Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Stray Cats Theatre Company & Mandurah Performing Arts Centre (17 October 2015)

It’s a familiar scene - parents and children milling around performers fresh from their final bows asking for autographs and posing for photos. Not only the stars mind you but members of the ensemble are there as well to greet family, friends and audience members. It’s an impressive sight. The children all excited as they clutch the programme with a whole back page devoted for autographs. The cast are still in costume and makeup, no doubt amped with adrenaline immediately after the matinee performance. There’s a real buzz in the air.

Stray Cats Theatre Company and the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre sure know how to put on a crowd pleasing, family friendly spectacle. This is the third in what I’ll refer to as Stray Cats’ Classic English Family Musical Trilogy that commenced with last year’s Oliver!, continued with Mary Poppins earlier this year and ended with a punctuation mark as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang took flight.

If one of the roles of community theatre is to engage with and entertain its local residents then these productions are among the finest examples we have in the state. Usually a run will only be four to five shows over one weekend but they are always well attended and sit comfortably in the spacious Performing Arts Centre. The local community support is excellent and the venue is a jewel only an hour south of Perth. That support is rewarded with outstanding entertainment.

As I was sitting upstairs in the front row of the dress circle looking down on the opening scene it struck me that these shows are the only time I see upwards of 60 performers on stage. It simply doesn’t happen anywhere else. Laudable is how many are young children. Even more remarkable is the attention to detail for the costuming of every single person on stage from the youngest to the oldest. There’s no scrimping here. They all have a role and they all look the part.

Director Karen Francis always dares to be ambitious in the scale of her productions; from the large casts to the impressive sets and lighting design to the choice of musical itself. Visually they are a feast. This was full of wonderfully colourful backdrops and the transition between scenes was slick as set components were dropped in behind a temporarily lowered screen as the orchestra played on. The centrepiece though was the car itself. Beautifully recreated and functional it drew appropriate applause when it lifted, tilted and ‘sprouted wings’ with the Potts family and Truly on-board. 

An occasional criticism I have had in the past is that the orchestras for these productions can be variable in quality. Any fear of this was quickly dispelled in the Overture. Under the baton of assistant musical director Vanitha Hart they played very well; the best musical accompaniment since 2012’s Hairspray for mine.

To the performances and a few of the headliners from Mary Poppins featured again. Jon Lambert played Caractacus Potts, another father with two precocious children and, dare I say it, using the exact same accent as his Mister Banks. This was only a minor complaint, quickly forgotten, as he gives yet another charming performance. Lambert’s solo number Hushabye Mountain was his standout vocal moment and a highlight of the show.

Kristie Gray’s run of memorable characters continues moving from Mary Poppins to Truly Scrumptious with aplomb. Gray has a beautiful singing voice with excellent clarity and power; the featured solo Lovely, Lonely Man a highpoint as was her Doll On A Music Box. In terms of singing ability she was closely followed by Kim Moore as Baroness Bomburst who featured in flamboyant number The Bombie Samba and worked well with Joshua Towns (as the Baron) in Chu-Chi Face.

Further Mary Poppins alums, Daniel Nixon and Nicholas Gaynor, provided great humour as the bumbling Vulgarian spies tasked to acquire the flying car. Scott Hansen added some vaudeville style menace as the Child Catcher while Rory Ellis was solid as the Toy Maker. Then there were the Potts children played with great flair by Sebastian Cruse and Marissa Pereira.

There was plenty of colour and movement epitomised by another highlight - Me Ol’ Bamboo - and the aforementioned The Bombie Samba. In many ways it’s a silly story with plenty of farce but darker moments as well as we discover the children banished to the sewers. It all has a happy ending with the audience clapping along to the title number as the family fly safely home.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is fabulous family entertainment and I felt quite invigorated as I left the venue. It comes as no surprise to me then that Francis has acquired the amateur rights to the blockbuster Wicked, the definition of a big, crowd pleasing musical. Given her track record it will be fascinating to see how she tackles the technical requirements to make that show literally fly as well. On the evidence of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang it will be something to see!

