Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Due to ESLGR8's kindness, I witnessed Chitty from absolutely fabulous seats. I never saw the movie, but I realized with the Disneyesque merchandising when going into the show just how kid oriented the show was (especially with the literal busload of little tykes clown carring into the theater as I waited to go in.) I also had a "Hey, that woman looks like Vanessa Williams....no, that woman IS Vanessa Williams" moment as she brought her kids (I assume they were hers.) to the show.

AS for the show itself, believe the hype. This show raises the bar on spectactular special effects. The performances of the actors were almost secondary, but all were charming and solid.

It was worth seeing just for Chitty alone, but I certainly enjoyed myself.

Sorry for the popcorn review, but this isn't exactly a show you get all analytical about!

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Updated On: 6/23/05 at 09:08 AM

What'd you think of Raúl? (Because I need validation in thinking he's fabulous.)

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Raul was excellent, especially with the kids. He and Erin Dilly didn't exactly light up the stage with chemistry. I don't really think I would venture into the realm of "fabulous" personally but very, very good.

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true about the chemistry part- but i sort of get that vibe from erin dilly in general- she puts on "performance face" and i would imagine its hard to break through that. raul is much more relaxed on stage.

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Now, that I think about it, I got the "lack of chemistry " vibe from Erin in the South Pacific tour as well, but I passed it off as Michael Nouri being to old for her.

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yeah, i mean dont get me wrong shes a great performer, but theres something missing, in the way she interacts with the other actors, particularly raul. hes giving her the chemistry but shes not sending it back. some actors do that, also without the reprise of hushabye mountain from the movie, theres not much of a chance for them to interact on a personal level. and they cut the "oh what a love" song (thank goodness, awful song) so basically almost the entire love plot was taken out anyway

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"And isn't Raul SUPPOSED to dance kinda badly in the one scene since he's trying to hide from someone and attempting to "blend in" with the dancers, and not actually BE one? "

Yes, exactly. He's trying to hide from the victim of his hair cutting machine, and ended up part of the dance troup by accident.

Yes . Dick Van Dyke did the same in the film.

"you need to be a decent enough dancer to make yourself *look* like a bad one."
true, but the steps in the movie were more complicated to begin with, thats all im saying. and the truly scrumptious reprise where he does the puppet act was originally one of my favorite parts, but here its not as impressive. it was still very cute. Raul made up for his dancing with his beautiful singing and acting!

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Plus you can re-shoot the scene over and over again when filming a movie. I understand that it took almost a week to film the Me Ol' Bamboo in the movie version.