Characters

🍫 CHILDREN’S ROLES 🍭

Charlie Bucket ✨

  • Playing Age: 9 – 14
  • Vocal Range: G#3 – F5
  • Sweet, smart, hopeful, and loving. A boy with wonderful innocence and vulnerability. Any ethnicity.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: Charlie is our lead, so the actor needs great confidence and stage presence. This would suit a child with previous stage experience. British accent.
    • Choreography: Dance skills a bonus but not strictly necessary for this role.
    • Musical Direction: A strong singer with great musicality is absolutely key for this role.

Augustus Gloop 🥨

  • Playing Age: 10-15
  • Vocal Range: Bb3 – G5
  • Rampantly over-active eater, he is greedy and selfish. German accent and good comedy skills are important. Any ethnicity.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: We need a strong comedy actor with a great sense of humor. The character can wear a fat suit. Fake German accent is a must.
    • Choreography: Good physical skills but doesn’t need to be a strong dancer.
    • Musical Direction: A strong singer able to hold a harmony line and a solo.

Veruca Salt 💅

  • Playing Age: 9-14
  • Vocal Range: Ab4 – Db5
  • Vicious and determined, a spoiled and selfish girl. Any ethnicity.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: A strong character actress, confident and funny, she needs to command the room. Accent British or Russian.
    • Choreography: Strong dance skills with some ballet training.
    • Musical Direction: She doesn’t sing a solo, but she sings with her father, so as long as she is musical, she doesn’t need to be the strongest singer.

Violet Beauregarde 🍬

  • Playing Age: 11-16
  • Vocal Range: C#4 – G4
  • Confident, forward, and full of attitude – Global Majority. American Accent.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: We are looking for a sassy contemporary performance style, a believable ‘influencer’ type!
    • Choreography: Strong movement skills, ideally some background in Commercial/HipHop Dance.
    • Musical Direction: Needs to be a strong singer with a good pop style – some riffing and belt would be ideal.

Mike Teavee 🎮

  • Playing Age: 12-16
  • Vocal Range: G3 – Bb4
  • A fireplug with a ridiculous amount of energy, aggressive computer nerd. Any ethnicity.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: This role needs a strong actor with good comedy skills. Good projection and physical confidence are key.
    • Choreography: Ideally a good mover with some hip hop/Breakdance or acro skills.
    • Musical Direction: A singer who can handle Rap and a big production number is essential but beauty of tone is not such an issue.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 ADULT ROLES 🎩

Willy Wonka 🎩

  • Playing Age: 40 plus
  • Vocal Range: A2 – G4
  • The sly, charming star of the show. Lithe, eccentric. His larger than life persona can go from charming and comical, to magically mysterious and dark. Any ethnicity. Somewhat ageless.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: This needs to be a star performer, charismatic, vulnerable, funny, and sensitive, the whole package! Good with children and physically light on his feet.
    • Choreography: Some movement skills would be good but can be worked around for the right actor.
    • Musical Direction: Strong lyrical Baritone singer, with a very confident grasp of old school patter and Broadway styles. A real all-rounder with great musicianship.

Grandpa Joe 👴

  • Playing Age: 60 plus
  • Vocal Range: G#2 – G4
  • Impish. He is Charlie’s imaginative, fun, kind, and loving grandfather. After many years being confined to a bed, his childish energy returns when Charlie finds the Golden Ticket. Any ethnicity, British Accent.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: A leading man, capable of great comedy and pathos. Good with children.
    • Choreography: Some movement skills preferable.
    • Musical Direction: A strong baritone singer.

Mrs Bucket 👩‍👧

  • Playing Age: 30-45
  • Vocal Range: G3 – E5
  • Charlie’s warm and kind-hearted mother. Worrier. Generous and loving. Any ethnicity. British accent.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: We need a great actress with huge vulnerability and lightness of touch.
    • Choreography: Strong dancer as this role will double as ensemble in act 2.
    • Musical Direction: A very strong MT mezzo singer with great beauty of tone.

Grandma Josephine 👵

  • Playing Age: 60 plus
  • Vocal Range: C4 – D5
  • Charlie’s Grandmother, married to Grandpa Joe – bedbound for most of act 1. British Accent.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: Warm and likable actress who can portray an older person.
    • Choreography: Dance skills not necessary for act 1, but should the actress be a strong mover they will join act 2 ensemble numbers.
    • Musical Direction: Strong harmony singer as the Grandparents have some quartets.

