OFFICIAL "Chitty" Review Thread..- Page 2

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 11:09pm

Wow, these reviews are making me want to see it. I thought it would get as "well recieved" as Good Vibrations but I guess Im wrong.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 11:32pm

LOVE Ben Brantley's review. "Like Chitty, Truly has a song named after her, though how that got past Ms. Bang Bang's agent I'll never know." I love this guy.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 11:34pm

Content aside (which I agree with most of them), Ben Brantleys review, next to his glowing ON GOLDEN POND review this season, was one of his better written. Such humor, sarcasm, and wit put into it and so tactfully. Not often do I say it, but nice job Ben. And I actually agree.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 11:37pm

what happened to Jane in Nine - sorry, I know off topic.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 12:21am

Reuters is Mixed-to-Positive:

"The movie, as fondly remembered as it is, was no classic, and neither is the show. But it does offer an engaging musical and comfortingly familiar musical score by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman ("Mary Poppins") and, of course, the flying car that is the signature element. It flies but twice during the course of the evening and is really nothing revolutionary in the way of theatrical effects, but it is indeed impressive enough to garner the requisite cheers and claps from a clearly primed crowd. One actually spends a good part of the evening looking overhead, as director Adrian Noble's production features a variety of flying contraptions, including a miniature zeppelin. Anthony Ward's lavish scenery and imaginative costumes are a major creative element, giving the show an appropriate picture-book look.

Jeremy Sams' book replicates the essential elements of the movie in rather mechanical fashion, and Gillian Lynne's choreography and musical staging are similarly uninspired. But the kids don't seem to mind, and the broadly pitched production plays well in the cavernous Hilton Theatre. Although the proceedings clearly are geared to the younger set, there's the occasional nod and wink to the adults in the house, as with the Baroness's regretful comment, "I should never have allowed toys into the marriage."

The show features more top-notch veteran Broadway performers than it probably needed, but one should be grateful for small favors. Raul Esparza and Erin Dilly are charming as Potts and Scrumptious; Philip Bosco blusters amusingly as the lovable Grandpa Potts; Marc Kudisch and Jan Maxwell funnily camp it up as the Baron and Baroness; Chip Zien and Robert Sella provide vaudeville-style shtick as a pair of villainous stooges, and Kevin Cahoon is an appropriately spooky Childcatcher. Child performers Henry Hodges and Ellen Marlow are to be commended not only for their natural performances but also for not looking too scared when they're strapped into the car."


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reviewsNews&storyID=8340145

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 12:34am

Variety is Mixed-to-Positive:

The lobby of the newly renamed Hilton Theater resounds with the kind of aggressive merchandise-hawking rivaled on Broadway only at "The Lion King" across 42nd Street. That seems entirely appropriate for a show with an automated heart. The good news is that "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" is a lot more diverting than the nearly unwatchable MGM movie and far tighter in its Broadway incarnation than in the belabored London staging that spawned it. While the car floats and flies, the unapologetically quaint musical soars mainly in its technical displays. But it offers cheery clap-along distraction for the under-12s and more than a modicum of charm for those forced to accompany them."
_____________________________________________________________

"The Sherman brothers' English music hall-style songs are a pallid echo of their work on "Mary Poppins," including the title tune and "Truly Scrumptious," surely two of the most insidious ditties ever written, guaranteed to loiter in the head for days. Even in 1968, the movie separated the cool kids from the geeks.

It's surprising, then, that after a plodding first act overstuffed with songs entirely dispensable to the narrative, the stage musical yields some genuinely enjoyable moments in its more streamlined Broadway version. And while the performers are secondary in importance to the mechanics of the show, some of the fun is supplied by the superior cast, led by one of Broadway's most dynamic young musical talents, Raul Esparza, somewhat oddly cast and underused as the inventor Caractacus Potts.

The chief unexpected pleasure, however, comes from Marc Kudisch and Jan Maxwell as the malevolently infantile Baron and Baroness Bomburst of Vulgaria, their fruity antics putting their counterparts in both film and Brit legitlegit versions to shame.

But the car is unmistakably the star. A theme park ride given diva treatment, the titular jalopy gets the biggest applause of the show, and rightly so."

_______________________________________________________________

"Anyone wistful for the days when "Annie" kept Broadway overrun with adorable urchins will be gratified by developments in the second act, when a band of ragamuffin exiles emerge from the sewers to aid in the rescue.

