Flemings 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' Becomes Stage Show

LONDON (Reuters) – A musical stage adaptation of the children's book ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, by James Bond creator Ian Fleming, will premiere in London next year, producers said Thursday.

The show, based on Fleming's story about an eccentric widower who invents a flying car, will open at the Palladium Theater in April, more than 30 years after the Hollywood movie of the same title popularized the word ‘fantasmagorical’.

The musical stars veteran actor and singer Michael Ball as Caractacus Potts and 18-year-old newcomer Emma Williams in her West End debut as love interest Truly Scrumptious. The show features tongue-twisting lyrics by Robert and Richard Sherman, Disney songwriters famous for ‘It's a Small World After All’ and ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’.

Producer Dana Broccoli, wife of the late Bond producer Albert Broccoli, said: ‘We need something joyful and happy when there's so much that is dismal in the world right now.’

West End veteran Ball, whose latest album ‘Center Stage’ just went gold on the British pop charts, said he had only one fear: dancing.

‘I'm nervous about dancing,’ he said. ‘I've never danced before. I'm re-learning a whole new way of performing.’

The 1968 movie starring Dick van Dyke became a worldwide hit, and the movie's title song was nominated for an Academy Award.

In the movie, Van Dyke's Potts and his children rescue an old car from a junk heap and create a car with the ability to float and fly. Trouble brews when a wealthy baron decides to kidnap Potts and steal the magical car.

Originating Address: Yahoo News