CHITTY breaks down

[theatreguy]

Posted: 10/15/05 at 11:36pm

Went to see CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG again, mostly for Jan Maxwell. Can't get enough of her!

Anyways, after the scene with Boris and Goran that comes right before they reveal Chitty, Raul made an announcement that they were having technical difficulties and needed to stop the show. So the house lights come up, we wait for about 5 or 6 minutes and then the shows starts up again.

All is going well, but after the Chitty floating scene, where the Vulgarian drop is supposed to come in downstage, the cra was stuck too far downstage so the drop couldn't come in and the show couldn't continue. The rochestra stopped playing, Raul, Erin and the kids were still in the car in a blackout. After probably a minute and a half, the car backs up, the drop comes in and they do the Baron/Baroness scene.

After that, they make another announcement they they're stil having problems and that intermission will just happen right then. The houselights come up and we go to intermission. Which ended up lasting 45 minutes. I saw several people walk out, but most stayed.

They then do the last scene of act one and Chitty flies just fine even though she appears to be missing her little wing things. Then, once again, they announce that they need a few minutes to change the sets and get ready for the second act. So we have basically have a second intermission which lasts about 10 minutes.

The second act goes fine. Ad lib from Jan Maxwell after she is banished:

Baron: Even though we're banished, we'll still have each other and the toys (or something like that).
Baroness: And hopefully a LOT of overtime.

The expressions on Raul and Erin's faces when Chitty gets her bow at the end and they have to sing that song again were priceless.

All told, the show got out at 10:30 rather than the usual 9:30. Quite an interesting evening.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/15/05 at 11:40pm

thanks for the report... I bet that was an interesting way to see Chitty

[Alix7272]

Posted: 10/15/05 at 11:42pm

wow, thanks for the report.

is it evil to hope that the car will break down at a performance i'm at?

Updated On: 10/15/05 at 11:42 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/15/05 at 11:53pm

This is not the first time this has happened.

I imagine the machinery and engineering behind that car is quite extraordinary. That being said, you'd think by now they'd have it down.

[bdwaygirl]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 12:26am

I went last week with tickets I won at the flea market. I actually wished something had happened like the first time Chitty broke down. The reports from that were hysterical. What a show to have been at. Considering, though, all that can go wrong, I think they have a pretty good track record. I think this is only the second time we're hearing about malfunctions.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 12:29am

oy, not again!

[zzannahk]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 12:32am

isn't this car worth over $1 mill?? how do they not take good care of something that costs that much?

[loganp37]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 12:39am

Everyone makes mistakes. I'm sure if there was something they could of done to prevent this mistake, they would.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 12:44am

I always feel so bad for the actors when the car malfunctions. I've never witnessed it first hand, but I can imagine for someone who has the professionalism that Raul has, it can be very frustrating.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 1:03am

Was it a computer malfunction? I assume this production and all it's "Toy's" are run via computer. Sounds like you saw an interesting show though, Love the ad-lib and thanks for the report. Very well done.

[thetheatrekook]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 1:12am

gahhh. i was there too. i would have been soooo frustrated if i were the actors. according to chip, they didn't come out like they did last time because they actually thought that they would have to cancel the show, and they didn't want to be on stage when THAT announcement was made. (who can blame them?? the people around me were getting VERY upset.) so yeah, chitty floated with no raft and flew with no wings! my favorite part was at the end, when Raúl's supposed to say "stand back from the propellers, please." Obviously, there were no propellers, and Raúl was just like "stand back, stand...around...and celebrate or something." it was great.

[theatreguy]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 1:20am

LOL, I noticed that, theatrekook. Did you see when they were flying at the end and Erin and Raul were flapping their arms to simulate the missing wings? It was very funny, they were cracking each other up.

I've actually been in two productions where we had to stop the show (the second we ended up canceling the rest of the performance). The first our sound system went crazy and we had to wait 30 mintues for it to be fixed (it was a musical, so the sound was pretty important). The second time I was doing CRAZY FOR YOU in the middle of an extremely hot July in a non air condiditoned theater. It was 101 outside and something like 110 inside. We onstage were dying from the heat, but the booth where the sound and light ops were was especially hot and one of them ended up getting so sick from the heat they almost fainted. And the light and sound boards were getting overheated which also made things interesting. So right after the first act ended our stage manager went onstage, told everyone we weren't going to be able to get through act two, had the cast take a bow, the audience got their refunds and we all went home.
Updated On: 10/16/05 at 01:20 AM

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 2:31am

Oy, sounds like Chitty had "Whistle Down the Wind" syndrome

Glad the actors were able to keep their senses of humour through the show despite the malfunctions

[Sant]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 8:36am

Hmm... The car broke down more than once or twice in the London production. A LOT more than 1-2 times! One might think they'd have learnt something from the problems with the London car...

[James2]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 8:43am

I think this is only the second time the car broke down.

[ShuQ]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 9:09am

It happened multiple times in London. They tried to work out all the kinks for the U.S. production and for the most part, they have.

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 9:34am

isnt this show supposed to be possibly closing by the end of the year? thats what it said in the nypost...

[Sant]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 9:59am

well they haven't posted any closing notes yet. But you can't book tickets beyond Dec 31 and we are in mid October...

[zippyjen]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 10:06am

i was at the first show where the car broke down. did they entertain the audience? cause they did for us and it was tons of fun.
edit- nevermind i actually read the thread! oh it is too early on a sunday!

Updated On: 10/16/05 at 10:06 AM

[Penny4Eyes]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 10:14am

when it closes, ill be experiecing an emotional breakdown.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 10:16am

Maybe you should start seeing a therapist now. An emotional breakdown over a kiddie show?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 10:43am

if you believe what you read, it is tanking @ the box office & Chitty may be grounded for good soon. We see it in 2 weeks so hopefully it will be flying then

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 10:43am

Not that this is much of an improvement, Sant, but I think you can now by tickets up through January 8th.

Updated On: 10/16/05 at 10:43 AM

[Broadway_Baby]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 11:37am

Give 'em a break guys. No matter how well the car runs, malfunctions happen and obviously, it was nothing they could have prevented. At least it was somewhat entertaining!

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 11:57am

what would probably play next at the hilton theatre if chitty does close?