No Chitty is complete without its core of villans, and this Chitty is blessed with some of the best you’ll find. Griffith is great in the bigger production numbers but she really comes into her own in Lovely Lonely Man and Doll On A Music Box, two of the most gorgeous ballads in the show. This Truly is slightly less Sally Ann Howes and slightly more Keira Knightley, as independent and fabulous as you could possibly imagine. Robyns is joined on stage by Amy Griffiths as a truly terrific Truly Scrumptious. There’s not a minute on stage he doesn’t seem to be enjoying and that joy created a bond that the audience embraced from start to finish. Robyns is a big kid whose been let lose in a chocolate factory (hold it that’s another musical) but you get what I mean. Hushabye Mountain had both my guest and I in a complete mess halfway through the first act, not an easy feat. Growing throughout the show, it’s a performance delivered with a sparkle in his eye and your heart in his hands. Me Ol’ Bamboo, Toot Sweets and The Bombie Samba (written for the original stage adaptation) are joyous, fun numbers that are infectious and had the audience clapping in a haze of childhood delirium.Īs Caractacus Potts, Jon Robyns is in his element. All of the big production numbers explode off the stage effortlessly. Stephen Mear has once again delivered a musical that moves seamlessly. The visual look of Chitty doesn’t detract in any way from the production, in fact if anything it spurs the imagination onwards and opens minds to greater possibilities. The two designers manage to crate not only the world of Chitty in the present day but also deliver Chitty’s glorious backstory as a Grand Prix winner now fallen into disrepair. Sets designed by Simon Higlett integrate with glorious video projections designed by Simon Wainwright.
Don Gallagher and Tamsin Carroll as the Vulgar Bombhursts. The Palladium production, was an incredibly large and spectacular production designed to fill the legendary venue but here, Brinning has helmed an equally spectacular production, but one that has more intimacy and a great deal of heart. This production of Chitty has been put together by the able hands of Director James Brining, the only change being the reintroduction of the poignant ballad Lovely Lonely Man which was not in the 2002 stage production and the excision of Kiddie Widdie Winkies, the Childcather’s number which was perhaps just a tiny bit too creepy. In this current stage production of Chitty (only the second major production ever in the UK), the West Yorkshire Playhouse has teamed up with producers Music and Lyrics which will see this musical marvel fly into theatre around the UK throughout 2016. It’s interesting to note that the original film script was co-written by Roald Dahl and there’s no doubt that like many Dahl books, Chitty is blessed with a dark side that is irresistible to children and adults alike. Originally produced as a film in 1968, the creators were an improbable mix that blended together to create an utterly irresistible confection that has withstood the test of time, and has become a cross generational staple thanks to its permanent place in Christmas television viewing schedules.
Photo: Alastair MuirĪt a time when theatres across the country are in full on pantomime mode, the West Yorkshire Playhouse took a gamble and programmed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as their Christmas offering and judging by the audience reaction tonight that gamble has paid of handsomely, as audiences stood and cheered for Chitty, clapping manically as if their lives depended on it.Ĭhitty Chitty Bang Bang took thirty years to reach the stage. Harry Grasby as Jeremy, Lucy Sherman as Jemima and Jon Robyns as Caractacus Potts.
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