NODA EAST MIDLANDS - CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG REVIEW 2023
English Crowd
REVIEWED BY MARTIN HOLTOM
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang holds a special place in my memory being a film I watched endlessly when I was a child growing up in the 1970s. I had never seen the live Musical production before so I came to the Theatre Royal with some trepidation wondering how Nottingham Operatic would translate my memories into their reality. On the Friday night, the Red Team put any worries I might have had to rest in very short order as the full spectacle of the show took me back to my youth and provided a wonderful night of escapism.
With amazing technical effects ranging from the small barber’s bike, through the musical box for Truly to Chitty herself floating on water and flying magically through the air while rotating at great speed, the spectacle of the show was without doubt the most impressive I have seen in any community theatre production.
However, although technical wizardry is one element a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang must have, more importantly you need a cast that delivers dance energy and precision, excellent vocal delivery and from the principal’s acting styles that need to range from naturalistic and sympathetic to some of the biggest over the top performances possible without falling into cliché, and here again the production from the Nottingham Operatic Red team cast and production team delivered on every level.
Although Chitty Chitty needs a strong cast in depth the heart of the production is centred on the relationship between failing widowed inventor Caractacus Potts, his two children and Truly Scrumptious, heir to the sweet manufacturing empire. Bara Erhayiem and Emma Shute together with Leo Hollingsworth and Grace Hindle quickly won over the audience with their sympathetic, three-dimensional performances and delivered strong vocal, acting and dance performances throughout the evening. Bara and Emma and the children managed to drive the narrative forward and provide the perfect foil for the more comedic characters that make up the majority of the remaining principals. Alison Hope and Nathan Curzon quickly became firm favourites of the children in the audience as the incompetent Vulgarian spies scheming to steal Chitty from England.
Dan Armstrong was every inch the Grandpa Potts I remember from my childhood, and brought out the fun, love and support for his family essential to the role. He shone in his classic solo numbers and together with Ian Pottage, Neil Ledward, Nick Smith, Owen Patten, Richard Groves and Zak Charlesworth as the Inventors delivered my musical comedy highlight of the evening in The Roses of Success. Paul McPherson was the perfect Toymaker with a gentle character, scared for the safety of the Potts children in his toyshop to leading the revolt at the palace with his human sized “toys” freeing the children of the land. James Ellison brought back many childhood nightmares as the spider like Childcatcher and his performance was every inch as frightening as Robert Helpmann.
Turning now to the two characters given full license to take their performances to a whole new level of over the top. Kate Williams and Simon Theobald took this opportunity with both hands and turned their performances to 12.. Now, physical comedy is not as easy as it looks and you have to judge larger-than-life characterization very carefully so that you don’t upstage the cast or become selfish and distract from the overall story line. Simon and Kate judged the evil Baron and Baroness Bomburst to perfection and I especially enjoyed the toy jokes included for the adults in the audience as well as the vocal performances in Chu-Chi Face.
The great strength of Nottingham Operatic is their ensemble so many congratulations to Abby, Adele, Amanda, Andrew, Anthony, Charlie, Chris, David and David, Emme, Evie, Frank, Ian, Jonah, Kate and Kate, Laurel, Linda, Louise and Louise, Neil, Nick, Owen, Paul, Richard and Richard, Rosie, Ruth, Sarah and Zak, and to the Red Team of Alexander, Betsy, Caleb, Edward, Eloise, Frankie, Harriet, Henry, Hermione, Jacob, Jessica, Josie, Leah, Mia, Olive, Poppy, Sahasra and Sophia who all made an excellent job of revolting!
Andrew Miller has once again delivered a professional level production with great sensitivity and deft coaching of his cast and ensemble alike. Diction was always crisp and together with Gareth and his incredibly talented band, the musical delivery was always on-point with superb vocal delivery and a great balance achieved between pit and stage. The large set piece dance numbers were brilliantly delivered by Justine with The Old Bamboo being my highlight of the evening and together with the lighting design and costuming completed the production to great effect.