(seen at the afternoon performance on 25th May 2024)
Most important of all is to remember that the book on which this show is based contains one of the best home fudge-making recipes the monkey has ever tried.
That out of the way, the second point is to remember that the original book was written by the same Ian Fleming who enjoyed misdirecting Germans as part of “Operation Mincemeat” and delights in poking fun at them in this show. He later went on to write some minor works about a British spy with a numeric code name, but that does not concern us here.
Third point is that Richard and Robert Sherman, who wrote the music and lyrics for this show, are responsible for that other gift we are not grateful for - “It’s A Small World (After All).” They can’t help writing catchy show tunes, and the title number in this one is right up there – you’ll be humming it all the way home and feel it ricocheting inside your skull for weeks.
This current tour iteration is as lavish as the material. Morgan Large ensures that the car flies and that the rest of the set and costumes burst with (Caractacus Potts) inventiveness. A terrific fairground done brilliantly, a beautiful tribute to Dick Van Dyke and Cadbury-wrapper colour outfits for the child-haters are just three the monkey noted, and there are more.
Ben Cracknell knows how to give us a starry sky, a gentle breeze, or a full-on riot of light on stage. Sadly, Wimbledon acoustics swallowed Gareth Tucker’s sound design during those ensemble moments, but the solos are clear enough.
Adam Garcia is a caring, disorganised Caractacus Potts. Son of retired soldier Caractacus Potts (Liam Fox) and father to feral Jemima (Jasmine Nyenya) and Jeremy (Ayrton English), the crazy family who celebrate Eastmas (between Christmas and Easter, a good day for schools to close) have each other (and a wonderful Edison the dog - puppeteer sadly uncredited) to cling to even in hard times.
Acquiring Chitty thanks to a cheque from Turkey Farmer Matthews (geddit?!) and rebuilding her, adventures with confectioner’s daughter Truly Scrumptious (Ellie Nunn) take them to a land intent on stealing the car and eliminating children altogether. So, not all bad, then... joke.
Anyway, the whole family work together to bring it all right in the end. Garcia makes Potts less eccentric, and the show is stronger without the whimsy. Likewise Fox is less bluff, his stories endlessly repeated as is his right at his age, the grandchildren enduring them with benign intolerance as is theirs.
Nyenya and English do not steal every scene they are in, instead they are just kids happy to be free, handling their musical numbers as well as the adults.
Ellie Nunn adores them, and it is reciprocated. Living up to her character’s name, a blend of charm and independence is always endearing. Caractacus is a lucky man, even if her name will be Truly Potts, as the children gleefully point out.
On the Vulgarian side (if they spoke English vulgarly, they would be Americans, runs one of the better lines), we first encounter field agents Boris (Adam Stafford) and Goran (Michael Joseph).
The pair are six months early for Wimbledon Panto, but should be booked now. A vaudeville duo with some filthy lines (“the dog bit me, a shiatzu. It was a Fox Terrier, and don’t call me Sue” went over the heads of 90% of the audience, thankfully) but excellent cover for scene changes and rather touching in exploring alternative sexualities too.
As sexual, infatuated with each other, Baron and Baroness (Hadiran Delacey and Bibi Joy covering for absent colleagues) matched their field agents for close working, their genuine horror at the end of the show hilarious after all that came before.
Notes too for their other workers – Charlie Brooks as a child catcher convincing enough the monkey really, really wanted that free ice-cream, and John Macaulay as a nicely voiced Toymaker with a heart – rounded out a cast who never flag and often rise to real heights at unexpected moments.
When a show opens on a monochromatic car crash, you have to be certain you have the material to turn it upbeat for the rest of the evening. The first half is lengthy but circles the track with high-speed skill. The second lacks the songs; the plot wrapped rather too abruptly, given the time and care taken to set it all up for the past 90 minutes.
Still, with Karen Bruce ensuring the company dance up a storm, nobody puts a foot wrong and it all ends in high spirits. You won’t just believe a car can fly, but that it can take its own bow too. That a majority family audience containing a high number of very young children were rapt throughout is all you need to know.
Four stars for a fine four fendered friend. Jump aboard when it comes your way. See chittyontour.com for details.
4 stars.
Photo credit: Paul Coltas. Used by kind permission of the New Wimbledon Theatre.