Chitty Chitty Bang Bang comes to Resorts World

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (CCBB), the live theater version of the beloved family musical that has captivated millions in many parts of the world opens on the stage of the Newport Performing Arts Theater (NPAT) of Resorts World Manila (RWM) on Oct. 21.

This promises to be a most enjoyable pre-Christmas treat filled with humor, suspense, romance, songs and dances and to amaze everybody, a flying car. I tell you, the thought alone that a car will be flying around the NPAT stage is more than enough to keep everybody in the audience thoroughly entertained and those outside, very very curious.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is based on a 1968 film that starred Dick Van Dyke that was, in turn, based on a story written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming with a script by director Ken Hughes and Roald Dahl, who also wrote Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. This is a high-pedigreed musical. It has music by the Sherman Brothers, Robert and Richard, who also composed for iconic Disney musicals like Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book and The Aristocats.

Set in early 20th century England, CCBB is about the adventures of the poor and nutty inventor Caractacus Potts and his two children. Potts has invented a car that swims and flies named Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the toy-greedy Baron Bombast of Vulgaria wants it for himself. So Bombast kidnaps Grandpa thinking that it was the old man who invented Chitty. To rescue him, Potts and his kids go up against the Baron. In the process they also got to free the children hiding from the Baron’s kid-hating wife. Oh and Potts gets to find romance with a pretty candy factory heiress named Truly Scrumptious.

The movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is usually classified as a kiddie flick but it is so well-paced and funny, and features a lot of memorable performances. Namely by Van Dyke, then a hot TV star who had just successfully invaded the movies with Mary Poppins, James Bond villain Gert Frobe as Bombast, Lionel Jeffries as Grandpa and three talented newcomers, Heather Ripley and Adrian Hall as the Potts children and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious.

The happy memory of the experience of watching the CCBB movie was what made the staging of the musical in London an eagerly-awaited event in 2002. And this is the musical that is coming to NPAT on Oct. 21. The theater version hews closely to the motion picture with most of the well-remembered dialogue kept in and the musical numbers as grand as possible.

And again there is that flying car, which is one of the most expensive theater props of all time. Think of it this way, Les Miserables has its moving barricades. The Phantom of the Opera has the falling chandelier. Miss Saigon has a flying helicopter. So this Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has a car, plus more toys and thingamagigs ever seen on a stage. Remember Potts is an eccentric inventor so his work will be on display as well as the Baron’s toys.

Putting the Manila production together is a competent bunch of theater people led by director Jaime del Mundo with Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo as assistant director, Michael Williams as artistic director and Rodel Colmenar conducting the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra for the music.

Set to play the lead characters is an all-Filipino line-up of talented actors. Gian Magdangal back from a three-year stint in Hong Kong Disneyland is Caractacus Potts; Yanah Laurel is Truly Scrumptious; Noel Comia Jr., alternates with Albert Silos as Jeremy Potts; Isabeli Araneta-Elizalde and Zoey Alvarade are Jemina Potts.

There are also Mako Alonso as Boris; Reb Atadero as Goran; James Paolleli as Grandpa Potts; Menchu as the Baroness; Raymund Concepcion as Baron Bombast; Michael as the Toymaker; and Lorenz Martinez as the Childcatcher.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is one of those films I can watch again and again and enjoy every time. So I look forward to watching this cast bring the story to life. I am sure they will all do very well. Filipinos are so natural on stage and local productions of musicals of foreign origin are almost always of superior quality.

I am also curious to see how Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the car will fly. Do you think they will also let it swim? Aside from that, it would also be nice to hear the songs live for the first time. CCBB music is quite simple. They are more like nursery rhymes alternately noisy fun as in the earwormy title tune or softly wistful as in the sweet lullaby Hushabye Mountain.