New Press Night Chitty

[maestro]

Posted: 10/3/03 at 9:35am

Following the long thread here about CCBB recently, you might be interested in the latest newspaper reviews of the show. The broadsheets had critics in on the new Press Night. Here's ones from The Guardian and The London Theatre Review.

Lyn Gardner
The Guardian

You can hardly have anything but a good time at Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, because Adrian Noble's production is so determined that you will. There is nothing like old-fashioned excess to make an audience feel it is getting its £42.50's worth.
Chitty has more sets than even the biggest, brashest 1980s musical, more changes of clothes than Victoria Beckham, so many cast members that the stage sometimes resembles Oxford Circus tube station at rush hour, as well as oodles of cute kids, winsome dogs, Heath Robinson-style machinery, silver and gold confetti falling on the audience and sufficient fairy lights to worry the national grid. It is as if Noble has made a theatrical effects shopping list and then just thought, hell, I've got the budget so we'll have the lot.

The result is like a glorious, gaudy and very vulgar pantomime. And that's before we even get to the car that flies - actually rather more lumbering and less impressive than it is cracked up to be. In the circumstances, and in the face of so much spectacle, the performances might seem pretty incidental, but the new cast are actually rather scrumptious.

Gary Wilmot is an infinitely more attractive, far less self-obsessed Caractacus Potts than Michael Ball. Russ Abbot brings real flair and a lesson in comic timing to Grandpa Potts. Caroline Sheen's Truly is just the right side of bumptious. And, as the Child Catcher, Wayne Sleep cleverly negotiates that fine line between the absolutely terrifying and the downright ridiculous. These are performers who are never going to be out-acted by the scenery.

The production and design do so much of the work for the audience that you could argue it leaves little to the imagination. The second half is over-extended by Baron Bomburst and his wife, who you wish would both buzz off to Brazil a little quicker, and the entire show is very definitely designed for the theatrically sweet-toothed. But with such Rolls-Royce production values, this old banger can't help but spread a little West End happiness.


The London Theatre Review

Lovers of pantomime rejoice! You needn't wait until Christmas time to boo and hiss the baddy, cheer for the lovers, or ooh-and-ah at the spectacle since, more than a year later, Adrian Noble's production of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" is still packing in children and adults at the London Palladium. A difference you might notice is the price tag, and at £42.50 for a top price seat, your bank balance may be a little more stretched than at your local Winter panto. What Noble offers us in return, however, is rather a lot of spectacle (if not much substance) including a plethora of whacky machines, a pack of dogs, ample song and dance, and of course Chitty, the infamous flying car. But while I admit to sharing the gasps of squirmy delight as Chitty soared above the front stalls at the end of each act, the lead up material and production is not always so enchanting.

Originally a Sherman Brothers musical film based on the story by Ian Fleming, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" concerns single father and mad inventor Caractacus Potts who resurrects an old car for his children which turns out to be more than they could ever have bargained for. Greedy Vulgarian Baron Bomburst and his child-hating wife are keen to get their hands on Chitty and its inventor, and so spying, fights and chases galore ensue until the car finally rests in the hands of those who will love it best. The Sherman Brothers' music and lyrics are certainly pleasant and sweet enough to fell a rhinoceros, but with a few exceptions do not amount to much. Jeremy Sams' adaptation cuts out many of the longueurs of the film to make the first act more concise (even though the total running time comes in at just under three hours,) but his overly long stand up segments often fall flat, just as does some of Noble and choreographer Gillian Lynne's staging. Lynne's energetic, prancing, slightly balletic choreography is usually sweet and charming, but the focus of too many large numbers is lost, thus making the stage look a confusing mess.

Noble's over-blown pantomime has, however, come a fair way since its opening in the Spring of last year, and is enormously served by the new casting of Gary Willmot and Caroline Sheen as the whacky inventor Caractacus and sweet-as-her-name Truly Scrumptious respectively. Willmot may lack the richness of voice which Michael Ball brought to the role, but his more simple tone serves the unassuming, simple nature of Caractacus well and he is a touching father and effortlessly loveable. Sheen lends a combination of English aristocratic primness and tremendous warmth to Truly, and her pairing with Willmot is beautifully complementary. Elsewhere, however, some of the new cast is not so ideal....

Poor Wayne Sleep. True, the former ballet star may feel at home prancing around the stage in a pair of tights, but he certainly struggles performing what has to be the worst song ever to survive a preview period. Coupled with the fact his Childcatcher is reduced to silly insubstantial cameos, it is often hard to tell whether the audience is booing Sleep or his one dimensional character. Nicola McAuliffe and Brian Blessed's superbly grotesque Baron and Baroness Bomburst were always going to be a hard to act follow, but Sandra Dickinson, with her squeaky voice and perma-grin, and Victor Spinetti's underpowered turn sadly do not match up, or pack the same comic punch.

Anthony Ward's designs which combine simple landscapes and blocks of colour with intricate, detailed machinery are effective, but what Ward serves us up is a string of clever gadgets along with otherwise uninspiring, colourful backdrops which, for me at any rate, didn't tickle my senses.

Yes, "Chitty" is more than spectacular (to use the vernacular) and provides lashings of pure, simple fun. But perhaps the amount of people around me (both big and small) fidgeting and chatting is testament to the fact that for all the cash spent on it, this is one show which does not really engage dramatically or fuel the imagination and allow it to fly.

[Michelleruth]

Posted: 10/3/03 at 2:25pm

Thanks for sharing. Most all of the reviews I've ever read on this production have been positive. Have you seen the "Making Of" video or DVD (original cast rehearsals, etc, in London)? Really interesting!

[sharon1]

Posted: 10/3/03 at 3:18pm

Semi mixed. I think it depends on your frame of mind. Others couldn't wait to state they wanted Anton Rogers and Michael Ball back. I guess it is a lot like reading reviews for any show. People have their "favs" and not. But both Wilmot and Sheen have been with the show for a while before the reviews were given again. Sheen since March (and people liked her with Michael Ball) and Wilmot since July. So reviews can be deceiving, especially I think with a hit show when new people come in. Just a thought

[kec]

Posted: 10/3/03 at 5:14pm

The Making of DVD is indeed interesting, especially with the five musical numbers included as an extra. There is a new DVD of the FILM version coming out in November, I think in honor of the film's 35th anniversary, and one of the extras includes a look at the musical -- not sure if it's the same "making of..." that came out in London, though.

[DofB5]

Posted: 10/3/03 at 11:57pm

What's this about an "Americanization" of Chitty I've heard about? Anyone have any real news about that subject?

D

[kec]

Posted: 10/4/03 at 10:46am

Re the "Americanization" of Chitty, one of Michael Ball's fans, attending Anton Rodgers' final performance, said she got the information from someone who was involved with the production. I would treat it as just an unsubstantiated rumor at this point.