Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Mayflower Southampton & Tour’24/25

I’m hoping the Belfast dates aren’t rescheduled. I’m meant to be seeing it on 24th July.

The car mechanism was damaged in transit between Bromley and Milton Keynes, according to the press email I got.

Chitty has been fixed and the tour is resuming next week in Belfast.

Although the first 3 days of performances have been cancelled and have been replaced with 2 extra matinee. So it starts on the Friday instead of the Tuesday. Had to swap my opening night tickets to the Wednesday the following week.

Glad it’s resuming the tour but gutted now because I could only see it on the 24th because I’m away on holiday the day after. I’m hoping that Dublin might be announced at a later date but I doubt it will.

I was gutted when the date I had originally booked was cancelled and couldn’t go to it. Guess I’ll have to wait until the next tour to catch it.

I go to the Grand Opera House all the time and I’m yet to experience a bad behaved audience. Yes there’s been occasions when people’s phones go off and there are some having a sneak peak on their phones and of course very minimal people taking pics and vids but compared to what I’ve read on the bad behaviour trend I haven’t yet witnessed any rowdy audience members.

It is a three star from me. The car flying was magical and amazing but I feel like there was something lacking on Saturdays performance. I found that Adam's vocals were very low in the mix and didn't blend with the ensemble or Ellie's vocals well.

I cannot explain what I mean but there seemed to have a different type of sound to his microphone than the rest. It felt like it wasn't as clear as the others.

The sound situation in general wasn't great at times with a lot of lost lines because of this.

Another thing I noticed was some missing set pieces that were present in the trailer for the show. Usually the Childcather would lure the children into an disguised ice cream cart cage though this wasn't present in the Belfast performances and she merely lead them off stage hand in hand.

It's a pity as there's been some truly great performances at the Opera House.

I can't fault the cast my issues were mainly with sound etc. But I guess that can be hard to gage at certain performances.

It's a shame that after the extensive renovations that the theatre still can't house a full touring set, the performances were fantastic but some of the spectacle lacked with those missing pieces.

Oh I was wondering why there was no cart for the child catcher in Belfast. Hadn’t seen the trailer so didn’t realise there was meant to be one. But the way Charlie Brooks was playing the Childcatcher like a demented Bjork (I’m certain she took inspiration from Kristen Wigg’s impression on SNL) leading them off holding hands in her ice cream disguise kind of worked.

Also I saw Chitty twice in Belfast and I agree with Adam Garcia vocals, or level of sound. It was as if his microphone and everyone else’s microphones were registered to 2 different shows. His levels were so far down compared to everyone else’s. But it was only when they were singing. But in fairness I don’t think he has a strong enough voice to get up over everyone else.

Also regarding Belfast size. It is unfortunate that they don’t have the stage/backstage space for the bigger shows. Although I am sure there are things in Sister Act, (as already mentioned, and only other recent show I can think of that falls into the cut down category) that were missing in the 2024 leg of the tour that were there when it was there in 2023. The rickshaw chase was there when it was in Belfast in 2023 with Sandra Marvin, but gone this year with Landi.

Thought it was lack of cast as well, first couple of times in the first week there were a few if not all swings on. But when I saw it the 3rd time the second week with full cast it was still cut.

Pope in the orchestra pit I think depends on the conductor. Male conductor the first 2 times I saw of that run was the pope. Female conductor the 3rd time was a cast member hopping out from the side of the stage.

Sorry for making this about Sister Act 😂

I didn’t get to see it as I was originally booked to see it on the first Wednesday which got cancelled and was the only date I could go but I don’t like the idea of it being scaled down. I know the Grand Opera House is small but I would like to think that the stage would be big enough for grand productions without being scaled down. Agree with you but about the theatre being dear to you. I’ve visited many theatres in London, the Opera House in Manchester and the Liverpool Empire but the Grand Opera House is always going to be my favourite theatre, as well as the Bord Gais Energy Theatre.

Yeah! Looking at pictures at the Princess Theatre isn’t probably an ideal venue for this. You’ll be lucky if the car lifts two feet off the ground!!!

It's a mad theatre... It's too small for most productions (but great for one night tribute concerts)... The other thing here is that there are very few locals anymore - its all second homes / Air B&B - so its entirely dependent on how well a production is advertised to the tourists. A very tough place to play.