Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Crikey, I have been meaning to write this post since Christmas, was sure I'd get it done by last weekend, but have finally got round to it. Those of you who have been reading for some time might remember that last year, we went to see Sleeping Beauty (panto version) at the Oxford Playhouse. The year before that we went to see Aladdin (also panto), also at the Oxford Playhouse. This last Christmas HWNLR said he'd like to do the panto 'gig', so we went to see the touring production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at The New Theatre, Oxford instead.

Like most people (at least those with kids) I have seen the film many times, so wasn't really sure how they would capture the magic of that flying car, and put it on stage. No.2 was sure it wouldn't actually fly, but we were going to find out! I don't know if it was a sign of the hard economic times, but the theatre was only half full, which must be difficult for the cast. On the plus side though, it meant we could plonk our coats, etc. on other seats and give ourselves a bit more room. We had people in front of us, and behind us - luckily one of the chaps in front had an iPhone and was able to show No.2 that day's football scores. Tsk. But we had nobody else at all on our 'row' so put all coats and bags on those seats.

The character of Caractacus Potts was played by Darren Bennett. Not the dancing, prancing Darren Bennett who appears on Strictly Come Dancing, but a different chappie of the same name, who has an impressive pedigree, having already starred in productions of Singing in the Rain, 42nd Street, West Side Story and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This Darren Bennett was a really good dancer too - we all thought his rendition and performance of 'Me Ol Bamboo' was first class. It made me knackered just watching it! He didn't have the same charisma as Dick Van Dyke who played the role in the film, but I'm not sure it mattered all that much. It resulted in the rest of the (100-strong) cast being allowed to shine more than they perhaps do in the film.

Truly Scrumptious and Mr Potts

Truly Scrumptious was played by Katie Ray, and was really good. In the film, Truly was such a perfect lady, with clipped English tones, and upper class 'manners'; and Ms Ray's stage version was just the same. Like Darren Bennett, her dancing was superb. According to the programme, Ms Ray is also "a qualified yoga teacher, having trained on an ashram in the mountain tops of America, India and Thailand." Gosh.

There were lots of children in this production; I can't tell you who played the leading roles of Jemima and Jeremy Potts, because the programme says the characters might be played by one of 4 actors/actresses each. Suffice it to say, they were great. There were also quite a few dogs in the story, at one point they all bounded across the stage from one side to the other, and I had visions of someone on the 'receiving' end waving lots of doggie treats to get them to play along.

Dean Maynard as The Child Catcher

The main 'baddie' of the whole show is of course The Child Catcher, and in this instance he became something of a pantomime villain, receiving loud boos and hissing whenever he appeared on stage. My kids were both frightened of the film character when they were younger, but this incarnation was definitely less terrifying. He was played by Dean Maynard, who went along with the booing brilliantly. Did you know that The Child Catcher didn't exist in the original story (written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming)? He was an introduction by Roald Dahl for the film version of the story, and, I think is a wonderfully Dahl-esque being.

No.2's favourite song in the entire film is 'P.O.S.H' and he was singing away when we got to that bit in the stage production. An actor named John Griffiths played Grandpa Potts, and he was just as batty as the Lionel Jefferies film version; making his kidnap by Goran and Boris, the spies from Vulgaria, splendidly absurd. It was these buffoon-spies (played by Nigel Garton and Richard Ashton) who had some of the funniest lines in the entire production.

Dancing during 'Toot Sweets'

For us, I think the human stars of the show were Baron and Baronness Bomburst of Vulgaria (played by Edward Peel and Kim Ismay. (I wondered if I recognised Mr Peel, so came back and googled. He was a regular in Emmerdale, and has also appeared in Doctor Who, The Bill, All Creatures Great and Small, and Juliet Bravo (amongst many other programmes)). They were just splendid, playing those ludicrous rulers of a foreign kingdom with admirable gusto.

The Baron with some of his Vulgarians

The real star of the show is, of course, the car. According to the programme, it has a "Reinforced, triple-plated, shock resistant, glare & flare aware, see-through windscreen", and "Rotating, friend-seeking headlamps" amongst a whole raft of other qualities. The main thing was, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was huge, colourful and shiny ... but most impressive of all, it flew!

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