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- [00:02]
Mickey Jo
ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend
- [00:10]
Brooke Devard
hello hello, it's Brooke Devard from Naked Beauty. Join me each week for unfiltered discussion about beauty trends, self care, journeys, wellness tips and the products we absolutely love and cannot get enough of. If you are a skincare obsessive and you spend 20 plus minutes on your skincare routine, this podcast is for you. Or if you're a newbie at the beginning of your skincare journey, you'll love the this podcast as well. Because we go so much deeper than beauty, I talk to incredible and inspiring people from across industries about their relationship with beauty. You'll also hear from skincare experts. We break down lots of myths in the beauty industry. If this sounds like your thing, search for Naked Beauty on your podcast app and listen along. I hope you'll join us. Close your eyes. Summer smells like sunshine, fresh citrus and salty air. What if your living room could feel just like that? With Pura's new summer collection, it can restore it. Restore your sense of well being with fragrances designed to move with your day from bright, energizing mornings to soft, relaxing evenings. Make the invisible unforgettable this season. Visit pur.com to find your new favorite summer scent. Hiring isn't just filling a role, it's about finding people who can drive results Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps you match with the right candidates faster. Target candidates by skills, certifications or location. Join the 3.3 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to connect with quality talent that fits their needs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the right way with Indeed.
- [01:52]
Mickey Jo
So last week I saw a brand new revival of the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at an actual converted watermill in England. A theatre which in the last couple of years has been utilizing promenade staging techniques, moving the audience into a separate outdoor venue. A theatre where the stage is so small the actors have play their own instruments. And needless to say, I was not expecting this iconic little car to fly. You can imagine my surprise when it did. But before I tell you how, let me tell you a little bit more about this show. And let me introduce myself. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theater. Although shamefully, I have scarcely seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on stage. I know, I know. Everyone seems to have childhood stories of being taken to see this musical. I guess instead I was being taken to go see Cats and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I have seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a musical on stage before, but it was a very high budget amateur production at the Bournemouth Pavilion. Shout out to the Bournemouth and Boscombe Light Operatic Company. You did a great job. Flying car, many children on stage, dogs. But it's not necessarily a musical that I knew intimately, which is one of the reasons why I was very intrigued to go and see this new production at the Watermill. I didn't finish telling you about myself. For those of you who don't know, I am a theatre critic here on social media and I headed there last week to review their opening night performance and credit to that theatre who have been hugely exciting and innovative in their programming for the last couple of years. When this was announced, I was immediately thinking, now how in the heck is that going to work? How do you do Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in such an incredibly intimate space? And there are small theaters and then there are really small theaters. I'll tell you a little bit more about the Watermill in just a moment and how they managed to stage this usually very large show. But what I would love to remind you of first is to make sure to share your own thoughts about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang if you've seen it at Watermill or elsewhere previously in the comments down below while you're listening to mine. And if you enjoy this review, you can find so many more of them wherever you are seeing my face or hearing my voice. You can also sign up to my free weekly Substack newsletter for more about all of the hundreds of shows that I see every year. In the meantime, let us talk about Chitty Bang Bang. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Chitty Bang Bang. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at a tiny British theatre. Okay, so let's zoom out real quick and talk about the musical itself first. Of course, it is based on the iconic 1968 film, one which my father fondly remembers from his childhood, one which I have seen multiple times. Like, I'm not a total stranger to Chitchi Chitty Bang Bang, and I wouldn't be the first person to suggest that it may be, as a motion picture, a little derivative of Mary Poppins, which arrived on screen a couple of years before. What's interesting is that in terms of the two shows being brought to the stage, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang actually happened first. It premiered at the London Palladium in the west end in 2002. It would be another couple of years before Mary Poppins would make its world premier premiere at the Bristol Hippodrome. With both productions becoming big, celebrated, family friendly successes heading to Broadway, being produced extensively. They're both shows that we see a lot of here in the uk. They tour around. There was quite recently a major tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And I'm a big Mary Poppins fan. And while I subscribe to the fairly popular opinion that it's the stronger of the two, it has the better material from their