Everybody's favourite car has flown in to Altrincham this week for their production of Ian Fleming's children's classic, 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', with music by the inimitable Sherman brothers.
This is one of the most proficient and professional productions I have seen from the Garrick in a very long time with not a single performer putting a single foot wrong the whole evening. {literally and metaphorically}.
The production team of Joseph Meighan (director), Mark Goggins (MD), and Louise Pettitt (choreographer) made a formidable trio, providing the large and talented cast to shine on stage.. and shine they did!
Rhys Nuttall was the enigmatic and characterful Caractacus Potts, fatherly with his children, loving with Truly, forthright and determined with the evil forces of Vulgaria, sincere and energetic at all times, and was a superb triple threat and credit to the society and the show. A very strong cast of principals supported him throughout, all of whom deserve mention and credit. All of whom gave their roles much consideration and developed characters in which we could invest either to love or to hate. Natalie Hayes was truly scrumptious as Truly Scrumptious; Ivor Farley was military-esque as Grandpa Potts; Pete Brassington really revelled in his dual role of bombastic and over-the-top characters of Baron Bomburst and Lord Scrumptious; Hannah Edwards was the wily children-hating Baroness Bomburst; Mike Shaw made our blood run cold and had the children cowering behind their parents, as The Childcatcher; Jonathan Barker was a sympathetic Toymaker; and Matt Spilsbury and Alexander Day made a most unlikely comedy duo as the bumbling and inept Vulgarian spies, Boris and Goran, eliciting much laughter form this evening's first night audience.
Jeremy and Jemima, as well as the children in the chorus are played by two different teams throughout the run; and this evening's team was Team Red. Both Noah Charlton-Jones (Jeremy) and Esmerelda Maled (Jemima) were superb this evening and one had the feeling we were watching stars of the future. The children's chorus (Team Red) was also superb, and proved to be very talented and focussed throughout. If Team Yellow are only half as good, then they will be excellent.
A chorus of both ensemble and dancers filled the stage in the chorus numbers, and both singing and dancing were of a high quality. I especially enjoyed both 'Me Ol' Bamboo' and 'The Bombie Samba'
The set worked nicely, the sound levels good, and of course, the "star" of the show, Chitty herself was the ultimate attraction. That being said however, I found it rather disappointing when the car actually flew. Of course we want to hide the hydraulics from the audience and not spoil the illusion, but this evening the lighting (and haze) were set so that we could not actually see the car in the air at all, and were even struggling to see the four faces inside it. The "wings" of the car were completely unseen, in fact, it was so dark that it looked like a Hallowe'en joke of four disembodied faces and a couple of headlights floating in a sea of blackness and smoke. I feel sure that this should not have been the case, and that a lighting cue must have been missed. Ditto, the problem with lifting Grandpa's khazi as this was somewhat confused this evening.
However, technical hitches notwithstanding, this is a fantabulous show for all the family, ably and professionally staged by the increasingly deft Altrincham Garrick.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 23.10.23
on - 23.10.23
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