Aside from the prudent measure of introducing the Vulgarian story element at the outset -- something the movie failed to do until midway -- Jeremy Sams' adaptation shuffles through the sketchy essentials with no great innovations. Some of the padding has been pruned from the bloated version in London, where a running time near three hours for musicals seems mandatory.

The ambling first act, in particular, could still use some shrinkage, notably a carnival interlude hatched out of Jeremy's and Jemima's dreams and populated by some creepy clowns. Even the candy factory "Toot Sweets" song that was one of the movie's splashier numbers has little bearing on the plot -- though it provides some scene-stealing canine turns.

But when Chitty soars, the show gains belated momentum, goosed along further by Kudisch and Maxwell's saucy despots."


http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117926928?categoryid=1265&cs=1

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 12:36am

I'm glad the show isn't getting bashed. It's a show that's SO easy to rip apart, but also SO hard to hate, despite how weak the material might be.

[TGIF]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 12:43am

I am surprised. I haven't seen it yet, but from reports here it seems fun but flawed. Although nothing here is a rave by any means, they are alot more positive then I thought.

I wish the cast the best of luck.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 12:44am

But critiquing a show like CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG (as far as being flawed) is kind of pointless. It's already a "classic" film...so ripping apart the form and story, etc. would be like bashing the movie. That doesn't sound great, but I think you know what I mean.

[Plum]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 1:01am

When describing that movie, the quotes around "classic," if you ask me, are very necessary. Even as a kid I only like parts of that movie, and it definitely didn't get repeat viewings like Marry Poppins, for example.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 1:25am

Theatremania Is Negative -- really negative:

"At the end of the first act of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a car fitted out with wings and other accoutrements rises from the stage and hovers over the front of the orchestra. Big deal! At the Act II finale, the fancy-shmancy car lifts off again. Ho-hum. These are the only two times when anything lifts off in the musical. No, wait: Jan Maxwell, playing a somnolent baroness who abhors children, utters two extremely funny lines that serve the dual purpose of getting overdue laughs and, less fortunately, throwing into relief the dismal level of the rest of the tuner's humor.
The flying flivver is meant to be the pièce de résistance of this extravaganza's special effects. It's one of a series of cute-ish surprises that producers stalking mucho bucks on the Great White Way have decided are what the undiscerning public wants in the way of family entertainment. These visual and audio moments are, of course, substitutes for the hallmarks of previous top-notch musicals that delighted kids from three to 93: imaginative songs, outstanding libretti, creative choreography, and big-hearted, scintillating performances.

Except for Maxwell's trouping and some intermittently agreeable turns by other performers, such ingredients are nowhere to be found in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, just as they have been missing from such other shows as the recently shuttered Good Vibrations. The sole qualification for large-budget productions nowadays is that they present something tried and true -- or, what the hey, tried and trite. Popular song catalogues or hit movies will do for the pegs."
_____________________________________________________________

While the heavies are called Vulgarians, it's the show itself that looks and feels vulgar. (Anthony Ward designed the garish scenery and costumes, Mark Henderson the lighting.) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang joins a list of musicals put together by people who don't seem to care for quality, only for commercial potential. For example, no one seems to have noticed that a large percentage of the songs' lyrics are unintelligible. (Andrew Bruce, the sound designer, has muffed the most crucial part of his job.) So here we have a show that will cost a family of four as much as $405 to attend, yet much of it is difficult or impossible to comprehend.

In theory, this situation is inexcusable; in practice, it may be something of a blessing in disguise. Brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman supplied the score after apparently losing the gift for crafting snappy, happy songs that they evidenced in Mary Poppins. Some of the tunes are so gooey that patrons may need to wash their hands during the intermission. For instance, how does one react to lyrics like "Truly Scrumptious, you're truly, truly scrumptious" as sung by two treacly kids? Perhaps there is a method to sound designer Bruce's blurring of the words. (By the way, the show includes some new songs not to be found in the movie, among them "Teamwork," "Act English," and "The Bombie Samba.")

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is further unlikable in that it makes some first-rate performers appear third-rate or worse. Raúl Esparza sings the pretty-enough "Hushabye Mountain" in that gorgeous baritone of his and dances Gillian Lynne's energetic "Me Ol' Bamboo" choreography like a dervish, but he's neutered throughout most of the action. Erin Dilly does Kristin Chenoweth duty as Truly Scrumptious. Thank heaven, she knows enough not to be cloying. If you weren't aware that Philip Bosco, Robert Sella, Chip Zien and Marc Kudisch have been hilarious in previous comic roles, you'd be in despair over their limited skills as displayed in Chitty. They get no help from director Adrian Noble, who not too long ago ran the Royal Shakespeare Company and now looks like one of those former theater-company heads who built up his CV solely to land high-paying assignments helming musicals.