Grandma Georgina 👵

  • Playing Age: 60 plus
  • Vocal Range: Ab3 – E5
  • Charlie’s Grandmother, married to Grandpa George – bedbound for most of act 1. British Accent.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: Warm and likable actress who can portray an older person.
    • Choreography: Dance skills not necessary for act 1, but should the actress be a strong mover they will join act 2 ensemble numbers.
    • Musical Direction: Strong harmony singer as the Grandparents have some quartets.

Grandpa George 👴

  • Playing Age: 60 plus
  • Vocal Range: F2 – E4
  • Charlie’s Grandfather, married to Grandma Georgina. Bed bound for most of act 1. British Accent.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: Warm and likable actor who can portray an older person.
    • Choreography: Dance skills not necessary for act 1, but should the actor be a strong mover they will join act 2 ensemble numbers.
    • Musical Direction: Strong harmony singer as the Grandparents have some quartets.

Mrs Gloop 👩‍🍳

  • Playing Age: 30-50
  • Vocal Range: Bb3 – D5
  • Augustus’s German, moronic, Wagnerian mother. Mirthlessly smiles as though it were affixed to the front of her face. Any ethnicity.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: A strong comedy actress with a good German accent.
    • Choreography: Ideally a good mover with comedic physicality.
    • Musical Direction: Strong vocals required for solo number, some yodeling involved!

Mr Salt 💰

  • Playing Age: 40-60
  • Vocal Range: Ab2 – Ab4
  • Veruca’s goofy, eccentric, distracted, hilarious father. Finds it impossible to say no, giving in to every ridiculous demand his daughter makes. Any ethnicity. The script asks for a Russian accent, but we will also consider British.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: A strong character actor singer.
    • Choreography: Movement skills a bonus but not essential.
    • Musical Direction: Operatic/Classical Tenor, a proper singer!

Mr or Mrs Beauregarde 🗣️

  • Playing Age: 30-50
  • Vocal Range: F#3 – G4
  • Violet’s ineffectual father OR Mother. Ignores their back-talking, insult-hurling daughter. Global Majority. USA accent.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: A sassy larger than life performer with good comedy skills and a strong USA accent. Ideally African American or Latinx heritage.
    • Choreography: Movement can be tailored to the performer, but dance skills would be a bonus.
    • Musical Direction: Strong singer with a contemporary pop/soul aesthetic.

Mrs Teavee 📺

  • Playing Age: 30-50
  • Vocal Range: G3 – Eb5
  • She needs amphetamines to get through the day and deal with her outrageous son. Tense, extreme, and hilarious. Any ethnicity. USA Accent.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: A strong comedic actress with excellent vocals.
    • Choreography: Some dance skills preferable.
    • Musical Direction: A very strong singer with a great belt and depth of tone.

Mrs Green 🥗

  • Playing Age: 40 plus
  • Vocal Range: N/A
  • A vegetable seller – character comedy actress. Any gender and ethnicity.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: Mrs Green is a featured ensemble track and has some great comic one-liners through act 1.
    • Choreography: Good dance skills a must as the role will be part of the ensemble.
    • Musical Direction: Strong ensemble singer but no solo.

Jerry Jubilee 🎤

  • Playing Age: 20 plus
  • Vocal Range: N/A
  • A TV news reporter – any gender and ethnicity.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: Comic performer with a feel for satire.
    • Choreography: Ideally part of the ensemble for act 2, so good dance skills.
    • Musical Direction: Strong ensemble singer but no solo.

Cherry Sundae 🍒

  • Playing Age: 20 plus
  • Vocal Range: N/A
  • A TV news reporter. Any ethnicity.
  • What the creative team are looking for in this role:
    • Direction: Comic performer with a feel for satire. We’re hoping to position Cherry all around the auditorium for their various reports, so someone who is up for a challenge!
    • Choreography: Ideally part of the ensemble for act 2, so good dance skills.
    • Musical Direction: Strong ensemble singer but no solo.

🎭 ENSEMBLE ROLES 🎶

As an ensemble member, you’ll be a powerhouse of energy and characterisation. Be prepared for some quick changes as you bring multiple roles to life and drive the story forward.

  • Oompa-Loompas: The iconic workers in Willy Wonka’s factory.
  • Other featured characters: Including various townspeople, other onlookers, and creatures like squirrels in the factory. Ensemble members also serve as dancers and singers, portraying groups like “Gum Chompin’ Divas,” “Bavarians,” and more, adding to the visual and musical spectacle of the show.