Review: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Liverpool Empire *****

With a scrumptious Sherman Brothers score, a faithful flying car and an enjoyably malevolent baddie, the stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang possesses all the ingredients of a fine four-fendered family hit.

And this latest touring production which has landed at the Empire for a fortnight’s run certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Colourful, charming and with crack comedy timing and nifty choreographed numbers, it’s a toothsome treat from start to finish.

Under Thom Southerland’s direction, Jeremy Sams’ stage adaption of Ian Fleming’s story proves sleek as a thoroughbred and is packed with joyful performances from a cast who are evidently all having a jolly good time.

Headliner Adam Garcia may currently be absent because of an unspecified ‘indisposition’, but there’s a bright silver lining in the form of his understudy Callum Train who is an absolute delight as Caractacus Potts, the disorganised, down-on-his luck Edwardian English inventor who is persuaded by his children Jeremy and Jemima (Roshan Thomson and Gracie Cochrane at the performance I saw – very good) to buy and restore an old heap of junk which was once a famous racing car.

A nimble, elegant mover with a light, smoothly melodic vocal delivery, he steps into Potts’ shoes with the kind of breezy effortlessness that signals talent but also hours of hard work behind the scenes.

He also enjoys a good rapport with the Potts’ children, Liam Fox’s Grandpa Potts and with Ellie Nunn’s Truly Scrumptious.

Above: Vulgaria spies Boris (Adam Stafford) and Goran (Michael Joseph). Top: The cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Photos by Pamela Raith.

Nunn’s no-nonsense Truly has bags of what used to be popularly described as ‘gumption’, as well as giving absolutely no quarter to mansplaining idiots or the patriarchy generally.

Meanwhile the ‘Vulgarians’, who are on the hunt for the car that beat their rival motor at the Brooklands Grand Prix, are evidently all living their best lives.

Boasting a roster of silly voices that would be the envy of Michael Bentine and the rest of the Goons, the scheming inhabitants of the fictional European country are led by Martin Callaghan and Jenny Gayner’s gloriously flamboyant Baron and Baroness, while their hapless spies Boris (Adam Stafford) and Goran (Michael Joseph) – part Morecambe and Wise, part Bill and Ben, with just a dash of Dangerous Brothers – are an absolute hoot.

Above: The Vivienne as the Child Catcher. Photo by Pamela Raith.

And Liverpool’s ‘the Vivienne’, returning to the Empire after a previous stint as the Wicked Witch of the West, prowls the stage as a chillingly charismatic Child Catcher.

Morgan Large’s set, given celluloid-style framing, largely comprises of moveable props, while the enchantment of a handsomely realised Chitty is assisted by Ben Cracknell’s lighting design.

Supported by a punchy 10-piece orchestra in the pit, the cast delivers the Shermans’ score with enjoyable vigour in a show that is a musical morse supreme.