The opening scene is a company number at the 1910 Grand Prix. The winning ‘magical’ car ends up in a scrapyard, which devastates the Potts children. They implore their widowed inventor father, Caractacus Potts (Ore Oduba), to save it. He tries to sell his Toot Sweet confectionary to the owner of the sweet factory Lord Scrumptious (Hadrian Delacey) but initially fails; he sells one of his inventions which raises the £1.50 required to buy the car and sets to work on it.
Meanwhile, the toy-mad Baron (Martin Callaghan) and his Baroness wife (Jenny Gayner) hear of this ‘magical’ car and set about stealing it. They employ Boris (Adam Stafford) and Goran (Michael Joseph) to secure it. Romantic intrigue comes with the developing relationship between Potts and Lord Scrumptious's daughter, Truly Scrumptious (Ellie Nunn), which Jemima Potts (Gracie Cochrane) and brother Jeremy Potts (Roshan Thomson) try to encourage. The children’s roles are played by eight children. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang or The Magical Car is a children's story concerning the exploits of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang—a car with hidden powers and abilities—and its owners, the Potts family.
A children’s story of fantasy and fairytale magic dreams, sweet making machines, puppets, fairground costumes and model cars, with over-the-top comic characters, not of the real world; many address the audience directly as in pantomime. The comic verbal and physical performances of Stafford and Joseph initiated roars of laughter, as did the suggestive Duke and Duchess, much to the delight of the audience, young and old. Oduba gives his role a fatherly sensitivity and enjoys a good relationship with his children and Nunn, while storytelling Grandpa Potts (Liam Fox) could even be a bigger than life character.
Morgan Large is to be complimented on the simplicity of the set, accommodating various locations with mainly the use of repurposed large boxes. Whilst the starry background suits the flying car, some movement from one side to the other would have enhanced the idea of the car actually travelling and not to appear just revolving on the spot. There is often so much going on, there is little time for any character development, but the audience largely did not need to be told the story as they mostly already knew it.
In this new production, part of a UK tour, the Childcatcher is played by TV and theatre actor Charlie Brooks. There is a special tribute in the programme to James Lee Williams, professionally known to all as The Vivienne, tragically dying only 33 years old, who played The Childcatcher previously.
It is well-known how Ian Fleming’s Bond tales of spies and espionage have entertained the masses for decades. He had a great talent for storytelling which obviously spread to stories for children, writing this one for his son in 1964 as a bedtime story while convalescing after a heart attack. Unfortunately, he did not live to see it published as he died shortly afterwards in August; the book was published two months later.
It was initially published in three volumes, the first released in October then published as one book. He took his inspiration for the subject from a series of aero-engined racing cars called "Chitty Bang Bang", built by Louis Zborowski in the early 1920s. The book was loosely adapted as a 1968 film of the same name with a screenplay by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes.
A definite all singing, all dancing spectacular and I thoroughly concur with a comment overheard when leaving: “the car was magnificent, definitely the star of the show.”