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A CurtainUp London Review
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
By Elyse Sommer
| Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Rides to the
Hilton Theatre's Stage by Elyse Sommer
Grandpa Potts also takes flight via a miniaturized little house, as does the villainous spy catcher. And yes, half a dozen real dogs go racing across the stage several times. In short, everything and everyone that's kept this show running for three years in London is as Lizzie Loveridge described it in her review when it opened there.
The Broadway production employs all but one of the original crafts team (the New York lighting designer is Mark Henderson). The American cast Adrian Noble has assembled is very much Grade A+ and all seem to be having a grand time, even though their characters are unworthy of their talents. Whether the show's frequent resemblance to the pantomines long popular with British kids will prove enthralling enough to American youngsters for a lengthy run remains to be seen. The kids on real school holiday rather than the school-hating Jeremy and Jemima's "eastmas" (halfway between Easter and Christmas) who filled the theater at the matinee I attended seemed to be most animated when things were flying. Besides the end of act Chitty flights, Grandpa Potts is miniaturized little outhouse flies up and away behind the loges when he's kidnapped and the captured Spycatcher soars even higher.
Esparza's romantic interest, Erin Dilly, is a scrumptious Truly who's a cross between Sally Ann Howes and Kristin Chenoweth. Philip Bosco rewards us for letting him off jury duty (in the much extended Twelve Angry Men by proving himself capable of delivering a tune even though he's not much of a singer and what he's given to sing is mediocre.
Since, like Lizzie Loveridge, I found the songs pretty but easy to forget, a memory jogging song list below, followed by the London review which includes more plot and production details. While this is very much a family show don't expect that $100 ticket (plus souveniers and candy) to stir your youngsters' imaginations and give them a taste for the magic of theater rather than the magic of theatrical technology. BROADWAY PRODUCTION NOTES: CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG Directed by Adrian Noble Musical Staging by Gillian Lynne Cast: Raúl Esparza (Caractacus Potts), Erin Dilly (Truly Scrumptious), Philip Bosco{Grandpa Potts}, Marc Kudisch (Baron Bomburst), Jan Maxwell (Baroness Bomburst), Chip Zien (Goran), Robert Sella (Boris), Kevin Cahoon (Childcatcher), Frank Raiter (Toymaker), Henry Hodges (Jeremy Potts), Ellen Marlow (Jemima Potts), JB Adams (Chicken Farmer/Inventor), Dirk Lumbard (Phillips/Coggins/Inventor), Ken Kantor (Lord Scrumptious), Kurt Von Schmittou (Sid/Inventor), Robyn Hurder (Violet), Michael Herwitz (Toby), Robert Creighton, Rick FaugnoWilliam Ryall (Inventors). Sets and Costumes: Anthony Ward Lighting: Mark Henderson Sound Design: Andrew Bruce Musical Director: Kristen Blodgette The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Orchestra-- Associate Conductor/Keyboard II: Stan Tucker; Keyboard I: Milton Granger; Violins: Victor Costanzi (Concert Master), Suzy Perelman; Violin/Viola: Gary Kosloski; Cello: Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf; Bass/Tuba: Patrick Glynn; Reeds: Robert DeBellis, Steven Kenyon, Salvatore Spicola; Trumpets: Stu Satalof, Joe Burgstaller; French Horn: Jeff Nelsen; Trombones: Marc Donatelie, Charles Gordon; Guitar/ Banjo/Mandolin: Justin Quinn; Percussion: Dave Roth; Drum Set: Edward Fast Music Coordinator: Sam Lutfiyya Running Time: 2 hours and 35 minutes, with intermission Hilton Theatre, 213 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100 From 3/27/05 opening 4/28/05. Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7 PM, Friday and Saturday nights at 8 PM with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets $20 to $100. Last performance 12/ 31/05 after d 34 previews and 285 regular performances. |
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Musical Numbers
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Act One
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Act Two
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Chitty Chitty Bang Bang London Review
by Lizzie Loveridge
|
You're sleek as a thoroughbred
Your seats are a feather bed You'll turn everybody's head today We'll glide on our motor trip With pride in our owner ship The envy of all we survey. O Chitty You Chitty Pretty Chitty Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang We love you. -- Lyrics to the song "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" |
Scrumptious Sweet Factory
(Photo: Alistair Muir) |
