The Stage

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Published Thursday 7 December 2006 at 14:20 by Thom Dibdin

Behind the glitz and glamour of the famous flying car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang demands a strong central romantic pairing to avoid become swamped by the latent jingoism of Ian Fleming’s post-war vision of little England.

Fortunately, Marissa Dunlop and Joe McFadden provide exactly the level of romance needed as Truly Scrumptious and Caractacus Potts. Dunlop’s performance takes her level of characterisation way beyond the norm in musicals, while McFadden’s big, boisterous but emotionally strong performance commands the stage.

While they are consolidating the romance with a tearful Hushabye Mountain and heart-warming Doll on a Box, Gregor Fisher is lampooning post-colonialism with a superbly judged Grandpa Potts. His Roses of Success touches exactly the right level of not-quite enthusiastic involvement as he hoofs it up with Vulgaria’s hirsute inventors.

Lampooning all things authoritarian are David Henry’s delightfully childish Baron Bomburst and Barbara Rafferty’s Baroness Bomburst, proving she still has the pins for a saucy suspenders and corset combination. Jaymz Denning and Cornelius Clarke put in an engaging little-and-large routine as Vulgaria’s buffoon spies, Boris and Goran. Nigel Garton’s Child Catcher dresses the part but doesn’t chill to the bone, as he might.

Director Adrian Noble has worked some good modern jokes and a couple of excellent local asides into the touring production. Yet despite its vast ensemble and fantastic production values, it is slightly disappointing that when Chitty flies through the air, with only the slightest glimpse of the hydraulics, she doesn’t loom out over the audience.