I am in SARTORIAL splendor with a freshly ironed and crisp red plaid, long-sleeved shirt.
I saw Chitty last night. It's good overall but I am somewhat disappointed. I think part of it comes from having seen the London production which was so good. The show is a little long but I think it's a pacing problem. It's almost 2 1/2 hours and the first act drags. The second act picks up and works much better.
This show, while not small (as usually happens with large London shows) is still scaled down. Where there were at least 12 dogs on stage in the Toot Sweet number in London, there were 6 here (exactly half, the press says there are 8 dogs but I only counted 6). Perhaps it's because I knew they were coming but the surprise and fun of having the dogs run on stage after the whistles was not as exciting as I remember. The two Vulgarian villans (CHIP ZIEN and ROBERT SELLA) don't have the zany over the top qualities I thought was needed. I've seen both of them in other things and they are very good but they don't work well here. RAÚL ESPARZA as Caractacus Potts is very good and his Hushabye Mountain is very sweet and gentle. ERIN DILLY (from Into The Woods and the dreadful revival of Roundabout's Boys From Syracuse) is excellent as Truly Scrumptious. Don't know why but Philip Bosco was out last night and I saw his understudy, J.B. Adams. Didn't miss Bosco at all. I'm rather surprised that he's out during previews. They open April 28 so critics were not in the house (besides me) but still, I wonder why he was out. The Child Catcher, KEVIN CAHOON, was suitably creepy although at his curtain call he was roundly applauded and in London the audience took great delight in booing him, not because he was bad but because he was so deliciously evil. Funny how audiences are different.
The real standouts (for me) are MARC KUDISCH as Baron Bomburst and JAN MAXWELL as the Baroness. They are a great team and Kudisch nails his role. He's funny, over the top in the right way and knows how to work the show to get all his laughs. IMHO (In My Humble Opinion in Internet lingo), both these actors will be Tony nominated for Best Featured Performer in a Musical.
Even thought they were miked I still had trouble hearing the children at times. Technology doesn't always work.
For $20 in the last row of the Balcony, which was not a bad seat BTW (by the way in Internet lingo) I went away happy. The Hilton Theatre (FKA the Ford Center for the Performing Arts and before that the Lyric and the Appolo which were combined to make the Hilton/Ford) is nicely put together and you can see from the back row of the balcony. Vixmom, if you decide to get one of these tickets and Vixter is short, they have booster seats for those who need them (children only). I think the merchandising is too much. There is only one row of $20 dollar seats and they weren't sold out so everyone in the balcony paid around $70-$90 dollars and then to have vendors walk through the theatre before the show hawking overpriced light up pins and binoculars and tee-shirts and cotton candy was a bit much. I don't know how a family does it? You spend maybe $300 on tickets plus transportation, if you're coming from Long Island or another borough or NJ, you have to park or get transportation into the city and then the kids are hit with these promotions. "Oh, mommy, please" Of course you can say no and hope the child understands but why make it so hard?
Oh, well. My musings on the commercialization of theatre. Enough for now.
I will come back later with a question.
