Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is up and running. Or perhaps I should say it has taken flight. Or it’s floating along. Or some other such metaphor that pays tribute to the source material. Audiences seem to be thoroughly enjoying the fruits of our efforts over the last couple of months. And, now that the show is in its final form, I can say that director Henry Scott took the right approach, treating the material as a British music hall and putting the effort into creating numbers in lots of different vaudeville styles playing to the strengths of the various cast members and letting the plot (of a whimsical nature which cannot stand up to any sort of scrutiny) just happen. The show bounces along from number to number without slowing down and carries the audience on a joyous ride.
Reviews and word of mouth have been uniformly positive and I’m looking forward to another ten trips to Edwardian England and Vulgaria before we close at the end of the month. I’ll post some pictures when the theater releases them. I can’t exactly run around front and take any as I spend most of the show either on stage, singing backstage, or changing costume, wig, makeup, physicality and dialect backstage getting ready for my next bit part (five in all). I’m hearing back that each character is distinct and interesting to watch so I guess I’m doing my job correctly. And in my down moments, I really like watching the other show. The one going on in the wings. There are a lot of set pieces and a cast of more than thirty so the intricate dance that happens to get everything on stage at the right time in the right way is as fascinating as anything the audience sees. I should take some backstage video of one of the crazier moments when things are flying, set pieces are rolling, furniture is being carried and people are flinging clothes around in a quick change, all in the space about the size of an average living room.
I’ve always felt somewhat younger than my 62 years when I’m on stage. A lot of that is due to my not falling into performance until my early 40s. The group of actors that I cut my teeth with locally and have been working with for decades were mainly in their 20s when we started out together and are now 40 somethings and I have always kind of thought of them as my peers. Many of them now have children who are entering the community in juvenile roles. There are a couple of ensemble members in Chitty whom I held as infants. The theater kids of my first few years are now in their late 20s and early 30s. Most of the Chitty Ensemble kids are late teens or early 20s and weren’t born when I made my debut on the VST stage (Jekyll and Hyde – November 2004).
Chitty is the first traditionally structured big chorus musical I’ve done since Hello, Dolly! and that was nearly six years ago. In the interim,, I aged a bit physiologically, especially in the musculoskeletal system and we had a pandemic with all of the attendant psychological battering that caused. I’m in a very different place than I was then and that is why I think I’ve been feeling old on stage for the first time. It’s the combination of being constantly in rehearsal with a very young ensemble (being part of some of the big numbers without (fortunately) having to dance any of them) but also having been shifted into a somewhat different mindset as the pandemic, looming retirement and all of those other things are making me deal with the fact that I am an elder, old enough to be most of the chorus’s grandfather, and that being two generations removed, it’s not possible for me to connect with them in the way that show families do and the way I have been able to in the past. But that’s the way of the world and how human development works.
I have a few times on stage where I can spend some time looking at the audience. I can’t see them as clearly as I used to as I’m not wearing my glasses and my vision into the dark of the house is not what it was but I try to look for the small children and gauge their reactions. There’s a lot of theater magic in this show. The car (built by the enormously talented tech director Ben Boyer) ‘floats’ and ‘flies’ without ever actually leaving the ground. There are two extremely talented young kids on stage in the roles of Jeremy and Jemima. The music is up tempo and earworm infectious (thank you Sherman brothers) and the set and costumes are bright and colorful and constantly changing. What I’m generally seeing rom the kids are a stillness, open mouths, and eyes full of wonder. That tells me that the show is working. And there’s just enough adult humor and double entendres to keep the parents laughing as well. You too can be part of the magic if you’re here in Birmingham. Just call the Virginia Samford Theatre box office.
But enough about musical flying cars. I have to start thinking about the next theatrical endeavor, directing Merry Wives of Windsor for Bell Tower Players. Auditions are not this next Monday and Tuesday, but the week after, and I need a big cast so anyone who’s ever wanted to try their hand at Shakespeare is encouraged to show up. I’ve done a bunch of gender swapping so there’s going to be plenty of female roles and I’d really like plenty of melanin in the cast as well. I’m hoping that I did a good enough job last year with Midsummer to encourage a few people who have never been out to East Lake United Methodist Church to come play with me this summer. We should have a good time.
On a completely different subject, I am continuing to keep an eye of viral illness. Covid, of course, remains part of all of our lives. Numbers are down (and it looks like it may become like flu with a seasonal predilection – low in the summer and high in the winter). There don’t seem to be any new major mutations and there is a booster promised in the fall which should be good for currently circulating strains. I’ll get it. I continue to believe that anything you can do to reduce the severity of the infection should you catch it is a good thing. I’ve seen way too many people who have been sidelined by long covid issues and I really don’t feel like joining their ranks. Data continue to show that staying current with vaccination status is strongly protective against the need for hospitalization and long covid complications.
I’m also watching what’s going on with flu viruses. There hasn’t been a major flu pandemic since 1968 so we’re overdue and if we do have a serious one, I’m afraid of what that could do to our weakened and majorly dysfunctional health system, especially given the politicization of our public health measures and responses. The H5N1 bird flu continues to spread in cattle and has been found in more than 90 cattle farms in 12 states now. It has infected a couple of humans who have close cattle contact but there’s no evidence that it’s spreading in the wider community as of yet. This one could be a real problem if it does mutate to allow easy human to human transmission. There are also some Influenza A strains starting to circulate resistant to the common antivirals. This is not likely to be an issue for most of us but could be a problem for the elderly or those with immune compromise for whom antivirals can be literally lifesaving.
My publisher and I have some ideas regarding the future of the Accidental Plague Diaries which we’re beginning to work on. I’m also booked for a reading/signing in late July – more details on that later. OK. That’s enough for now. The cats are yowling. Must get up and give them their morning kitty treats or they’ll be more destructive to the furniture than usual.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 