The show includes an icky duet titled "Chu-Chi Face," sung by the baron and baroness. (One hopes that Kudisch and Maxwell are paid handsomely to get through it eight times a week.) The number begins with the lyrics "You're my little chu-chi face / My koochie koochie woochie little chu-chi face / Every time I look at you, I sigh" -- and then it gets worse. In 1913, Irving Berlin -- one of the myriad Broadway songwriters who are spinning in their graves right now -- wrote a number called "Snookey Ookums," which goes in part: "All night long he calls her Snookey Ookums, all night long the neighbors shout, 'Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it out!' " You may find yourself wanting to shout the same repeated phrase to the battalion of opportunists behind Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.



http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5957

Updated On: 4/29/05 at 01:25 AM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 1:30am

The Bergen Record is Negative:

"If you wanted desperately to say something nice about the British family musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," you could note that it makes the second-rate movie on which it's based seem not so bad.

The show is theater at its most empty - a spectacle that flaunts its shiny, outsized scenery and special effects while delivering an unpersuasive, poorly staged story, wispy characters and charmless musical numbers.

It's almost as if the director, Adrian Noble, the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, thought that because the musical was for kids, it didn't need to have the same theatrical quality as a show for adults.

_______________________________________________________________

For Broadway, the show has been recast with American actors who've done excellent work in the past but have little opportunity in their slender roles to do much here.

Esparza, who's been an intense presence in musicals ranging from "tick, tick ... BOOM!" to "Taboo," is a dutiful Caractacus. Dilly smiles brightly as Truly. The fine character actor Philip Bosco does a turn as Potts' father that he could probably manage blindfolded and with his hands and feet tied.

The handsome, big-voiced Kudisch ("Assassins," "Thoroughly Modern Mille") is similarly wasted as the burlesque baron. Maxwell comes off best, with some funny deadpan line readings, but ultimately she ends up in the same acting sandbox as the rest of the cast.

Musicals like "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast" have demonstrated that a show can talk a kid's language and still be dramatic, involving and amusing. Being family entertainment is no excuse for the tawdriness of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."


Bergen Record

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 1:34am

Clearly, some critics totally missed the boat on this one.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 1:47am

Martin Denton (NYTheatre.com)

"After spending two-and-a-half hours in the Hilton Theatre watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and being left almost completely cold by the show—but also aware that most of the almost two thousand other people in the audience seemed to be having a fine old time—I searched for guidance in writing this review on the Internet Movie Data Base. What, I wondered, did critics have to say about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when it came out as a movie in 1968? Roger Ebert, as it turned out, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, had some sage words on the subject:

What I'm getting at is this. It would be useless for me to review Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from an adult point of view, because most adults are not going to see it voluntarily. The audience for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, pretty obviously, is going to be kids—and the parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents and older brothers and sisters they drag along.

Now what do the kids want to see? A kid's movie!

To which, all I can really add is: Ditto. Even that part about the kid's movie still seems to apply, for although I haven't seen the film of CCBB in some 35 years or more, I feel pretty certain that this stage adaptation is a fairly faithful rendering of what the youngsters in the crowd have been watching and memorizing on DVD over and over again. The elation in the room was the joy of familiarity, and I felt it all evening long: one little girl, about two rows behind me, had a big happy smile plastered on her face throughout, and started clapping along with the songs she knew as soon as they started.

Okay; but what sort of experience will the adults accompanying all these well-to-do children have? If mine is any indication, the answer is: not bad, but not particularly good. For a show that gives off lots of actual sparks on stage (literally: it seems like every other scene has some pyrotechnic effect or other), CCBB produces nary a metaphorical one. There are fifty people in the cast and another eighteen in the orchestra pit (not to mention a dozen or so dogs who race across the stage early in Act One); there are some two dozen musical numbers and oodles of large and diverse sets; there's a flying car, for pete's sake! But never once did I feel a twinge of excitement at having my imagination or sense of wonder exercised; nor did I get much in the way of energy or warmth from the stage. This is movie-to-musical biz by the numbers: see the show you already know and be sure to pick up the souvenir t-shirt and toy car before you go.