Originally written by Ian Fleming with the script adapted by Ray Roderick from the MGM Motion Picture of the same name; Music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman; Directed by Karen Francis with Choreography by Ashleigh Riley and Megan Doohan, Musical Direction by David Hicks and Vocal Direction by Kristie Gray; and starring Jon Lambert, Kristie Gray, Sebastian Cruse, Marissa Pereira, Peter Sydney-Smith, Nicholas Gaynor, Daniel R Nixon, Kim Moore and Joshua Towns.  

Mary Poppins: The Broadway Musical - Stray Cats Theatre Company & Mandurah Performing Arts Centre (24 May 2015)

The evening before the Sunday matinee I was walking along the Mandurah Boardwalk and there was a group of young teenage girls in front of me all singing Chim Chim Chere-ee. “This is an encouraging sign”, I thought to myself. So it proved with the final outing of a five show run packing out the spacious Mandurah Performing Arts Centre with a high proportion of children in attendance. The cacophony at intermission was quite something as was the excitement after the show with many of the cast still in costume including Mary Poppins herself emerging to pose for photos and sign autographs. Fair to say the children loved it with more than a smile of remembered childhood from their parents.

There is no doubt this is a glorious production to look at – from the colourful costuming of the massed cast to the detailed backdrops to the multilevel set itself depicting the Banks household – there was an audible gasp when the stage curtains first opened. Director Karen Francis certainly likes to put on a spectacle and the scope and ambition of her big, crowd pleasing musicals is both a joy and proven formula to attract a crowd. More power to her for the ongoing results, creatively and one would hope, financially to sustain the run of productions other independent theatre companies simply don’t have the resources to mount on this scale.

In Kristie Gray she has a performer who shines in the eponymous role made most famous by Julie Andrews in the Disney movie. Gray has a wonderful voice that did more than justice to the cavalcade of beloved songs. An accomplished singer, she also provided the vocal direction for the some 50-60 cast members. What was equally as impressive was her commanding stage presence – there was a confidence here that really galvanised the whole show. Her work with the Banks children played by Sebastian Coe and Maren Cosby was particularly excellent.

Daniel R Nixon portrayed the chimney sweet Bert with real cockiness and flair while Helen Kerr was a standout as Winifred Banks, the wife and mother who struggles to find her own identity next to husband George (Jon Lambert) and within his social circle. Both have fine singing voices as well; Nixon bringing the Cockney, Kerr the sweetness in their feature songs, Chim Chim Cher-ee and Being Mrs. Banks respectively. 

Lambert has perhaps the unenviable task of playing the distant Mister Banks whose emotional detachment is at the core of most of the obstacles the family face. He does so with a certain gruffness and exasperation that is likeable in its own way. The character’s preoccupation with events at the bank where he works is paid off nicely with a funny burst of manic energy as Lambert lets Banks finally loosen up.

Coe and Cosby were suitably wide-eyed or precocious as required and there was a set of colourful characters Mary Poppins and her charges encounter along the way, foremost among these being Bronwyn White’s Miss Andrews who is the closest thing to being the villain of the piece in an over-the-top portrayal that was amusing and eardrum threatening! Jeanette Southall’s featured song as the Bird Woman was cruelled by her microphone cutting out halfway through Feed The Birds so I was pleased when she was able to be heard in a brief reprise in the second half. Jo Bickford and Nicholas Gaynor added physical comedy as the hired help and Brad Tudor high camp as Mrs Corry.

The scene transitions were very slick and Francis likes to fill the stage with a big ensemble full of colour and movement (Choreography by Andrea Beissel) for the main set pieces. The highlight undeniably is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious where the massed cast found an entirely new gear and really attacked the lyrics and choreography with relish. This is later reprised at the end of the musical and it was an energy level that I would have liked to have seen a little more of throughout. The other major highlight for me was Step In Time with Bert and the other chimney sweeps singing on a well depicted rooftop. Beautifully lit and performed it was quite an evocative moment. 

Finally, the 12 piece Orchestra under the baton of Conductor David Hicks generally played well though occasionally the brass section felt a little out of sync for mine.

The star, however, is Gray as the flying nanny and indeed she does, albeit briefly, with the aid of a harness. The children loved it along with the flying kites, the movable statues and the brief appearances of a real life dog that, if I’m not mistaken, once belonged to a certain Dorothy Gale in another time and on another stage! 

This was a fun production of an enduring family classic that was enthusiastically applauded as the cast took well deserved final bows.