Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Birmingham Hippodrome, 04 March 2025 until 09 March 2025, then on tour, 3☆☆☆. Review: David Gray and Paul Gray.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Birmingham Hippodrome, 04 March 2025 until 09 March 2025, then on tour,

3☆☆☆. Review: David Gray and Paul Gray.

“A show that has moments of sheer magic – and where the car is the star.”

The story of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the magic car, immortalised in an iconic film, comes with a lot of nostalgic baggage, and many cherished memories that any adaptation has to live up to. This production of the stage show based on the film manages to deliver this much of the time but is sadly marred by imbalance and unevenness.

This is most obvious in the production values. For most of its (long) running time the show is a simple one: a bare stage; milieu created by the arrangement and rearrangement of portable wooden chests; puppetry; and a funfair represented by the ensemble dressed as fair-ground attractions - with lengths of tinsel festooned across the acting space.

The show is in danger of seeming a bit threadbare. Nevertheless, it might be got away with were it not for the inevitable appearance of an actual, full sized vintage car, all polished wood and gleaming chrome, which floats on a hover bubble, and then flies. This is a spectacular, heart-stoppingly amazing moment, and is everything you could wish for from a stage production of the show. But it throws the rest of the staging into unflattering relief.

Clearly, the car is where the larger part of the show’s budget went – and the car is the real star of the show. Sadly, in shows like this, with an often punishing touring & intensive performance schedule, things can easily start to look a bit “tired” – and this showed in things like some of the ensemble costumes, dance routines, scenery and props. Sometimes even the lighting & special effects did decidedly odd things.

Elsewhere, there is a structural lack of balance between the comic and dramatic elements of the storytelling. The original film – and, I know comparisons can be odious, but sometimes necessary - dedicates its first act to the story of the Potts family, the car, Miss Scrumptious and the burgeoning relationships between all of them. The grotesque comedy of the country of “Vulgaria” is reserved for the fantastical second act.

Here, Vulgaria, in all its gaudy, camp, Kitch and hilarious awfulness, is introduced from the start. The effect is overpowering. The massive weight of comic power is delivered in standout performances from Martin Callaghan and Jenny Gayner as the Baron and Baroness and, particularly, from Adam Stafford and Michael Joseph as their inept spies, Boris and Goran. These larger-than-life cameo roles, while excellent in themselves, tended to swamp everything else.

Indeed, the amount of time given over to the comic routines means that the story itself is rushed, and many key narrative points are glossed over in an almost perfunctory manner. As a result, the emotional heart of the story is very nearly lost.

The show’s greatest strengths are mainly in terms of casting. The aforementioned cameo-role actors are all excellent. Ellie Nunn as Truly is charming and really delivers in her musical numbers. The two child leads are gorgeous. The one weak link is, alas, the central one: Ore Oduba as Caractacus Potts who is underpowered dramatically and vocally. His performance is charming but just does not register strongly enough. And his dancing really lets down what should be the choreographic jewel in the crown - the song ‘Me Ol’ Bamboo’. Perhaps it was just an off night for him?

The above notwithstanding, this show is great fun, eye wateringly funny in many places, and will tug at your heart strings if you have a dewy-eyed tendency towards childhood nostalgia.

Cast

Caractacus Potts – Ore Oduba

Grandpa Potts – Liam Fox

The Child-Catcher – Charlie Brooks

Truly Scrumptious – Ellie Nunn

Jeremy Potts – Charlie McGuire, Roshan Thomson, Charlie Banks, Huxley Syers

Jemima Potts – Gracie Cochrane, Isla Ithier, Lara Simon, Melody Caruana

Baron – Martin Callaghan

Baroness – Jenny Gayner

Boris – Adam Stafford

Goran - Michael Joseph

The Toymaker – John Macaulay

Creatives

Music and Lyrics – Richard & Robert Sherman

Adapted for the stage by Jeremy Sams

Script adapted by Ray Roderick

Lighting – Ben Cracknell

Musical Director – Jessica Viner

Design – Morgan Large

Director – Thom Southerland

Choreographer – Karen Bruce