Young actors take a ride in enchanted car

PLAY REVIEW /// ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr.’



HOP ABOARD—Cast members, from left, John Michael Tedrick, Olivia Marcum, Peter Umipig and Max Baxter along with the famous car take center stage during the Conejo Players Theatre’s junior production. Courtesy of Mike McCauley

HOP ABOARD—Cast members, from left, John Michael Tedrick, Olivia Marcum, Peter Umipig and Max Baxter along with the famous car take center stage during the Conejo Players Theatre’s junior production. Courtesy of Mike McCauley

What do James Bond and Caractacus Potts have in common?

Both were the products of the imagination of novelist Ian Fleming, who not only created Bond, the international spy, but also Potts, an eccentric inventor who restores a magical car named Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Fleming’s story was originally published as a children’s book in 1964, and it became a hit when MGM produced the motion picture four years later, with a script adapted by Roald Dahl (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”) and Ken Hughes.

Dick Van Dyke starred as Potts, and the score was composed by Disney stalwarts, brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman.

The stage musical didn’t come about until 2002, when it premiered in London’s West End. It arrived on Broadway in 2005, making it a fairly recent addition to American stages.

The Conejo Players Theatre’s production of the junior version of the show (cut down to an hour) ran for two weekends, ending Sept. 29.

“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” is a fanciful tale involving Potts’ attempts to buy the run-down automobile from a junkyard and then using the restored car, accompanied by his two children, Jeremy and Jemima, to rescue the beloved Grandpa, who has been kidnapped by the evil Baron Bomburst of Vulgaria.

The comedy is broad and the story moves along quickly (even more so in the junior version), but the real stars of the show are the car itself and the Sherman Brothers’ melodious, catchy score.

Conejo Players’ production marks the first directorial effort by Noah Terry, who does an excellent job with the all-youth cast, led by John Michael Tedrick in a charismatic turn as Potts.

Peter Umipig, a precocious young actor who played Tock the Watchdog in CPT’s recent “The Phantom Tollbooth,” plays Jeremy, while Olivia Marcum, who was double-cast in the title role of 5-Star Theatrical’s “Matilda” earlier this spring, plays his sister, Jemima.

Abigail Reeves portrays Truly Scrumptious, Potts’ love interest. Reeves displays a shimmering soprano in the quaintly sweet “Doll on a Music Box.”

The score is filled with well-crafted singalongs that are typical of the Shermans’ style, and it’s a shame we don’t hear them very much anymore.

The title song lost to “The Windmills of Your Mind” in the 1968 Oscar competition, but the show’s best song is the lullaby “Hushabye Mountain,” which ranks with “Feed the Birds” as one of the Shermans’ loveliest melodies.

The score also features more rambunctious numbers such as “Me Ol’ Bamboo” (led by Potts) and “The Bombie Samba” featuring Katelyn Norman’s choreography.

Max Baxter does a delightful job as the whiskered Grandpa, garnering laughs from the audience with his exaggerated British accent, while Theo Chambers and Sarah Hatfield do well as the Baron and Baroness.

The pratfalling henchmen Boris and Goran are played by Sabrina Silva and Lily Gentry, who were funny in a scene where they appear to be running after the magical automobile.

Asher Mitchell plays the evil Childcatcher, a role that is unfortunately trimmed in the junior version, eliminating the character’s scene-chewing solo, “Kiddy-Widdy-Winkies.”

The car itself, a realistic looking 1920s racing car complete with retractable wings and working headlights, is one of several machines lovingly built by construction wizard John Eslick, who also created several other contraptions for the show.

The auto received an ovation from the audience when it was revealed, and it was made to “take a bow” along with the actors at the close of the show.

Although “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr.” is a fantasy that requires the magical car to fly and float on water, the production team did a good job of simulating these effects through suggestion and minimal props.