HOW could I fail to be won over by this truly scrumptious musical?
With lively acting, gorgeously lavish sets, plenty of comedy, a touch of pathos, romance and a flying car - what more can a show ask for?
Centre stage is the famous car Chitty, whose special effects are truly breathtaking.
Be prepared to be amazed as the car sprouts all kinds of appendages and literally takes to the skies.
But Chitty has to share the limelight with a great cast. Birmingham favourite Brian Conley is loveable as the eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, Marissa Dunlop is charming as Truly Scumptious, Paul Greenwood is a bumbling Grand-dad and Kevin Kennedy is truly waspish as the hideous Child Catcher.
There is plenty of humour provided by the slapstick duos of Sean Blowers and Jane Gurnett as Baron and Baroness Bomburst and Robert Taylor and Nigel Garton as the Vulgarian spies.
The children, who include the cheeky hordes of street urchins, are also fantastic with Jemima Potts and her brother Jeremy confident and more than competent alongside the adults.
Then there are some great set pieces - Brian dancing around with his Ol' Bamboo, Lord Scumptious being chased by a pack of dogs, and a dazzling funfair.
It all moves along at a merry pace jumping from one song to another in a soundtrack so full of family favourites I suspect half of Birmingham will be humming them before the summer is out.
My one quibble was that the music sometimes drowned out the lyrics - or maybe that was the audience clapping.
But it is easy to see why Chitty was such a massive success in the West End. It's going to be a sure fire winner for the Hippodrome this summer.
The show runs until September 2 with Gary Wilmot taking over the role of Caractacus from July 31.
