I've seen a House Fly... (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - The Musical)

Member Name: Critchyboy

Product:	Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - The Musical
Date:	08/04/02 (2038 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Effects.

Disadvantages: Read Op.

…but I ain’t never seen a car fly! (Sorry, couldn’t resist that one I’m afraid!)

The London Palladium has played host to many stars of stage and screen over the years since it opened in 1910. Stars such as Harry Houdini, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and Julie Andrews. Recently it has played host to Jason Donovan and Philip Schofield as Joseph in Lloyd-Webbers popular Biblical Musical; Jonathan Pryce as Fagin and Elaine Paige as Anna Leonowens in The King and I.

Now it plays host to a whole host of stars in just one show. The £6.5 million pound “fantasmagorical” Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has arrived…

***THE HISTORY***

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was written by the James Bond author Ian Fleming and was published in 1964, the year Fleming died. Four years later it was turned into the film musical we have all come to love starring Dick Van Dyke. The screenplay of which was adapted by Roald Dahl. With songs by The Sherman Brothers (Richard and Robert) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a sure-fire hit and the title song itself was nominated for an Academy Award in 1968. Now finally in 2002 Chitty lands on stage at the London Palladium – but is it any cop?

***THE STORY***

It is the Vulgarian Grand Prix. Several cars are in the competition to win, but our heroine comes in first! Chitty is unbeatable! Moving onto the British Grand Prix, Chitty crashes and we meet her in a scrap-yard owned by a man called Coggins and loved by two children by the names of Jeremy and Jemima Potts.

Coggins tells the children that he is going to have to sell Chitty, but they make him promise to keep her for a couple of days to see if their father can raise the 40 shillings needed to spring Chitty from her prison.

But wait! Some other people are interested in getting their hands on Chitty. Spies from the country of Vulgaria are out to get hold of her too…
;

The children meet a woman at the garage who goes by the name of Truly Scrumptious. She gives them a lift back to their windmill and meets their father, Caractacus – an eccentric inventor, whose inventions have a habit of going wrong. Through a disagreement, Truly leaves after being insulted by Caractacus and the family sit down, with Grandpa, for a meal before bed-time. Meanwhile, the spies are closing in…

Next morning and realising he has actually invented something worthwhile, Caractacus and the children head off to the sweet factory to try and impress the owner with his new found sweet – Toot sweets. Sweets that toot, so to speak. The factory is owned by Lord Scrumptious, Truly’s father, and she encourages Caractacus to sell his idea to her father. Unfortunately, the toot sweets emit a whistle that attracts every dog in the area to the factory and Caractacus is out on his ear.

Having promised his children to try and find the money needed to buy Chitty, Caractacus heads off to the funfair with a hair-cutting invention to try and raise the necessary funds. It goes wrong and in hiding from one highly irritated customer Caractacus finds himself in a dance troupe. He is spotted as the dodgy hair-cutting device and manages to sell it to an interested party thereby raising the funds to buy Chitty.

Having worked on Chitty for a week, she is unveiled and named Chitty Chitty Bang Bang through the various noises that she makes. Caractacus, the children and Truly embark on a picnic to the sea-side where they are attacked by the Vulgarians and have to escape. Chitty unveils some pretty darn good tactics for getting away from these situations and all is well until they get back home and find that Grandpa has been kidnapped…

The action moves to Vulgaria and in particular to the Castle of the Baronm Bomburst. Preparations are underway for his Birthday celebration with his wife, the Baroness, firmly in c
harge. Grandpa Potts is put to work designing another car – he is misidentified as the Inventor Potts.

There are no children allowed in Vulgaria as The Baroness doesn’t like them. A Childcatcher is employed to catch all the children and lock them in the dungeons of the castle so they don’t make a nuisance of themselves.

Meanwhile, Chitty, Caractacus and company have arrived in Vulgaria and are looked after by the Toymaker. Caractacus and Truly embark on a mission to save Grandpa only to have Chitty captured by the Baron and the children found by the childcatcher.

Caractacus and Truly now have many more people to save and, through teamwork with the imprisoned children and the toymaker, hatch a plan that might just work…

***THE SET***

The set for this show is incredibly remarkable. The windmill is created through a spiral staircase with two beds at the top and a set of spinning sails, showing all the cog-work to create the stylised look.

The sweet factory is very impressive and rolls forward from the back of the stage, with steam shooting from various places and conveyor belts carrying different types of sweets.

The streets of Vulgaria have stylised house – wide at the bottom and narrow at the top to create an illusion of height. The toymakers’ house spins round to show the front and the inside.

The show just looks amazing drawing in different styles from cartoon-like. Similarly the costumes are great and keep very much in step with the feel of the film.
The famous revolving stage has been removed to make way for the pit that the finished Chitty appears from.

***THE SPECIAL EFFECTS***

There is a lot of wire work in this show with various cast members floating upwards in dream sequences and being carried by balloons or meeting their comeuppance in a big net to be sent soaring to the roof of the theatre.
However the most impressive effec
ts are reserved for Chitty herself. The car just looks amazing and yes, there’s the hovercraft Chitty, the flying Chitty and the helicopter Chitty. It’s obvious, but very hard to see (from row V anyhow) how the hydraulics of it all works, but as it is happening in front of your eyes you can do nothing but be bowled over by the imagination and ingenuity of it all. Let the magic take you away and believe that Chitty can fly. It is amazing!

