Elise McCann – who won a Helpmann Award for her portrayal of Miss Honey in the Australian production of Matilda the Musical – presents as an intriguing narrator in her new show Dahlesque. She looks resplendent in a bespoke, Daniel Learmont-designed, white strapless jumpsuit, with an intricately embroidered overlay that will later be used as a prop. The messages on it are early evidence of Roald Dahl’s oeuvre; the Dahlesque words and pictures that swish past with McCann’s sashay are a clue to the rich landscape of material from which this show is constructed.

^{Elise McCann. Photograph © Harvey House Productions, graphic design by Mils Achi and Jeff Van De Zandt}

We are immediately drawn in by McCann’s commanding presence as It Must Be Believed to Be Seen (from the musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), invites us to suspend our reality. Her passion and control here through the first cabaret staple, the key change, signal we are in for a treat, and as she speaks, “Come on in,” we enter the world of Roald Dahl’s imagination, and his real life.

Here, the “gobblefunking” begins in earnest, and we must concentrate to...