Amy Griffiths in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds and Touring. Picture: Alastair Muir
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang continues at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds until 30 January 2016, prior to a new cast starting the UK and Ireland tour.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
It has to be live.
Driving along, listening to a soundtrack recording, there are always tracks you fast forward. They are are the songs that make up the numbers in any musical.
A live production, on the other hand, not only removes that option, but the dynamism of performance rescues the also-ran numbers and breathes life into them.
This is particularly true when you have a cast as skilled and enthusiastic as the one at the West Yorkshire Playhouse rendering this splendid Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
There is the usual pace, colour and action we have come to expect of a West Yorkshire Playhouse production, but also note-perfect singing and thrilling special effects.
Director James Brining reshapes and re-crafts the original to utilise the whole of the Playhouse stage, using every inch of space. He has also assembled a cast of players that successfully carry off this panto/musical hybrid.
Jon Robyns as Caractacus Potts is strangely muted in parts, but swings into action for the big production numbers (‘Me Ol’ Bamboo’). He interacts well with the children, both Jemima and Jeremy (particularly ‘Toot Sweets’) and ensemble (‘Teamwork’).
Amy Griffiths is Truly Scrumptious. Arriving onstage on a vintage motorbike, she sets the tone for a strong performance as an early 20th Century independent woman and sings beautifully. Truly certainly benefits from the ability of Richard and Robert Sherman to write romantic songs (‘Lovely Lonely Man’) as well as those boisterous numbers.
Scene stealers? Well, you know where I am going with this:
The Vulgarian spies, Boris (Sam Harrison) and Goran (Scott Paige) provide the broad panto humour so beloved of British audiences. There is even some men-kissing-men risqueness for Paige.
Still haunting the dreams of many an adult who saw the original film, The Child Catcher (Stephen Matthews) is suitably black-eyed and villainous. He receive the customary ironic boos at the curtain, but also applause for a fine performance.
Perhaps a third of the scene-stealers might surprise you. Tamsin Carroll plays Baroness Bomburst as an over the top femme fatale, then leads the ensemble in a highly energetic ‘Bombie Samba’ that leaves some of the audience (never mind the cast) gasping for breath.
Of course,you want to know about the car.
The audience waits expectantly and it does not disappoint when it arrives. The technical team has done a splendid job in making the car fly and I, for one, have no idea how they do it. However, that is far from being the whole of the story as the flight sequences depend so much on the quality of the video projections (Simon Wainwright). The car is perfectly co-ordinated with backgrounds of town, sea and country as it turns, climbs and dives.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang demands an enormous cast by modern day standards. Also, big production numbers demand a large orchestra. All of this adds up to a considerable investment by West Yorkshire Playhouse and Music & Lyrics. As the show heads off on a national tour in 2016, there can be no doubt that the investment has already paid off in artistic and enjoyment terms.
Mike Tilling
Readers may also be interested in:
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang tour – Jason Manford and Lee Mead share lead role – News
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