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Complete with flying car, the Children’s Theatre of Long Beach is staging “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” at the Ernest Borgnine Theatre beginning Feb. 21. Based on the 1968 film with Dick Van Dyke, the musical tells of the unexpected adventures of an English inventor, his two children and one amazing vehicle.
Director Mark Lamanna said in a Stage Explorations interview that he wanted to bring out the warmth and caring of the story’s “nontraditional” family. Inventor Caractacus Potts is a widower raising children Jeremy and Jemima with their grandfather, though they soon meet a woman named Truly Scrumptious when she nearly runs over the kids in her car.
Lamanna calls the show a “gentle little story that has outrageous humor,” with tunes that are catchy, memorable and joyous.
“It’s a timeless tale of a family that is looking to be completed again,” adds Michael Taber, who plays Caractacus Potts. “And the car is kind of what brings them together and takes them on this magical journey.”
Grace Jewell, who plays Truly, says the stage musical offers a refreshing and “spunky” take on the story compared to the nostalgic and heartwarming film.
The set itself reflects the Potts family’s eccentricity, with the children sleeping in a circus caravan in the middle of the home, Lamanna said. The kids also play in an old racecar in a junkyard that they beg their father to purchase and restore before it’s sold to someone else.
Katie Davis and Anne Gundry, who play two spies from Vulgaria — a country whose spoiled and tyrannical Baron Bomburst wants the car for himself — say their characters are the comic relief.
“We’re not the brightest people, but we have good hearts,” Gundry says of Boris and Goran, who make sneaky appearances throughout the play.
Davis, who’s choreographed past shows for the Children’s Theatre, said she admires the company’s spirit of “inclusivity and allowing children to be themselves.”
And Gundry, who is also a member of the nonprofit company’s board, says it uses methods unusual for children’s theater, such as social-emotional warmups that address the whole child, not just the role they’re playing.
“It’s trying to give them coping skills,” she said. “Life is hard, school is hard, families are hard and doing theater is hard. But if you’ve got the emotional skills to deal with it, that really kind of ripples out into the rest of your life.”
Sean McMullen, founder and artistic director of the company, says its mission is to bring theater arts to every elementary and middle school in the city, relying on educational grants and even sometimes running programs for free when schools or parents can’t cover fees.
It also relies on volunteers to contribute their time and skills for putting on productions, as well as donations to help sustain scholarships allowing kids to participate.
“We’re not only here to teach kids how to act, sing, dance,” McMullen said. “We’re here to teach them how to be better human beings to themselves and to society. We have a huge mindfulness component.”
Like most of the company’s shows, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” is being staged in the century-old Ernest Borgnine Theatre, housed in the Long Beach Scottish Rite Masonic Center.
“It is the last of its kind here in Long Beach,” McMullen said. “It looks like an old Broadway house because it’s designed by the same designers that were designing vaudeville houses all over America.”
And experiencing live theater is also more “real” than staring at a screen, says Lamanna, allowing breathing and laughing with other human beings.
“We can breathe life into a show right in front of you,” he said. “And participating is breathing, too, because the actors can’t do it without the energy that the audience brings.”
Above all, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” offers fun for the whole family, Lamanna said.
“It’s going to make your heart open,” he said. “It’s going to make you glad to be alive.”
Children’s Theatre of Long Beach’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” will perform Feb. 21 to March 8 at the Ernest Borgnine Theatre, 855 Elm Ave., with shows Saturday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m., then Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Ticket prices range from $12 to $33. For tickets, visit ChildrensTheatreofLongBeach.org. Run time is 2 hours and 30 minutes, including intermission.