‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ takes flight at First Stage
Let’s crank and start this review of First Stage’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” by getting up to speed right away: Yes, the car truly is fantabulous.
First Stage Props maestro Nikki Kulas and her team have built a beauty that floats and flies, with a bit of help from a few ensemble members providing the horsepower. They’re aided and abetted by that special ingredient fueling every First Stage show: the imagination.
Long before an inventive Caractacus Potts (Jackson Evans) retools a piece of scrap and leads a rousing rendition of the title song, it’s his children who had imagined this car into being while it was rotting in a junkyard.
Forget the 1968 movie, which begins by recreating actual Grand Prix races recalling Chitty’s storied past. In this 90minute adaptation for young audiences of the longer 2002 musical (music and lyrics by the Sherman brothers and book by Jeremy Sams), youngsters Jeremy and Jemima simply imagine those races, seeing this car the way they consistently see everything: at its best.
At Friday’s opening night performance, those young visionaries were played by Jack Trettin and Paige Landrum, members of the Fantabulous Cast of 16 young actors. It shares the spotlight during this First Stage run with the 16 young performers in the Miraculous Cast, led by Seth Hoffman as Jeremy and Michalene McQuide as Jemima.
No wonder the dastardly rulers of Vulgaria (a delightful Drew Brhel and Elyse Edelman, both having way too much fun being wicked) hate children so much: These half-pint upstarts will never subscribe to the regimented and sadistic world in which children must hide in the sewers to escape the clutches of the Childcatcher (a creepy Teddy Warren, dressed as a Dickensian villain).
These Vulgarians — as well as minions Nathan Wesselowski and Sara Zientek — speak in hilariously villainous Russian accents straight from the world of James Bond. No surprise there: Ian Fleming created both Bond and “Chitty Chitty,” and the villainy (as well as the obsession with gadgets) in this piece is a particularly farcical version of 007’s world.
But despite periodic rumors involving a possible Bond musical, it’s only in the world of “Chitty Chitty” that characters regularly break into song and dance.
Stage director Jeff Frank, music director Paul Helm and choreographers Michael and Jayne Pink ensure these characters do so with unabashed exuberance. This over-the-top “Chitty Chitty” often isn’t as droll or textured as the movie, and Evans’ Caractacus gives little sense of this widowed inventor’s underlying loneliness.
But this “Chitty Chitty” isn’t focused on the budding romance between Caractacus and the scrumptious Truly (Malkia Stampley). As Rick Pendzich’s Toymaker and Robert Spencer’s Grandpa suggest and the song “Teamwork” drives home, it’s through collaboration that we learn to drive together, ensuring a journey as inventive and fun as this production consistently is.
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” rolls through Nov. 5 at the Marcus Center’s Todd Wehr Theater, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call (414) 273-7206 or go online at www.firststage.org. Read more about this production at TapMilwaukee.com.