Richard R. George

This is a good example of why it can be difficult to make a great book into a passable play. Although the movie captured the charm of the book well, the play fails to deliver. An intrusive, annoying narrator delivers long expository speeches, and the dialogue is silly and stilted, trying to follow the book exactly. But what was charming in the book doesn't work in the truncated version for the play. And there is absolutely no character development. All the care taken in both book and movie to develop Wonka's zany character is missing here. The character of Grandpa Joe doesn't come through at all, and Charlie is nearly non-existent. The annoying brats characters are shoved at you, but there is no real time for them to truly annoy before they are punished and off the stage. In short, this adaptation does not work.… (more)

This book is a classic we all know about a little boy who is lucky enought to first win a tour of a chocolate factory, then inherit it. The book touches on several heavy themes but only very lightly. It is left up to the reader to further explore the character's flaws. The other characters are shown to be bratty, spoiled and decadent. The book very clearly outlines the punishments for such unacceptable behavior while celebrating the quiet humility of its lead character, Charlie.

I also looooooooooooove this book. I think its subtext and themes are extrodinarily dark and I would not necessarily introduce it to children of a younger age bracket!

For extention ideas, a classroom could be asked to think of a time they themselves acted inappropriately and how they might have decided in retrospect to act differently.

We could also ask the children for alternate endings and have groups come up with and present their ideas, as well as a group illustration, to the classroom!… (more)

As a play this is appalling. (this is not a reflection on the original book).
It starts with a 2-page speech by the narrator, three of the children have page-long speeches to deliver, and once the events get going, most of the characters traipse from scene to scene with barely a word of dialogue until the scene that focuses on them.
I know Mr George originally produced this with a junior school in New York, but if it was staged as he has written it, he must have had not only some children with remarkably good memorising skills, but also some children with remarkable attention spans watching.
I have recently been in this (as Grandpa Joe), and only accepted the part because I trusted the director to do something interesting with it. I would never have accepted a part in that play on the strength of the script.… (more)