The widower and inventor of oddball machines Caractacus Potts (Michael Ball) lives in his windmill workshop with his twin children Jessica and Jeremy and his father Grandpa Potts (Anton Rodgers). He meets the children's schoolteacher, the delectable Truly Scrumptious (Emma Williams) who is the daughter of the industrialist and Candy King Lord Scrumptious (David Henry). Meanwhile Baron Bomburst of Vulgaria (Brian Blessed) and the childhating Baroness (Nichola McAuliffe) are trying to win a Grand Prix race by capturing the famous racing car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and to further their ambition, kidnapping inventors the world over. Caractacus Potts renovates the wreck of the car which can travel on water and has magical powers. Grandpa Potts is kidnapped, taken to Vulgaria and when Truly and the other Potts go to his rescue, they meet both the sinister Child Catcher (Richard O'Brien) and the friendly Toymaker (Edward Petherbridge). Along the way there are visits to a fairground and never an opportunity missed for some fun choreography. Oh . . . and of course Caractacus and Truly fall for each other
The music and the lyrics are tried and child tested, easy and pleasant rather than brilliant but the stars of this production are Anthony Ward's fabulous sets and of course the magical flying car. The car flies in the first act. In the last act it comes out over the orchestra pit and the first four rows of the stalls. Caractacus Potts' windmill has sails that turn and a variety of his impractical inventions are on display as working models. Other visual delights are the candy striped workers and the machinery in the Scrumptious Sweet Factory rivalling Willie Wonka, the half timbered Saxon houses of Vulgaria, the Fairground, the South American theme of the Baron's birthday bash, the detailed Toymaker's House and the kidnapped, high kicking Einsteins.
I liked Gillian Lynne's choreography of the ensemble numbers -- in the factory "Toot Sweets", the Morris Dancers at the Fairground curiously influenced by China in "Me Ol' Bamboo", the soft shoe shuffle of the inventors in "The Roses of Success". The music is not as memorable as one might expect from a West End musical but there is a mixture of musical styles, pleasant ballads, the lullaby "Hushabye Mountain" and more upbeat numbers, the jazzy "Toot Sweets" and the Samba for the Vulgarians. Through all the whole cast genuinely look as if they are enjoying themselves.
Michael Ball is as, handsome and charming as he is tuneful. His co-star Emma Williams as Truly is all pretty goodness. Brian Blessed gives us his usual bluster as the baron and McAuliffe is well cast as the child phobic villainess. Richard O'Brien, (remember Rif Raf in Rocky Horror? ) with his black clockwork horse carriage and top hat is sinister without striking terror. The imprisoned, bedraggled, children look Dickensian, though this doesn't interfere with their hearty singing.
Children as young as four sat there for two and a half hours with a break for ice cream though on the way into the theatre I had heard several threatened with the Child Catcher! Noble delivers a well staged Chitty Chitty Bang Bang even stretching to the entrance of half a dozen real dogs though quite why they came I've forgotten in much the same way as I've forgotten most of the tunes apart from the oft repeated "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." What I shall remember are those, colourful sets and costumes and, of course, the car.
| Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Written by Ian Fleming Directed by Adrian Noble Music and Lyrics by Richard M Sherman and Robert B Sherman Adapted by Jeremy Sams Design: Anthony Ward Musical Staging and Choreography: Gillian Lynne Starring: Michael Ball With: Ray C Davis, George Gilles, Harry Smith, Luke Newberry, Carrie Fletcher, Lauren Morgan, Kimberley Fletcher, Graham Hoadly, Emma Williams, David Ross, Emil Wolk, Anton Rodgers, David Henry, Matthew Rixon, Liza Pulman, Steve Elias, Brian Blessed, Nichola McAuliffe, Richard O'Brien, Peter Bishop, Nicholas Johnson, Bret Jones, Edward Petherbridge, Helen Baker, Julie Barnes, Darren Carnall, Stuart Chaffer, Ben Clare, Lisa Joanne Cook, Phyllida Crowley-Smith, Darren J Fawthrop, Nia Fisher, Ben Garner, Jocelyn Hawkyard, Emma Hennigan, Emma Kerslake, Robert Kramer, David Lee, Rory Locke, Gary milner, Tommi Sliiden, Scarlett Strallen, Lyndsey Wise Lighting Design: Mark Henderson Sound Design: Andrew Bruce Musical Director: Robert Scott Running time: Two hours thirty minutes with one interval Box Office: 0870 890 1108 Booking to 28th September 2002 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 14th May 2002 performance at the London Palladium, Argyll Street London W1 (Tube Station: Oxford Circus) |
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