George Dvorsky has made a career as the Nice Guy romantic lead in musicals.
His most recent stint on Broadway was as standby for the role of Sir Percy Blakeney in "The Scarlet Pimpernel."
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera audiences last saw the Irwin native and Broadway performer in 2007 as Bob Wallace in "Irving Berlin's White Christmas". He has also appeared in CLO productions as likeable lovers such as Adam Pontipee in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," Georg Nowack in "She Loves Me" and Tommy Albright in "Brigadoon."
So his role as a villain — Baron Bomburst of Vulgaria in the national touring production of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" — is a new experience for him. The musical begins performances Tuesday as a presentation of the PNC Broadway Across America — Pittsburgh series.
"The Baron and Baroness are silly bad guys," Dvorsky says. "I get to play a big spoiled brat who wants a new toy."
Assisted by their comic henchmen, the Baron and Baroness are the villains who plot to steal the fantasmagorical, magical car from the eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts and his children, Jeremy and Jemima.
"I get to throw a temper tantrum. I suck my thumb. I get to do stuff I've never done on stage," says Dvorsky, who also plays candy factory owner Lord Scrumptious in the show.
To get in touch with his inner enfant terrible, Dvorsky says he dug back — way back — to a home movie his father made one Easter Sunday. Dvorsky, age 4, enters and begins howling when he discovers they had started filming without him.
There's no accompanying sound, Dvorsky says, "But I stomped my feet and started to cry. Whenever I come home to visit, they show that movie. My family thinks it's so funny."
The original 1968 film of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" is also part of his childhood memories. "I was 8 years old when the movie came out. People my age grew up watching that movie," he says. "And to people in London (where the film originated), it's like 'Wizard of Oz' is for us."
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" began life as a story Ian Fleming — author of the James Bond novels — wrote for his sons.
When producer Albert Broccoli turned it into a movie, he assembled a team of creators, many of whom were familiar with writing for children.
Children's author Roald Dahl of "James and the Giant Peach" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" fame co-authored the 1968 screenplay with Ken Hughes and the songwriting brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, who had written the score for the 1964 Disney movie "Mary Poppins."
Broccoli had always wanted to do a stage version as well. But it wasn't until recently that stage technology made that dream practical.
Like its original Broadway and London productions, the touring production is a big, splashy musical comedy with a cast of nearly three dozen performers — four of whom are children — eight dogs and a car that flies. Eight additional children are hired in each town where the show appears.
"The car is the star of the show," Dvorsky says. "I always stand in the wings to watch. When the headlights flash, the audience goes crazy. ... It's the most expensive prop ever created.
"It's a fun entertaining show," he says. "People think it's a children's show. But it's not."
Dvorsky believes adults will enjoy the stage musical. Scenes with the Childcatcher who kidnaps Jeremy and Jemima may be too intense for small children.
Dvorsky also thinks the national touring production is even better than the Broadway production.
As the creative team simplified the mechanics for creating the car's magic on the road, they also were able to streamline and tighten the show.
"It's lighter, faster, more like the movie," Dvorsky says. "It was directed to be a musical comedy. There's lots of slapstick. ... When the car flies you have to gasp."
A car that flies
The vehicle at the center of the book, the movie and the musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was inspired by a real car.
Unlike the fictional car, Chitty 1 never flew. But to those who saw it race in the 1920s, it attained speeds that made it look as though it was,
According to Mark Fox in promotional materials prepared for the national touring production of the musical, the real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was built in 1921 by Count Louis Zborowski, an amateur racing driver who lived in a large English country house.
Eccentric and wealthy enough to own and race cars in Europe and America, he took racing very seriously, but was known for his fun approach and colorful clothing that included checkered golfing caps.
With the help of his engineer, Capt. Clive Gallop, he built four aero-engined cars and called three of them Chitty Bang Bang.
Chitty 1 first appeared at the Brooklands race track in Surrey for the 1921 Easter meeting. It boasted a World War I salvaged 23-liter, six-cylinder Maybach Gotha Bomber engine shoe-horned into a pre-1914 chain-drive Mercedes chassis, which had to be lengthened to accommodate it. The four-seater was described as "a brutal car put together by a madman."
During its first meet, it won two races and came in second in another (behind another Zborowski car). The first win was the 100 mph Brooklands Short Handicap at a speed of 100.75 mph.
A modified version raced several months later and was even more successful
It outpaced the competition in its first race and was clocked at 120 mph in the second race. In 1922, Chitty 1 achieved her fastest lap at 113.45 mph. Its last competitive run, in the fall of 1922, ended with a disastrous accident in which a track official was injured.
Chitty 1 was rebuilt. Zborowski continued his racing career but never raced Chitty 1 again.
Zborowski died a few years later while racing in the Italian Grand Prix.
Chitty 1 was then purchased by the sons of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created Sherlock Holmes. The new owners ran her at a speed trial in the 1930s after which she was exhibited at Brooklands but subsequently abandoned outside.
The elements took their toll and eventually someone sawed the chassis in half to get her gearbox for use in another car.
Additional Information:'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'
Presented by: PNC Broadway Across America ⢠Pittsburgh
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. March 15
Admission: $20.50-$60
Where: Benedum Center, Downtown
Details: 412-456-6666 or online.
