Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Patrick Lay at Birmingham Hippodrome - Tuesday 4^th March 2025

Birmingham Hippodrome was the venue for the opening night of the much-anticipated musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

This classic children's fantasy musical film from 1968 is derived from the novel written four years earlier by Ian Fleming, who was most famous for his James Bond novels.  The story itself is based on an old racing car which is a given a new lease of life by a widowed inventor, Caractacus Potts and his children Jeremy and Jemima, who give the car its name due to the 'Chitty' and 'Bang' sounds that it makes.  But this prized possession becomes a sought-after item as spies are sent by the Baron of Vulgaria (a fictitious empire) to steal the car so he can clone the design for himself. Unable to steal the car, the spies mistakenly kidnap Grandpa Potts instead of Caractacus and it is down to Caractacus to rescue him.

Colourful from the start, the production had everything that the original musical had from the choreography, the slapstick humour and the sheer amount of energy woven through it. There were some familiar faces in the cast and fittingly the evil Child Catcher was played by a well-known soap villain.  Then the main character Caractacus Potts was played so convincingly by a TV presenter and former winner of Strictly Come Dancing.

From watching the film on numerous bank holidays on TV as a child, I was reminded just how catchy the different tunes are from this musical, to the point where we were practically singing the theme tune in our sleep!

The sound effects that the stage fireworks made when they went off to depict the cannon fire from the spies' attack were fantastic.  But the undoubted highlight has to be when during different times of trouble, the car spectacularly took off from the ground and flew up above the stage and rotated around. So spectacular that you had to be eagle eyed to spot how this incredible stunt was made possible with the main family sat inside their “fine four-fendered friend” in the air as the film finishes with a happy ending.

As the audience clapped along during the finale and the curtain call, there was a poignant moment right at the end where one of the main actors paid tribute to iconic drag performer The Vivienne who sadly passed away in January and was previously playing the Child Catcher in this musical tour.

Overall, the performance was near perfectly in sync with the film I remember, hitting us with a wave of nostalgia.  By all accounts, if you pardon the pun, the musical was as truly entertaining as it was Truly Scrumptious!  The production runs at Birmingham Hippodrome until Sunday 9^th March and is one not to be missed.