Cast: Darren Bennett, Tony Jackson, Edward peel, Kim Ismay, Nigel Garton, Richard Ashton, Rachel Stanley, Dean Maynard, John Griffiths, Lucy Buckingham, Moray Treadwell, Alex France, Andrew Waldron.
If ever there was a film that was ripe for the theatre then surely it is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This 1968 cinema graphic smash had all the ingredients of a fine story (much of this down to the original book by James Bond creator Ian Fleming and subsequent script adaptation by Roald Dahl and Liverpool born Ken Hughes), a slightly eccentric inventor with a fantastic name, Caractacus Potts, a sweet factory owned by the Scrumptious family, foreign enemies and of course the most fantasmagorical (sic) car!
With all these elements (and more) it is not hard to see why the Broccoli family decided that a stage show would be just the thing to keep the memory of the film alive and since it made its first run some impressive names have played the role of the Potts family and those they meet on their adventures, including Michael Ball, Gary Wilmott, Russ Abbot, Nicola McAuliffe and Wayne Sleep.
Now the cast have taken the musical out and brought it to the Liverpool Empire to thrill and beguile a new generation of fans, these include the magnificent Darren Bennett as the afore mentioned Caractacus, the lovely Rachel Stanley who reprises her role as Truly Scrumptious, Edward Peel as both Lord Scrumptious and the childlike Baron Bomburst and the man who every child (and some parents) booed every time he appeared on stage, the agile and athletic like Dean Maynard as the evil Childcatcher.
Everything about this show was spot on, from the orchestra, conducted brilliantly by Adrian Kirk, and without who the Sherman brothers’ original catchy lyrics and music would have been lost to the gallery, to the child actors who filled the stage with their youthful energy and of course the real star of the show, the car.
The whole show was one of sumptuous delight with every actor straining every sinew to give a top class and polished performance and one that had everyone in the theatre singing along with Hushabye Mountain, Me Ol’ Bamboo and of course the marvellous hand clapping moments of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang itself.
An absolute joy!
Ian D. Hall