***THE CAST***

A dream cast has been tempted to fill the roles for this production and here they are:

Michael Ball (Caractacus Potts) has made his name in musicals from creating the role of Marius in the West-End production of Les Miserables, to playing Raoul in Lloyd-Webbers Phantom and the lead in Aspects of Love, from which he has his song Love Changes Everything. A stint in the charts and an attempt at Eurovision he is backing the West-End after five years. Ball makes a fine Caractacus although he does have a very hard act to follow in Dick Van Dyke. There aren’t really any songs for him to let rip in but he does sing bloomin’ well. His dancing skills will improve through the run and he was fine. A little slimy, but fine!

Emma Williams (Truly Scrumptious) makes her West End debut and is an interesting choice. She does a good job, but her accent is grating after a while. She seems a little young to be in love with Caractacus. Her singing is good and she looks the part.

Anton Rodgers (Grandpa Potts) is probably best known for his television work including Fresh and French Field and May to December. He is a great actor and brings an eccentric and likeable quality to Grandpa.

Brian Blessed (Baron Bomburst) created the role of Old Deuteronomy in Cats and has had a thriving television career (Blackadder to name one), film career (Star Wars Episode 1 to his credit) and stage career. Blessed does in the show what he does best – ie shouting!

Nic
hola McAuliffe (Baroness Bomburst) has starred in countless television shows including Surgical Spirit (she was even the voice of the BMW in the Bond flick Tomorrow Never Dies!) and makes an excellent double act with Blessed.

Richard O’Brien (The Childcatcher) or Rocky Horror himself and the host of The Crystal Maze is great fun as the wicked childcatcher.

***THE SONGS***

Some fantastic songs and some recognisable songs, but here is my top hits list!

Hushabye Mountain – A little lullaby sung by Caractacus to get his children to sleep. Marvellously spoofed by Grandpa who can’t remember the words.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – The Oscar nominated theme song is great! Try and stop yourself singing a long!

The Roses of Success – Sung by Grandpa and a bunch of mad scientists as they try to customise the Baron’s car. “From the ashes of disaster come the Roses of Success!”

Chu-Chi Face – Sung by the Baron and the Baroness! Great comedy song played brilliantly by the two actors!

***THE CONCLUSION***

I had wanted to go and see this show since it was announced it was being made and who was going to be in it. And I was a little disappointed with what I saw.

There were so many lulls in the action that was happening on stage – it was like, really interesting, then really boring and back again. It seemed that the boring bits were when the actors were actually talking – sadly. And as it is being billed as a family show – I fear for some of the little ones sitting through it. It’s not that it wasn’t polished (it was still in previews stage when I saw it at the weekend) as it really was; it was just that the action fell completely flat at certain points.

The romance between Truly and Caractacus failed to impress on any emotional level at all. Truly seems to young to be falling in love with Caractacus and h
e doesn’t really seem to care much for her.

The best actors, Blessed, McAuliffe and O’Brien were woefully underused and O’Brien’s song ‘Kiddy-Widdy-Winkies’ was the worst song of the evening.

There are other issues too. The choreography is lack-lustre (except for the Samba) and to think it was created by Gillian Lynne, who has Cats under her belt, is almost too much to bear. It really could have been so much betted – particularly in Me Ol’ Bamboo. The introduction to the funfair is embarrassing but some of the blame must also lie on Director Adrian Noble for this.

Some of the dialogue is incredibly cheesey and even drew big groans from the audience in places. The idea of making it relevant and including such celebrities as Bernard Matthew’s in joke that take a while to set-up is like scraping the bottom of the barrel. The comedy spies are shocking too.

The characters say ‘Oh My God!’ an awful lot too and I may be old fashioned but this is advertised as a family show and there are other ways that shock can be expressed. Also, there is a comedy shooting of one of the main characters towards the end of the show which left a bitter taste in my mouth. NO NEED! You got a problem with someone you don’t like – well, shoot ‘em! Dear me..!

The biggest applause of the night, and rightly so, was for Chitty herself. She alone is worth the ticket price (which is you’re taking a family will be incredibly expensive) and if you allow yourself to be drawn into the magic of it all you will believe a car can fly! She looks great, moves brilliantly and flies over the first few rows of the Stalls, circling back and forth.

Yes, the show looks fantastic. Yes, the special effects are amazing. Yes, Chitty herself is present as are all the songs from the musical film, but if this show had been handed in as homework at school the final statement would
have to be “Could do better”.

There’s lots to get involved in – booing and hissing the childcatcher for example – and there’s so much to see, but it could have been better.

It’ll run and run and I really hope it does. I would even like to return to see it again after it’s settled down into a comfortable run, but it doesn’t rate with much else I’ve seen.

It’s a £6.5 million pantomime. The kids’ll love it.

***OTHER INFO***

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is currently showing at the London Palladium on Argyll Street in the West End.

Ticket Prices: £15.00 - £40.00

Booking on the 24 hour booking line: 0870 89 555 89.
The Palladium direct: (020) 7494 5020.
Group tickets: 020 7494 5454.
On the net: www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Theatre tours behind the scenes are available:
For individuals call 020 7494 5091.
For groups call 020 7494 5454.

Programmes are available for £3.00 and contain a copy of the magazine ‘theatregoer’.

Thanks for reading!
C. :¬.

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