Chitty Chitty Bang Bang JR

It was a fantastic energetic show by this young cast. It opened with the two Potts children Jeremy  and Jemima played delightfully by Daisy Dawson and Niamh Clarke telling us how much they loved the car. Then they were joined by Caractacus Potts (Aaron Holton) and Truly Scrumptious (Lillie Barber) who both showed that they had a great future in Musical Theatre with their personalities, singing and dancing. The audience were on board from the start cheering the youngsters and clapping everytime the theme tune came on. Special mention also to Alex Wanklyn (Lord Scrumptious, Mr Coggins, Toymaker) who carried off the different characters very well.

The Baron(Finlay Elkin) and Baroness (Amber Mitchell) brought comedy to the Production playing the parts with great humour. I particularly enjoyed the Bombie Samba. They were assisted by the spies Goran (Freja Acton) and Boris (Leia Barton who also played Miss Phillips) with the hilarious bush routine.

The Child Catcher (Draye Garden) looked and acted just the part with a nose which was something to behold. Grandpa (Thomas Naylor) Junkman (Roby Jones) Violet (Layla Hull) Sid (Andrew Naylor) all played a part in making it such a good show.

The scene in the Toy room was super with Truly as the mechanical doll and Caractacus as Jack in the Box. I must also mention Chitty the car was one of the stars of the show when to avoid the tide it rose up and sprouted wings to rescue Grandpa.

The ensemble work was very good, there was plenty of talent there choreographed by Leanne Clarke her first for this Society assisted by Grace Fawcett who is going to study dance at Manchester University (congratulations Grace). Musical Director Tom Devine must be proud of the result of his hard work.

The scenery developed and made by students at a Theatre Support Project at the local College using CGI images and it worked very well. I know there is not much room on the stage but I am impressed that the stage crew managed to keep hiding the car away on certain scenes. Costumes were very good (particularly the Samba ones) and there were many of them.

Congratulations Ben Garbett Producer and Co-Director  Kate Machon for an excellent show.

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