shared composers in the Sherman Brothers. There's still an awful lot to enjoy about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and much to be nostalgic for. There's a charming family at its center. There are rousing songs, there are colorful characters, nefarious sinister villains, and a sort of an unspoken but ever present layer of emotional depth about the poignant relationships in single parent families. It must be said, stepmothers rarely fare well in family films or in big musicals. And truly Scrumptious does better than most. And so many of the aspects of this film are strikingly visually iconic. You have the car itself and its design. I have a little model here that I bought at the theatre, which I feel may be helpful later during descriptions of what it does on stage. You also have things like the Child Catcher and that presents something of a challenge. You know, when they were first bringing this to the stage, it was useful because audiences were going to get very excited when they see these things for the first time when they are first revealed, when these characters first make their entrances. It gives you a lot of creativity with which to work and familiarity, which is a great thing when you're trying to win over a family audience and charm, parents and children alike. When you're doing a revival, specifically a very new, very different, innovative production on a smaller scale by necessity, then that can suddenly become a huge challenge. And with other shows that have this same kind of situation, shows like the Addams Family, shows like Shrek the Musical, you're walking a very fine line of how to keep it recognizable while also maintaining artistic, creative individuality and a little bit of innovation. And what has really become the thing about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a stage musical is the car itself and the way that this car flies. And that was my thought about this happening at the Watermill. Let me tell you a little bit more about this theater and why I was confused and concerned and it's an actual converted mill with a river running beside it and geese walking around in these lovely grounds in a village near Newbury, less than an hour outside of London. If you're arriving by foot, you have to walk a decent distance down a path with no pavement. It's a very intimate, perhaps like 200 seater auditorium with a fairly small stage on which against all odds managed to stage a lot of exciting musicals with surprisingly large casts. And for the past couple of decades they have been among the pioneers of actor musician productions, largely out of necessity because there's no pit that they can put a band in. There's also, unlike other off West End, Off Broadway fringe venues, no additional room where they can stash a band. There's really nowhere for them to go. So the only way they can have live instruments and live music in a musical is if the cast are playing those instruments on stage. Sometimes this is heavily incorporated into the show's creative identity. Sometimes it feels a little more incidental and to the side while being, you know, sort of acknowledged, but not an integral part of it and sort of inclusive within the storytelling. That's sort of more how it feels with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. There's only really perhaps one character who is sort of tethered to an instrument that they play John Doyle style. This production, before I forget to mention it, has been directed by the Watermill's own Paul Hart. And there has been something of an evolution in the scale of the Watermill's productions recently as they have begun to of sort spill out from beyond just that auditorium itself. A few years ago they lost their Arts Council funding and faced with this devastating financial reality, they really stepped up and began to program hugely ambitious new productions, including the Lord of the Rings musical, previously only ever seen on a vast, enormous scale at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Suddenly it was realized between their outdoor space and the auditorium, with the audience moving between two locations multiple times throughout the go. They have since toyed with this idea again. Last year for Jesus Christ Superstar, at the top of the second act, we were outdoors, gathered around in a circle for the Garden of Gethsemane, with Judas off brooding in a corner and priests appearing on the roof of the venue. That was very cool. With Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, there is once again a sort of a promenade aspect to the production in as much as we move from one place to another and then go back again. This time they have noted the unpredictability of the British weather forecast and have put up a marquee outdoors, which represents. I can't remember if they call it the fair or the funfair. It's where Caractacus travels to when he's trying to sell his haircut machine, when he's trying to give people haircuts using this thing that he's invented so that he can raise money to buy the car for his children, who are very enamored with it. He then enrages somebody because he gives them, shall I say, too thorough a haircut, which is very impressively done before all of our eyes, in the round, no less, on a machine that he cycled into this tent. And he then escapes the commotion that ensues by becoming part of a performance of Me Old Bamboo. Wait, is it me old bamboo? Is it the old bamboo? It's somebody's old bamboo. You know the one. Anyway, while all of this is happening, we are sat on four sides around it on benches, being handed popcorn, with Caractacus shuffling down. He sat on my lap at one point. Honour and a privilege, this being sort of halfway through the first act. We then head back indoors for the remainder of the show, where I dare say it has given the crew the opportunity to reset the stage a little for the new iteration of the car. Let's continue by talking about the car itself and the other creative aspects of of. Acast Powers the World's Best Podcasts Here's a show that we recommend
