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It’s smashing, it’s whizzer, it’s keen!
Jun. 10th, 2005 08:20 pmSaw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang last night. For the first act I was in the very last row on the side—not a great seat, obviously, but for $20 it was fine. (One annoying thing--my seat was H29 in the balcony on the aisle—when I got there someone was already sitting there. She had the seat next to mine and was hoping no one had the aisle seat, so I had to stand there while she fussed over to the next seat. I find it rude when people do that before the show’s started—then I have to ask you to leave and it’s all annoying and awkward and grubby-looking. Wait until the show’s started and then move, like at a baseball game.) ANYWAY. If you like the movie, you’ll probably like the show. It’s not boringly literal, a la Beauty and the Beast—they do make some changes to the book and fiddle with some stuff, mostly successfully. (I happen to adore the movie—I LOVE the score, and the cast is fantastic. One of my favorite lines: “Too bad. Had your chance. Muffed it.” That’s so English.) From what I understand, the stage book is based more closely on the original novel by Ian Fleming, which I read a long time ago but don’t really remember, other than it’s sort of a spy novel for kids (and very different from the movie). Anyway, Caracticus sings “Hushaby Mountain” to his kids at home in the first act (instead of to the children in the sewers) which makes more sense, as it advances the theme (family). That horrid ballad that Truly sings about Caracticus (when she’s on the swing) is gone completely—yay! Truly isn't so helpless—her first entrance is on a (vintage) motorcycle with a sidecar, and she has a lot of mechanical ability. There’s an additional subplot with two henchmen of the Baron’s which lost me—I’m sure the kids loved it but it seemed unnecessary to me, with a lot of heavy Continental accents and broad humor. Most of the differences are stylistic: the story seems a lot darker (and it was dark enough to begin with—the Childcatcher is spooky as shit in the movie. I love me the Childcatcher—“Lollipops! And aaaall freeee to-day!”). When Caracticus sings the lullaby to the kids, it segues into this weird sequence where they introduce the Fun Fair (where C. cuts the guy’s hair with the bicycle machine and sings “The Old Bamboo”). As he’s singing HM downstage, this dancer with an oversized clownhead starts tiptoeing behind him—it was so creepy, I thought it might be the Childcatcher making an early appearance. But no, just Fun Fair hijinks with three creepy, oversized-head clowns dancing around. Nice family fare! Anyone who’s got a clown phobia is going to run screaming from the theater at this point. John Wayne Gacy must’ve been the casting director for this show.
Anyway...when the car makes its appearance, it’s pretty spectacular. They build to that marvelously, and when the car finally takes off, it’s amazing. People were cheering, clapping—it really works. Very, very entertaining. The first act ends when Chitty takes flight, and when the lights came up people were grinning at each other, nodding—people around me were smiling at me. I’m not kidding, it was a Chitty lovefest. The humanistic side of insanely expensive special effects—bringing people together. When the second act began, the usher poked her head up to us and urged us to move closer (how nice of her!) and I scooted down to the first row of the balcony where I had a really great view. I’ve read somewhere that Vulgaria is supposed to be a parable of Nazi Germany—the designer and director obviously were going with that, because the Vulgaria set design was all about the double-headed eagles and the red and black. One scene I remember from the movie was when C. asks why everyone in town is staring at them, and Truly says they’re staring at the children. Creepy, and a great way to introduce the weirdness of that country. (That scene is not in the show, though.) But the whole Nazi parable is underscored when the Childcatcher pounds on the door of the Toymaker, and they send the kids down into a hidden passage. I swear, it was like Anne Frank. Not to trivialize anything but it really worked, you felt genuine fear. And they never say what actually happens to the children the CC catches, they just...disappear. He makes them disappear. The CC has a song about "Kiddy-Widdie Winkies" which is fucking creepy as hell. It almost sounds like a lullaby, in a minor key...He is genunely scary which is something I like about CCBB--it's sentimental and whimsical, yes, but there's darkness there as well. Children's stuff needs to have some scary with the sweet.
The Baroness is pretty funny--she's very Teutonically weltschmerz-y, a la Marlene Dietrich.
Choreography is serviceable enough, but nothing too inspiring. The endgame is oddly handled--it was confusing figuring out exactly how the kids accomplished their coup d'etat. And one very odd note--the Childcatcher is hauled off (over the audience) in a rope net...and then reappears in the booth above again, only to be blown away by Truly. Holy crap! I was NOT expecting that! They don't show him dying but it's clearly implied (they shower the audience with confetti).
The twins--I believe the correct term would be moppets--were cute. Everyone was pretty good, and I really like the guy who played Caracticus. Oh, and at the end of "Toot Suite" they had a bunch of real dogs run onto stage! Yay for the doggies!
Anyway...when the car makes its appearance, it’s pretty spectacular. They build to that marvelously, and when the car finally takes off, it’s amazing. People were cheering, clapping—it really works. Very, very entertaining. The first act ends when Chitty takes flight, and when the lights came up people were grinning at each other, nodding—people around me were smiling at me. I’m not kidding, it was a Chitty lovefest. The humanistic side of insanely expensive special effects—bringing people together. When the second act began, the usher poked her head up to us and urged us to move closer (how nice of her!) and I scooted down to the first row of the balcony where I had a really great view. I’ve read somewhere that Vulgaria is supposed to be a parable of Nazi Germany—the designer and director obviously were going with that, because the Vulgaria set design was all about the double-headed eagles and the red and black. One scene I remember from the movie was when C. asks why everyone in town is staring at them, and Truly says they’re staring at the children. Creepy, and a great way to introduce the weirdness of that country. (That scene is not in the show, though.) But the whole Nazi parable is underscored when the Childcatcher pounds on the door of the Toymaker, and they send the kids down into a hidden passage. I swear, it was like Anne Frank. Not to trivialize anything but it really worked, you felt genuine fear. And they never say what actually happens to the children the CC catches, they just...disappear. He makes them disappear. The CC has a song about "Kiddy-Widdie Winkies" which is fucking creepy as hell. It almost sounds like a lullaby, in a minor key...He is genunely scary which is something I like about CCBB--it's sentimental and whimsical, yes, but there's darkness there as well. Children's stuff needs to have some scary with the sweet.
The Baroness is pretty funny--she's very Teutonically weltschmerz-y, a la Marlene Dietrich.
Choreography is serviceable enough, but nothing too inspiring. The endgame is oddly handled--it was confusing figuring out exactly how the kids accomplished their coup d'etat. And one very odd note--the Childcatcher is hauled off (over the audience) in a rope net...and then reappears in the booth above again, only to be blown away by Truly. Holy crap! I was NOT expecting that! They don't show him dying but it's clearly implied (they shower the audience with confetti).
The twins--I believe the correct term would be moppets--were cute. Everyone was pretty good, and I really like the guy who played Caracticus. Oh, and at the end of "Toot Suite" they had a bunch of real dogs run onto stage! Yay for the doggies!
