Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

I know that there has been real excitement around this show for a long while, and it was great to be in a packed auditorium that was buzzing with anticipation.  Could the production live up to the hype?  Rather like the eponymous car itself, the show proved to be attractive to look at, with plenty of interesting features.  But did it fly?

The musical is an interesting addition to the roster of feature films that have been adapted for the stage, and the celebrated movie version of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” is part of so many people’s childhoods.  The wonderful songs by Richard and Robert Sherman have of course stood the test of time, but where else does the show’s undoubted appeal lie?  The special effects, of course, can be realised much better in a film studio than on a theatre stage.  The narrative, while engaging, isn’t distinguished by its complexity or jeopardy.  And, ironically for a work about a flying car, none of the characters goes on much of “a journey”.  I think the appeal lies in the show embracing the innocent, simplistic optimism of childhood, a world in which everything is possible, a world full of energy and excitement, a world in which good and bad are clearly delineated with predictable outcomes.

This production tapped into a lot of that.  It was a good idea to use the forestage to push the action well into the auditorium in an effort to sweep us all up in the story, and the designs, particularly the costumes inspired directly by the film, drew us into a world both familiar and well understood.  The technical challenges were broadly met, although bringing the action closer to the audience made it harder to maintain the suspension of disbelief.  Above all, the Potts family largely embodied the cheerful optimism that drives the musical.

The singing was characteristically of high quality, with the Musical Director drawing fine performances of the famous songs from the company.  He coped wonderfully well with the challenges of being with the band in some remote location, with musicians and singers hardly ever losing contact with each other, and recovering remarkably quickly on the rare occasions when they did.  This set-up arguably robbed the show of some of the energy of live performance, but it did allow the balance in the sound design to be adjusted to avoid the musicians overwhelming the singers.

The choreography for the Rumba finished with a tableau that would have drawn an “A – may – zing!” from Craig on “Strictly”, and other set-piece dances were similarly impressive.  The stick work in “Me Ol’ Bamboo” was particularly good, and I enjoyed some of the Busby Berkeley inspired routines in the sweet factory, such as the rotations centred on the revolving trolleys in “Toot Sweets”.

So did it fly?  Yes it did, but the production, rather like the car, got off the ground without ever quite soaring away.  That’s still a phenomenal achievement; the whole company deserves to be congratulated on bringing such an ambitious production to the Amey Theatre stage.

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