- [10:37]
Brooke Devard
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- [11:18]
Mickey Jo
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- [11:21]
Brooke Devard
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- [11:28]
Mickey Jo
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- [11:36]
Brooke Devard
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- [12:02]
Mickey Jo
This production. So how do they even fit this entire car on stage? Well, it's very cleverly done. And there are a couple of iterations because at the beginning of the show, when the children are playing with it in the junk shop and they first fall in love with it, it's only really like the front half of an old that we see that they're sat behind the wheel of. When we return from the outdoor marquee, there is a different version of the car that has been covered by a sheet when it's revealed. It's a version of that familiar Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but made out of scraps and recycled parts, which I don't think I've ever seen before. I don't think that's a feature of the original show. But this sort of dubious vehicle with which Caractacus has been tinkering is now a really charming one. And though it isn't made out of musical instruments, as I conceived at one point that it might be, it's very much along those same kind of lines. It does have a horn. And there is some flexibility to the version of the car that they have because it's being condensed. We still have a front half that can move around quite freely. There is a back half, and things are brought on to suggest wings in the moment when the car flies for the first time. Spoiler alert for the immense narrative plot of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And you know, even as we're approaching this moment, I'm not thinking that the car is actually going to lift up into the air, right? I'm looking at this thing and I'm thinking, you know, it's got a lot more flexibility because it's not this. This big giant one piece vehicle. The front is split from what they are sitting on so they can move it around so it can sort of look like it's flying as they are holding this thing up and being like, whoa, it's moving kind of weirdly. We're on the water now. This car can do all sorts of things. And then ensemble members come in and they're waving red and yellow. Oh, my gosh, these wings retract. I've just learned this about this car. Look at that. Wait now, I don't know how to get them to come back. Come back. Wings. You were the exact thing that I was just talking about. What terrible timing. Do I press the wheel? Nope, that's breaking. Gotta be this stick, right? That's gotta be something to do. Oh, my gosh. Okay, there we go. What was I even talking about? Okay, ensemble members come out. They're holding things that look like the wings. They're flapping them up and down. I'm like, this is what we're gonna get instead of the car flying. And it was charming enough because the way in which it moves has a sense of grace and fluidity that you never normally get from the usual big budget version of the car. Only I'm looking at it and thinking it would just be. Be so nice, though, if it could somehow lift up into the air. I do not have any expectation that they can actually manage this. And somehow the car is attached to some sort of, I guess, hydraulic elevating podium and begins to do what I can only describe as the small regional version of Defying Gravity as it elevates a decent, like seven feet above the stage and is surrounded by haze. And they do things with lighting and they're really selling it. They are sat atop this thing, two adults, two children on this sort of rising plinth with car in their hands with wings flapping up around them. And it looks really great. I don't know whether it was meant to then happen again at the end of the show. And something went a little bit wrong because we had the haze come through again, only it just kind of drowned them instead of the car rising anywhere but the one time when it did happen. Hugely impressive. Wildly unexpected. So if anyone is like a couple of people I've spoken to, not going to see this in Newbury because you don't think that it's going to be as fun because the car can't fly. It turns out that it can. And you know, there is so much more to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and a show at the Watermill than a magically flying car, impressive though that may be. And when it comes to musicals staged at this particular venue, this is exactly how I like them. I had mixed feelings about last year's Jesus Christ Superstar. I've enjoyed previous shows there. I thought Lord of the Rings was hugely impressive. I've seen Whistle down the Wind there many things at the Watermill. This is. Is exactly the kind of quaint, charming, whimsical show that I think is really well suited to the venue. And I like when they take an ambitious larger swing and kind of move beyond their usual tonal boundaries. But this is kind of like how I like my steak to be cooked there, if that makes sense, because it pairs very well with the inherent quaint quality of the setting. And it's much easier to sustain that kind of a joyous, charmed audience atmosphere when you're trotting along out of your seats, walking down the path, filing into an outdoor marquee, rather than, you know, going back to the Shire after the ring has been burned in Mount Doom or exiting the gardens of Gethsemane with Christ having just been arrested. You know what I mean? Like, it's a slightly different audience vibe, and this one just feels