I'm sorry if that sounds cynical, but honestly, that's what it felt like.
_______________________________________________________________


Raul Esparza and Erin Dilly play Caractacus and Truly; they're talented, but the only real opportunity they're given to prove that is in a short number near the end when she impersonates a music box doll and he reprises "Truly Scrumptious." Henry Hodges and Ellen Marlow are fine and entirely un-cloying as Jeremy and Jemima. Marc Kudisch and Jan Maxwell have a blast as the Baron and Baroness, and Kevin Cahoon is effectively sinister as the Childcatcher. But Chip Zien (Goran), Robert Sella (Boris), and Philip Bosco (Grandpa) are cruelly wasted here: these enormously skillful players are reduced to playing stick figures—they may as well be walking around a theme park wearing big Mickey Mouse heads for all the actual acting they've been allowed to do.

A final, fairly important criticism: the sound, designed by Mark Henderson, is absolutely terrible. I'd estimate that I was unable to understand about half of the spoken and sung lines in the show.

Someone should attend to that last complaint of mine; as for the rest, the target audience seems quite happy with what they're being given, so in the last analysis, who am I to judge? CCBB looks to be around for a long time, and if the hundreds of kiddies in the theatre last night are any indication, it's doing precisely the job it's supposed to


http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/chitty545.htm

Updated On: 4/29/05 at 01:47 AM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 2:06am

Linda Winer in Newsday is Mixed-to-Negative:

"You know how big family shows are hyped as being fun for children of all ages? Well, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" really sort of isn't. Unlike, say, "The Lion King," which captivates on a deep variety of levels, "Chitty" - the London smash that opened last night at the Hilton (formerly Ford) Theatre - might be best appreciated by tots, tweens and grown-ups who were besotted by the merry 1968 movie when they were tots and tweens.

For some of the rest of us, director Adrian Noble's extravaganza is slow to start and, until a burst of goofy wit in the second act, as hard to follow as it is to hear in this people-dwarfing theater with its fuzzy amplification. The star roadster named Chitty does communicate sweetly through expressive headlights, and even sprouts webbed wings and flies.

This "fine four-fendered friend" also swims through high tide and bows at curtain time. Audiences nostalgic for a Broadway where the light fixtures plummet and helicopters levitate should know that the other props and people - meanies as well as heroes - also take to the air at key moments through what feels to the uninitiated like a pretty long evening.

Clearly, however, the creators went out for more than zowie effects. The musical has a supremely overqualified cast, including the intensely talented Raúl Esparza as Caractacus Potts, widower and inventor-father of young Jemima (Ellen Marlow) and Jeremy (Henry Hodges). Philip Bosco - as close to dramatic royalty as Broadway knows - plays their dotty old grandfather, a former military man who says he is "off to India" whenever he heads for the outhouse. Ah, that sophisticated British humor.

Erin Dilly is terrific as Truly Scrumptious, the adventurous candy heiress who can provide maternal support and fix her own motorbike. Best of all, at least for us on the dark side, are Marc Kudisch and Jan Maxwell as the infantilized Baron Bomburst and his child-loathing wife, tyrannical rulers of Vulgaria, whose craven desire to own Chitty is the motor in the plot.
_______________________________________________________

Gillian Lynne's ("Cats") choreography occasionally winks at the grown-ups with a reference to a Velma Kelly step from "Chicago" or a live balletic doll from "Coppelia" at the toy-loving Baron's birthday party. Except for Esparza's snappy music-hall solo, "Me Ol' Bamboo," the big acrobatic dance numbers feel more like padding than plotting. We are seldom allowed to forget that we are really here to see a fake automobile pretend to fly.
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etledew4235939apr29,0,5354623.story

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 2:11am

Well, it did better than I thought it would. I was actually mildly pleased until I scrolled to the last three, that were more negative.

Raúl didn't do too badly for himself, given the circumstances. He's doing the best he could, and I guess the comments he's gotten are the most I could have hoped for.

Are we waiting on any more?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 2:12am

Newark Star-Ledger is Mixed-to-Negative:

"Catering to the family crowd for "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," the management allows people to take drinks back to their seats at the Hilton Theatre, where the extravagant musical bowed yesterday.

Ah, if only somebody could also take in a magical remote device to fast-forward through the dull parts, the 2:45 show might be two hours shorter and seem a lot more entertaining.

Aside from its insanely catchy title tune and several fleeting appearances of its fantastical flying automobile -- an impressive feat of theatrical trickery -- this elaborate stage musical adapted by Jeremy Sams from the 1968 film tends to be a big snoozer.

Fortunately, a first-class company makes the utmost of its sticky material, although 10 tons of cotton candy is still 10 tons of cotton candy, no matter how it's spun.

