it was a completely different cast on the Saturday - had so much confidence, and for one so young, a fantastic voice.

Willy Wonka's actor was likewise, and gave us that little bit of eccentricity required for the role.

The young lady who played Charlie's mother also had a beautiful singing voice, and all three actors will be extremely popular with any theatre group, especially musical theatre as they all get older.

I loved every bit of character put into the other Golden Ticket winners, especially the awfully spoiled Veruca Salt; what a lovely character actor she is going to be, I say going to be, but she is from the performance I saw this afternoon.

Another actor I absolutely loved watching was the young lady who played Cherry Sundae, the news anchor who reported on the revelations of the winning ticket holders. That young girl just didn't hold still, or hold back in her performance.

I really must also mention the array of Oompa Loompas, Baby Squirrels etc who flooded the stage with utter cuteness, and in costumes that looked like an advert for The United Colours Of Benetton. Greens, reds, yellows, pinks, purples, and if these colours didn't brighten up the stage enough, their collective smiles most certainly did.

The show ran all the way through and was nicely edited for a younger cast.

I loved every single minute of this production, and while I'd have loved to give all of the cast mentions by name, I understand why this was not possible in this instance. Never the less, everyone involved, and there were an absolute stage full of people for the final bows, presented an amazingly entertaining afternoon.

I will thank Mike and Amanda for arranging for me to experience such a showcase of younger Nottinghamshire talent.

You don't normally get to see stars in the middle of the afternoon, but there were plenty to see this Sunday afternoon.