Theatre review: Wonka will create enough kiddie glee to guarantee its survival. What a pity it isn’t good!; Four farces: two weak; two excellent

Off to Wonka. With no preconceptions either. I’ve never seen this story on stage, page or screen and it strikes me as a dysfunctional hybrid of Oz and Twist. The show kicks off with a cartoon history of chocolate which — whoopsidaisy! — omits to mention sugar as an ingredient.

We meet Charlie Bucket, an angelic drudge, who must win a prize in order to rescue his whining, crippled parents from impoverishment. He visits Willy Wonka’s candy emporium along with four surpassingly obnoxious child-rivals. There are two grotesque beauty queens (one is slaughtered early on in an industrial accident). There’s a Bavarian fatso who scoffs garbage non-stop and belches into the microphone. And there’s an Americanised thug who wants to become a mass-murderer and likes to mime shooting adults, especially women. He despatches his victims with a catchphrase, ‘Game over’ or ‘You’re dead’. A fine young actor, Jay Heyman, performs this bloodthirsty jape with an excellent sense of macabre comedy.