This lumbering giant of a show ultimately gets by as a tourist attraction aimed for undemanding little kids and their extremely patient older relations. It's hardly as musically satisfying as "Beauty and the Beast" or as visually stunning as "The Lion King," but "Chitty" has much to offer in the way of fanciful scenery, simple songs and talented performers. The fraternal songwriting team of Richard M. and Robert F. Sherman has added several unmemorable numbers to their movie score.
________________________________________________________

Frankly, director Adrian Noble's show remains a long slog across an artificial mountain of whimsy, despite the energetic efforts of its players. While "pleasant" is hardly a key word in Raúl Esparza's typically edgy dramatic vocabulary, his Potts manages to be pleasant enough. Looking pretty in Truly's pink scalloped skirts, Erin Dilly is a ringer for movie original Sally Anne Howes. Philip Bosco genially marches about as Potts' grand old duffer of a dad.

Performing far beyond the call of duty, Marc Kudisch is a magnificently droll Bomburst. A big, booming guy, Kudisch amusingly depicts the bald-domed despot as a kid at heart who simply wants to own every toy in existence. He is expertly abetted by a slinky Jan Maxwell as his highly-strung consort. Chip Zien and Robert Sella also raise laughter as silly Vulgarian spies. The role of the crooning Childcatcher gives Kevin Cahoon little to do except look very creepy.

The true star of the show is the car, of course. A glittering, be-winged marvel, the auto pivots and careens some three rows over the audience, successfully masking whatever hidden hydraulics keep it aloft. If somehow they had been able to make the car sing, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" might really be worth the hefty ticket price.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1114752744204760.xml

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 2:23am

edit - nevermind, no Post yet.

Updated On: 4/29/05 at 02:23 AM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 3:05am

The Post is Mixed-to-Positive:

"FACE it: The car's the star.
Forget cascading chandeliers, whirring helicopters and free-flying vampires — in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," which opened at the newly named Hilton Theatre last night, it's the eponymous auto that grabs the gasps. And attention.

In fairness, all the Rube Goldberg-like mechanisms scattered through the show delight, with their delicious ratchets, gears, pulleys, sprockets and spindles, plus other assorted flying objects.

But nothing comes close to that triumph of theatrical hydraulics, the flying car itself, which goes up, down, left and right, and for a few dizzy moments actually hovers over the first rows of the orchestra.
__________________________________________________________

The musical itself is the kind of show adults assume children will love, and most of the time, they'll have assumed correctly.

Certainly a show where the score — rhythmically irritating and melodically unmemorable — has its audience clapping in unison during the overture can't be all bad.

But even if you forget — and it's not difficult — the music and lyrics of Richard M. Sherman and Robert Sherman (of "Mary Poppins" fame), the story itself is so thin that if it were ice you could swim in it.

_____________________________________________________________

Unfortunately, even the normally redoubtable Bosco, as a model of a Major General with a fixation on his outdoor privy, all fade into the background beside that flying car.

In London three years ago, these goodies found a rallying point around the charismatic charm of Michael Ball's Caractacus, but here with no such center in a miscast Esparza, the Vulgarian baddies have it much their own way.

Marc Kudisch and especially Jan Maxwell — an impassive lady with a carefree way of cleaning revolvers — are terrific as Baron and Baroness Bomburst, a pair with a pathological hatred of children. Equally splendid are their sidekicks, Goran and Boris (Chip Zien and Robert Sella), who are straight out of English panto tradition.

A nicely sinister touch is provided by Kevin Cahoon's genuinely creepy Childcatcher (he really scared some of the kids around me), who has one of the best exit lines in the modern theater.

It's essentially a children's show, but the adults they bring along with them, shouldn't have too bad a time — especially when Zien, Sella, Kudisch and Maxwell are front and center.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 3:09am

Not bad, little comment on the lead. Whatever. I overstate.

Is that all of them?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 3:10am

Jan Maxwell deserves to win the Tony.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 3:14am

Not even close to finished -- Daily News, USA Today, NY Sun, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Hartford Courant, Journal News ......

And New York Mag and the New Yorker will be out Monday, Village Voice Tuesday and Timeout New York Wednesday.

Updated On: 4/29/05 at 03:14 AM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 3:15am

*holds eyelids open*
I'll stay up a little longer. Maybe I'll get lucky.

Updated On: 4/29/05 at 03:15 AM

[kec]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 3:41am

Who wrote the POst review?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/29/05 at 3:44am

Clive Barnes.