Chitty Chitty Bye Bye
- By Blue Chilli Flying
- •
- 06 Feb, 2017
This week finally saw the close of the UK tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!
For well over a year, Blue Chilli Flying have not only provided both performer and scenic automations, but we have overseen the entire build and de-rig of this fabulous show. The show has visited number one venues across the UK and Ireland, and starred Jason Manford, Michelle Collins, Phill Jupitus, Lee Mead, Martin Kemp and Claire Sweeney, alongside a talented company of performers and musicians.
Touring Chitty herself has been no small task. Weighing in at more than 6 tonnes, this flying goliath has taken thousands of man hours to build! Three days of around the clock crew shifts successfully built the show in every venue… never missing an opening night deadline.
Two kilometres of steel wire rope later (necessary to fly ‘Grandpa’s Shed’ and the creepy Childcatcher), and the show finally gets to park up for a well-deserved rest. Blue Chilli Flying are grateful to Music & Lyrics who have entrusted us with their ‘baby’!
December…..and this years ‘World’s Biggest Panto’ was family favourite Peter Pan!
Featuring a cast of over 100 performers including comedy legend, actor and presenter BRADLEY WALSH and Spandau Ballet bassist and EastEnder MARTIN KEMP, Blue Chilli Flying provided 2 x 25m long automated performer track systems that elevated and travelled the performers high above the runway-style thrust stage.
She show opened at Birmingham Arena (formerly the Barclaycard Arena), later moving to Wembley Arena and entertained audiences of all ages over the festive period. We had a great time working on this production and with the talented actors and actresses we flew.
The incredible Matt Knight (Semi Finalist on Let It Shine - BBC One) played the role of Peter Pan. Naturally we work with many ‘Peter’s’ but Matt was a dream to work with…..at times we really did wonder whether Peter Pan was real! Hannah Grover (Wendy), Stephanie Siadatan (Tinkerbell), Charlie Quirke (John) & Chris Gage (Michael) completed the talented flying line up!
We assisted characters with that great beanstalk climb, along with providing a ‘Mission Impossible’ style entrance to the comedy duo who flew in from way above the proscenium right into a very messy slosh routine!!!
The show runs from 8th - 27th December.
Highgate Schools production of Peter Pan proved to be an outstanding visual production. Creative in their in-school prop and set making abilities, Blue Chilli Flying helped out by installing a simple but effective flying rig to make Peter, John, Michael & Wendy fly to Neverland.
Assisting with Charles Dickens’ classic characters, aerial entrances and exits provided visual effects that wowed the enthusiastic audiences.
29th Nov - 2nd Dec 2017.
Blue Chilli Flying were delighted to be brought in to provide a flying solution for this years Christmas pantomime ‘Aladdin’ at Lichfield Garrick Theatre. Here we installed a fully automated auditorium track system that would fly Aladdin (and his carpet of course!) out and over the audience.
Never the most straight forward of installations rigging over a span of seats, however careful planning meant the install went smoothly and quickly.
Aladdin runs from 30 November 2017 - Saturday 6 January 2018
https://www.lichfieldgarrick.com/whats-on/family/aladdin/40#
Elf….this time for Pantheon Theatre , the critically-acclaimed musical theatre company based in Glasgow, Scotland! Blue Chilli designed and built a custom sleigh for the production and then installed this as part of an automated lift, manual travel system at Glasgow’s Kings Theatre.
Photograph by Stephen Fothergill
They’re off to see the Wizard!!
Blue Chilli have had a fantastic time working with the cast, crew and creatives of Northampton Musical Theatre Company on their production of Wizard of Oz than runs from Tuesday 24th – Saturday 28th October 2017 at Northampton’s Derngate Theatre.
2 x Track Systems, 2 x Pendulum systems and a performer hoop for Glinda, and we had flying monkeys, flying Dorothy, flying witches…… the lot!!! A great bunch to work with…..all the best with the show guys!
