RCS sent two representatives South of the Border to purchase a magical car just for this production!  Born at Astra Entertainment for CCBB, Chitty is currently hibernating for the winter.  With a little work, a lot of love, and a dash of imagination, Chitty will drive, float and fly for you!

We won’t!  Why? We don’t need to!  Because the fun of this story is the funny characters, the magical music, the energetic dancing, and the endearing car.

The dancers for this show rehearse often without a break, for 2 hours straight! Their cardio stamina is amazing.  Under the creative choreography of Mrs. Jenden, they laugh their way through rehearsals — and they aren’t even on stage yet!

Mr. Kawamura has the musicians working the new music with style and precision.  Many musicians are playing more than one instrument and several have taken on new, harder instruments to give a rich sound to this catchy music.  Mr. Kawamura even transposes music from one instrument to another, such as from flute to french horn.

Make your own candy machine?  Toot Sweets!  How about a machine that makes you breakfast or cuts your hair?  Some ingenious set pieces are being built by Mr. Riley Merrell and the Theatre Production 11 class.

From Soft-Shoe to Samba, Carnival to Caper, the variety of music in this show includes witty show-tunes, hearty calls-to-action, endearing ballads, a peppery Samba and a frolicking Carnival tune!  We dare you not to hum along!

Many of the pieces you will see were used in professional shows such as Align Entertainment’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Other pieces were creatively produced by a parent-teacher volunteer sewing team.  The actors really make the garments come to life!

Enjoy the characterization, winsome combinations and camaraderie between the cast members.  But what is most impressive about this cast is what you won’t see: there is a strong familial love.  The cast is encouraging, joyful, and respectful of each other.

This show calls for aging, a creepy villain, and watch for a surprise bald effect!

To choose a musical, the directors get together and pray for God’s guidance to illuminate the talent He has brought to RCS.  Then they search for scripts that bring God joy, invest in the students, and are stories worth telling.  When Mrs. Osborne and Ms. Johnsey saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, they fell in love with the charming characters, the witty comedy, and the bizarre and imaginative land of Vulgaria!

• This is our 9th musical at Gateway.  18 years of history!
• We are often late starting because parents are visiting in the lobby. The show starts at 7 pm sharp (6 pm on Saturday).  Please pay heed to the Gateway House Manager’s directions and be seated on time. To visit with your RCS friends, come earlier!
• It is proper theatre etiquette to bring a silent, unwrapped candy in the theatre, but not snacks.  Unlike a movie theatre, eating during the performance is considered rude because the actors are live and need to concentrate.  “We can see you!”
• Save money on parking! Park in the residential areas and walk to the theatre.  Another great choice is car-pooling.

• The name “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” is the name of the 1910s car featured in the story.  The car engine makes the noise, “chitty, chitty, chitty, chitty,” along with an expressive backfire, “Bang! Bang!”
• The novels were written by Ian Fleming, most famous for creating James Bond.
• The movie was written by Roald Dahl, most famous for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.
• The music for the musical was written by the same composers who wrote Mary Poppins.  Catchy!
• The London Stage musical was written in 2002 and the car prop (built for the stage production) holds the record for the most expensive stage prop ever used.  We have a very special car for our production as well!

The stage version differs from the film in a few important ways:

1. The fatherly inventor, Caractacus Potts, is every bit as charming as the movie version, but the stage story follows more characters.
2. The stage version gives more comedy to the Spies.  Our version has three spies, not two!
3. The stage version replaces the dark humour of the Baron and Baroness with comic playfulness.