Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Musical Opened 16 April 2002, Closed 4 September 2005

London Palladium Argyll Street, London

Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - the most magical stage musical of all time is now at The London Palladium!

The enthralling story of the adventures of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the magical car as it sails the seas and flies through the air will bring back a host of memories. Chitty's eccentric inventor, Caractacus Potts and his enchanting children Jemima and Jeremy, join the truly scrumptious Truly Scrumptious and batty Grandpa Potts to outwit the dastardly Baron and Baroness in this non-stop adventure for all ages.

With sensational sets, stunning special effects and brimming with memorable songs by the Sherman Brothers including 'Truly Scrumptious', 'Toot Sweets', 'Hushabye Mountain' and, ofcourse, its Oscar-nominated title song 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', this is the ultimate High-Flying Stage Musical.

"An ageless pleasure and a pleasure for all ages. Sheer theatrical magic" The London Evening Standard

The touring production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang will be at The Sunderland Empire from 9 December 2005 to Saturday 4 March 2006 - more details.

"What will sell the show is the barrage of surprises and spectacular effects produced by a £6.2m budget. A pack of real dogs romps across the stage. The Child Catcher is whisked up to the roof of the auditorium in a string bag; Grandpa is lowered on to the stage in a privy. Most impressive of all is the episode in which the huge car that gives the show its title, gleaming like a load of toffee-papers, rears up from the stage, full of warbling passengers, and hovers above the audience in the stalls." The Observer

"Oh what a car! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a sure-fire hit" The Mirror

"Looking like a million dollars isn't good enough these days. The most fantasmagorical stage musical in the history of everything - which is the official subtitle of the West End's new Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - must do better. This show has got to look like £6.2m, for such are its record-breaking production costs - chitty being the operative word. You can't help sighing at the innocence of little Jeremy and Jemima - the pre-Second World War tots in Ian Fleming's motorised family fantasy - as they assure their improverished daddy, Caractacus Potts, that he can purchase the rusting old banger they adore for 40 shillings... However, obviously a bob or two can come in handy if you want to get airborne. Anthony Ward's sets are spectacular and most jolly. The windmill where Caractacus resides amid his cranky inventions is a whirring mass of Heath Robinsonian cogs, pulleys and pistons. And the vintage auto is a dazzling beast... and take-off, when it finally comes, is breathaking. Hoisted aloft on an almost-invisible hydraulic arm, the Potts and their travelling companion, Miss Truly Scrumptious, go for a spin right out over the audience." The Independent on Sunday

"This is a fine, four fendered fabulous night. It's Chitty Chitty brilliant" The Express

"Chitty herself is a copperbottomed star vehicle, sleek and shiny, and her hydraulics are phantasmagorical, thrusting her up high and deep into the auditorium. But gasp as my children did as she spread her wings and did a thousand things, this magical car failed to transport them - or me - for an instant. Their imaginations remained safety-belted to their seats throughout... Where this production scores points is in Anthony Ward's spectacular designs: Lord Scrumptious's brass sweer factory, the oymaker's workshop (which opens like a gaint doll's house) and the clockwork horse with illuminated innards which pulls the Childcatcher's cage. If you like musical-hall style knees-ups, there's much to enjoy in Gillian Lynn's choreography... Did I mention dogs? Every one is gorgeous an dazzling obedient, but what on Earth are they doing here? A spectacular example of more meaning less." The Mail on Sunday

"Sheer entertainment value. Chitty passes its theatrical MoT with literally flying colours" The Independent

"The best things about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, at the London Palladium, are its gadgetry and design. The car that gives it its title is a noble chariot, amphibian or airborne as occasion demands. Caractacus Potts's laboratory gleams with golden clockwork. Wheels whirr and production lines clatter in Lord Scrumptious's sweet factory (where the workers wear candy-striped uniforms). There's clever use of models and trick perspective. The ingenuity of the designer, Anthony Ward, is matched by his visual flair. A Big Wheel in a fairground, pricked out in coloured lights against a night sky, is a lot prettier that the real Wheel at Westminster Bridge. In mittel-european Vulgaria, where the villains of the piece come from, the timbered houses in a city square are given a sinister expressionist slope. The story itself is less compelling than the spectacle... Individual scenes work their charm, however, often with a good deal of help from Gillian Lynne's exuberant choreography." The Sunday Telegraph

"Exhilarating Fantastic Remarkable Gasps of astonished delight" The Guardian