The star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is, with all due respect to Michael Ball, undoubtedly the car itself. On the press night it worked beautifully, flying (or so it seemed) off the stage, into the air and out across the front rows of the stalls, a spectacular effect.
Unfortunately, the computer system that works the car broke April 17, leaving a packed Palladium audience with nowhere to go (the performance was subsequently canceled). This is, of course, a potential drawback in having a show heavily reliant on technology. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind at the Aldwych also suffered many breakdowns of its moveable motorway section.
The car is reported to have cost some £750,000, in a production whose overall cost was over £6 million.
—By Paul Webb Theatrenow
