“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” on stage in London

 

For a show that celebrates fantasy, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” doesn’t put much trust in its audience’s imagination. This blindingly flashy new musical, which opened on Tuesday night at the Theater Royal, Drury Lane, is as jammed with games and gadgets as a Toys “R” Us warehouse. Behemoth playthings are forced upon you in such relentless abundance that you wind up feeling like a spoiled, benumbed child on Christmas morning, drowning in a sea of presents and yearning to flee back to bed.

 http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/th…

Don’t hold back, Ben Brantley.

I didn’t fully trust the review until I saw this: