- This article is about the musical character, you might be looking for the 2005 film character.
Veruca Salt is one of the five Golden Ticket winners who appears in the musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The New Musical.
Appearance[]
Veruca is a girl between the ages of 9 and 12 and has long blonde hair. On the day of the tour, Veruca wears pink ballet shoes and a large baby pink and white tutu with a diamond necklace and a mink coat that she claims is actually a "baby seal that's clubbed and tickled pink".
Biography[]
Veruca is the daughter of spineless billionaire, Sir Robert Salt and an unknown woman and is first seen at the end of their English mansion's long drive when they are interviewed by Cherry Sundae. During the song "When Veruca Says", it is revealed that despite all of Mr. Salt's vast success and titles, he lives in terror of his daughter whose violent tantrums have left him a shell of a man leading him to give in to her every demand as a way of keeping the peace. However, this does not work as the more Veruca gets, the more she wants leading her to demand some very expensive and ridiculous things. It is also revealed that when the Wonka contest was announced, Veruca demanded a Golden Ticket leading Mr. Salt to halt production in his own nut shelling factory and to instead have the workers unwrap Wonka chocolate bars in order to find a Golden Ticket and pacify Veruca. After 40 days and nights of shelling and screaming from Veruca, the workers finally find the Golden Ticket. However when it is presented to Veruca, instead of being grateful for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Veruca instead demands that her father buy her North Korea.
Day of the Tour[]
On the day of the tour, Veruca arrives in a long pink limo dressed in pink ballet shoes a large baby pink and white tutu with a diamond necklace and a mink coat. Upon arriving on the red carpet, Veruca begins to show off her ticket and even screams into a reporter's microphone proclaiming that everything will be "Mine, all Mine!" However, she is greatly irritated when her spotlight is stolen by fellow insufferable child Violet Beauregarde leading to a rivalry between the two girls. When Veruca finally enters the factory, she quickly puts on a sweet little girl act for Wonka who immediately sees through it and gets under Veruca's skin by pointing out her name is similar to the wart leading to a brief stand-off where Wonka proclaims that Veruca is "going to be fun". Like the other members of the tour, Veruca is amazed by the Chocolate Room and even demands one for herself, however after she spots Augustus drinking from the river she screams and is further freaked out after he is sucked up the pipe but she like the others covers up her fear and demands for the tour to continue.
After arriving in the Inventing Room, Veruca, along with the others, is given an Everlasting Gobstopper, unfortunately she like the other bratty children is unimpressed by the singular sweet. Veruca is further enraged when her rival Violet takes a sample of the Three Course Dinner Chewing Gum and starts to chew it. Her envy quickly turns to amusement when Violet begins to turn blue. It is here that Veruca shows a darker side to her nature as after Violet has exploded, she is seen laughing and waving as her remains float down to Earth.
The Nut Room[]
Veruca's spoiled attitude soon lands her in hot water in the Nut Room. Almost immediately upon entering the Nut Room, Veruca notices that this room is actually manned by squirrels instead of Oompa-Loompas and she quickly comments on how cute the squirrels are. Wonka then explains that the squirrels' job is to sort the good nuts from the bad nuts and even shows the group one of the squirrels throwing a bad nut down the chute in the middle of the room. Almost as soon as the nut is thrown, Veruca turns to her father and demands that he get her a squirrel leading to Mr. Salt asking Wonka how much a squirrel would cost while Veruca attempts her sweet little girl routine with Wonka once again. Wonka surprises Veruca and her father by pointing out that the squirrels are in fact, not for sale leading to Veruca turning viciously on her father who pleads with Wonka to reconsider while Veruca tries to convince Wonka to give her a squirrel by once again putting on her sweet little girl act again. This does not work and Wonka simply says no, leading to a rather amusing stand-off between Wonka and Veruca which ends with Veruca proclaiming "No one says no to Veruca Salt!"
Veruca then barges through the metal gate and walks down onto the Nut Room floor despite a rather pathetic attempt by her father to stop her. She then notices one of the squirrels behaving erratically and attempts to grab it only for the squirrel to seize her head and bang it against its work bench. An alarm then sounds which proclaims Veruca to be a bad nut leading to the dazed Veruca trying to make a run for it. Before she can get away, five giant squirrels ridden by Oompa-Loompas run into the Nut Room and swarm around her. The Oompa-Loompas then begin to sing the song "Veruca's Nutcracker Sweet" in which they proclaim Veruca to be a wasteful little brat who has finally got what she deserves. Meanwhile Veruca attempts to fight off the giant squirrels and the Oompa-Loompas only for both to pick her up and drop her into the bad nut cute, while an unconcerned Wonka simply advises she keep her stomach in and her chest out.
Mr. Salt then begs Wonka to save Veruca but Wonka says he is unable to due to Veruca's terrible posture. Veruca then manages to scramble out of the bad nut chute and tries to fight off the squirrels only for her father to join the fray with her. They are both quickly overwhelmed by the squirrels while the Oompa-Loompas proclaim that Veruca and her father are as bad as each other and will therefore face the same fate of being forced down the chute and into the furnace. Despite Veruca and her father's best efforts to get away, both are forced into the chute and flushed away. Charlie then asks Wonka what will become of Veruca and her father and Wonka informs him they will be flushed into the sewage ponds and that he feels more sorry for the sewage. Wonka then realizes that it is Tuesday, he informs the group that the chute will be diverted to the furnace leading to a horrified Mrs. Teavee pointing out that Veruca and her father will be burned alive only for Wonka to retort that Veruca would not want them to mourn and that Veruca always got what she wanted.
Veruca's final fate remains unknown as she is not seen again.
Portrayals[]
Original West End[]
- Polly Allen (May 2013-November 2013)
- Tia Noakes (May 2013-May 2014)
- Ellie Simons (May 2013-November 2013)
Former West End[]
- Matilda Belton (November 2013–May 2014)
- Scarlet Roche (November 2013–May 2015, December 2015–April 2016)
- Amy Carter (May 2014–April 2015)
- Hannah Howland (May 2014–October 2015)
- Ella Tweed (May 2015–December 2015)
- Ellie Benge (May 2015–April 2016)
- Stella Haden (October 2015–January 2017)
- Lauren Henson (April 2016–January 2017)
- Daisy Sequerra (April 2016–January 2017)
Broadway[]
- Emma Pfaeffle (March 2017–January 2018)
- Paloma Garcia-Lee (Understudy)
First National Tour[]
- Jessica Cohen (September 2018–September 2019)
- Halli Tolland (September 2019–October 2019)
Second National Tour[]
- Angela Palladini (January 1, 2020–June 19, 2022)
Australia[]
- Karina Russell
Italy[]
- Marta Melchiorre
Oslo[]
- Catharina Vu
Brazil[]
- Anna Luiza Cuba
- Isabella Daneluz
- Luisa Bresser
Paris[]
- Zoé Poggi
- Enaëlle Dion
Denmark[]
- Sophie Marie Jeppesen
The Netherlands[]
- Jikke de Wit
- Chiara Deelen
- Madelief Adriaansen
- Nova Meens
- Aimée Floore
Madrid/Spanish National Tour[]
- Marta Melchiorre
Belgium[]
- Nori de Winter
UK and Ireland Tour[]
- Kazmin Borrer
Japan[]
- Aone Maisaki
- Rimu Miyake
Sweden[]
- Julia Carlström
Gallery[]