easier. Meanwhile, the production, led by director Paul Hart, brings all of the innovation and creativity that I love to see at this venue. The set and costumes have been designed by Katie Lias. I think it's a really clever set. They've retained a little bit of space at the rear of the stage with a sort of false back wall so that they can have a couple of translucent panels behind which characters can appear. When we have the spies from Vulgaria who are spying on Caractacus and the car that they're conspiring to steal, when the children subsequently have been caught by the Child Catcher and they are singing woefully in prison, we have the Baron and the Baroness often appearing on either side of the front of the gallery level from two doors. We have the spy characters, once we've gone back into the theater, walking around, mingling with the audience, trying to practice their British small talk because they're trying to pass themselves off as Eng English, which was actually one of the funniest moments of the show, listening to them chat to people about the weather. And while the instruments mostly stayed at the side, the way in which they played them was often characterized. When the Baron and Baroness were performing, there was sort of a weary gloom with which those around them and the vulgarian citizens were begrudgingly drumming. The exception to this was Susanna Van den Bergh, who plays the child catcher in the second act and who, as the Child catcher, plays the clarinet and has a sort of a spooky theme that announces this character's arrival, like they're a villainous entity from within Peter and the Wolf. And I liked that. I think it's a sort of a spooky idea. I liked this casting approach to the Child Catcher. I don't know if the way in which Susanna was first revealed on stage was quite as sinister. This is a famously really scary character that so many of us have nightmares about from childhood. And I think there could have been a little more punch to the impact of this arrival. I think the Child Catcher could have been a little scarier because they have deceptively little time on stage. They have to make an impact when they're there there. All of the other villainous characters were very well realized in this production. I'll talk about performances in just a moment. The Baron and Baroness have a scene stealing number in the second act one created for the stage when they do this big samba production number after the revelation that the theme for the Baron's birthday this year is Brazilian. This has been energetically choreographed by Anjali Meera. There is also puppetry in the show which has been directed, created and designed by Mark Parrott. We have a couple of puppet dogs. There is a wider child company in addition to the RO children playing the Potts kids, but the entire production is sweeter than candy floss. It's going to put a huge smile on your face. There's such a youthfulness to the way that it's been staged. It's so fondly realized and it feels so effortless. It plays slickly and comfortably in spite of the huge logistical challenges with taking a massive show like this and making it work on an objectively really tiny stage. Finally, then, let's talk about the one part of this production which would work either on a small stage or a vast one. One let's talk about the performances. Acast Powers the World's Best Podcasts Here's a show that we recommend.
- [19:39]
Brooke Devard
Hello hello, it's Brooke Devard from Naked Beauty. Join me each week for unfiltered discussion about beauty trends, self care journeys, wellness tips, and the products we absolutely love and cannot get enough of. If you are a skincare obsessive and you spend 20 plus minutes on your skincare routine, this podcast is for you. Or if you're a newbie at the beginning of your skincare journey, you'll love this podcast as well. Because we go so much deeper than beauty. I talk to incredible and inspiring people from across industries about their relationship with beauty. You'll also hear from skincare experts. We break down lots of myths in the beauty industry. If this sounds like your thing, search for Naked Beauty on your podcast app and listen along. I hope you'll join us.
- [20:29]
Mickey Jo
So this production is led by the wonderful Christian Edwards, who plays Caractacus Potts as well as playing the guitar and piano. You may know Christian from his performance in last year's production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Watermill, where he was a brilliant pilot, which is to say Pontius, not of plane. He is a gregarious presence and a lovely man I've been lucky enough to meet. One of my favorite moments of his performance was when he was interacting organically with the audience as we were filing past him to go into this marquee and he was on his bicycle and offering us all haircuts with this newly invented piece of machinery, and he's ruffling my hair and chatting to everyone. And there aren't that many actors who would be completely comfortable in that particular arena, but that's where he really shines. You may also like to know if you recall this Christian spent the better part of a decade and a half behind the latex mask of the online character West End producer, and after so much time spent somewhat in his own shadow, it's really lovely to see him arriving in a leading man role like this. He has such a wonderful rapport with Truly on stage and with the kids as well. He has such a genuine paternal quality. It's incredibly sweet. And it's with unfaltering confidence and showmanship that he delivers both a beautiful rendition of the haunting song Husher by Mountain and this entire charming production. Lydia Louise plays Truly Scrumptious, opposite him very sweetly. I enjoy their moments of early confrontation that slowly melt into a fondness and a lovely relationship between the two. There are the suggestions of ways in which she's kind of moving away from the uber traditional idea of like Truly Scrumptious and everything that we expect her to be. And she's finding some slightly more unique ways in which to ground her. There's not a lot there for her to work within this material. Honestly, the biggest chance to shine probably coming late in the second act when she gets to play the doll singing, what do you see, you people staring at me? And do all of that now. At the press night performance, Aurora Breslin was playing role of Jemima and Francis Adams was playing the role of Jeremy. And more so than a Mary Poppins or an Annie or an Oliver Chitty is often the show that I think of where the children can become irritating. To their credit, they didn't once bother me throughout this production. I was actually quite fond of them and I think it's because there's a moment in the show when they sing or reprise perhaps Truly Scrumptious, and it feels as though the kids are brought on simply to like cover a scene change and earn some easy APPLAUSE by just sort of cutely singing the same thing that we've already heard. Shout out to this production for choreographing them, for giving them a little bit more to do, for giving them a sense of youthful, hyperactive energy and giving us a reason to actually clap. Gosh, I sound like I hate children. I promise I don't. They're very talented and they can do an awful lot more, these child actors than just walk on stage and look cute and sing a song. And I like that they got to do more. I really liked what Susanna Van den Bergh was able to do with the Child Catcher, even if I was reminded of the roles brevity. Mark Curry was actually quite wonderful as Grandpa Potts, a character I'd utterly forgotten about. He has a lot of strange sort of post colonial throwaway lines and a song and it was with genuine, real enthusiasm that he met this role. I thought he was terrific. Of course, scene stealing supporting work from Sam Pei and Alexander Zane as Boris and Goran, the vulgarian spies. They were hilarious, the way that they interacted with the audience, the comedy double acts that they achieved with each other, their facial expressions when they returned to play instruments. My favourite example of actually Mary Akagame, who played the Baroness Bomburst. I enjoyed her characterization very much. I enjoyed her reluctant marriage to the Baron, especially in the final moments. But after they have been sort of foiled and imprisoned when she returns to go and play the drums while still being restrained and tied up and having a sour expression on her face. Hilarious comedy work just off at the side of the stage. But objectively, Samuel Morgan Graham, who I have enjoyed on stage before for as the Baron, the defining comedy character of this production, hilarious in his shrieking mania. So, so funny, so, so brilliant, inspired characterization here. An absolute cartoonish raving villain who brought such bright, ridiculous joy to the show. So there you have it. Unbelievably, not only does Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fly over the stage of the Watermill Theatre in New Bridge, it also delivers a fantastic show. Go and check this one out. It's an utterly unique theatrical experience. It's hugely charming, it's perfect for the summer and it makes for a really lovely theatrical trip. I enjoy the work that this venue does consistently, but especially when it's as good as this. Those have been my thoughts. If you have had a chance to take a ride on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I would love to know what you thought. Let me know in the comments section down below, especially if you've seen this production now. If you enjoyed this review and would like to hear more, you can subscribe here on YouTube or follow me on podcast platforms. In the meantime, I have been Mickey Jo and I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a Stagey Day. For 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe what makes a leader worth following? What should you really care about in your job? As technology is changing so quickly, is it just gonna be about machines talking to other machines? I mean, should you quit your job and start something on your own, what you would that take? What does success and risk look like when we're all at the starting gate together? These are the questions we answer each week on Lead Human with Jack Myers and Tim Spengler. Join us each week and subscribe at your favorite podcast platform and YouTube. We'll tell stories, we'll hear from some of the best, and we'll try to figure this out together.
- [26:13]
Brooke Devard
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- [26:27]
Mickey Jo
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Chris Guillebeau
A photographer in Texas earns an extra $47,000 a year shooting Star wars cosplay portraits. A teacher in Maryland turns her woodworking hobby into a five figure side income without leaving the classroom. And a couple in Pennsylvania will rent you backyard chickens for the the season so you can try the egg laying life without commitment. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I'm the host of side Hustle School. I share these kinds of stories every single day in detail with full transparency about the numbers. The point isn't just to inspire you, it's to show you what's possible. Proof that ordinary people are quietly building extra income in surprising ways, including a few ideas you can borrow less than 10 minutes a day every day. Subscribe or follow side Hustle School wherever you get your part podcasts or find us directly@side hustleschool.com Acast helps creators launch,
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Mickey Jo
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