Newsday from New York, New York • 98

part2 THEATER REVIEW stalls runs out of gas early on CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG Music and lyrics by Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman adapted by Jeremy Sams directed by Adrian Noble Hilton Theatre' 7 213 42nd St Tickets $55 to $100 Call 212-307-4100 Seen at Saturday evening preview guished English director and composer has adapted Roald musical film of the novel by Ian Fleming (yes: Bond James Bond) into a script more often silly than clever The exposition in flashbacks is especially clumsy which makes it even harder to understand much less endure the aggressively unfunny antics of the Vulgarian spies played as though they mean it by poor Chip Zien and Robert Sella Kevin Cahoon manages to be both cartoon-bad and Nosfer-atu-evil as the Childcatcher but fascist eagles on the Vulgarian banners are a reference too specific to be trivialized The score by Robert Sherman and Robert Sherman has the same music-to-skip-to cheerfulness of their earlier "Mary There is a nice sense of eccentricity in the family though we cannot help wondaring why everyone is so delighted that the precocious Potts children hate schooL Gillian choreography occasionally winks at die grown-ups with a reference to a Velma Kelly step from or a live balletic doll from at the toy-loving birthday party Except for snappy music-hall solo "Me the big acrobatic dance numbers feel more like padding than plotting We are seldom allowed to forget that we are really here to see a fake automobile pretend to fly NcWlA PHOTO Aki MINTZ The "Chitty Chitty Bang cast vanquishes the dastardly Childcatcher (Kevin Cahoon) BY LINDA WINER STAFF WRITER I You know how big family shows are hyped as being fun for children of all ages? Well Chitty Bang Bang" real-- ly sort of Unlike say i "The Lion King" which capti- vates on a deep variety of lev-I els the London smash that opened last night at I the Hilton (formerly Ford) The-I atre might be brat appieciat-- ed by tots tweens and grownups who were besotted by the merry 1968 movie when they were tots and tweens For some of the rest of us director Adrian extravaganza is slow to start and until a burst of goofy wit in the second act as hard to follow as it is to hear in this people-dwarfing theater with its fuzzy amplification The star roadster named Chitty does communicate sweetly through expressive headlight and even sprouts webbed wings and flies This "fine four-fendered also swims through high tide and bows at curtain time Audiences nostalgic for a ther of young Jemima (Ellen Marlow) and Jeremy (Henry Hodges) Philip Bosco as close to dramatic royalty as Broadway knows plays their dotty old grandfather a former military man who says he is "off to whenever he heads for the outhouse Ah that sophisticated British humor Erin Dilly is terrific as Truly Scrumptious the adventurous candy heiress who can provide maternal support and fix her own motorbike Brat of all at least for us on the dark side are Broadway where the light fixtures plummet and helicopters levitate should know that the other props and people meanira as well as heroes also take to the air at key moments through what feels to the uninitiated like a pretty long evening Clearly however the creators went out for more than zowie effects The musical has a supremely overqualified cast including the intensely talented Radi Esparza as Caractacus Potts widower and inventor-fa Marc Kudisch and Jan Maxwell as the infantilized Baron Bom-burst and his child-loathing wife tyrannical rulers of Vul-garia whose craven desire to -own Chitty is the motor in the plot You want adorable dogs? Two separate showerings of confetti over the audience? Beautiful sets by Anthony Ward that combine Rube Goldberg invention with the lyricism of blue-blue childhood skies? You got them But Jeremy Sams the distin MUSIC REVIEW ready to break away from roots KELLY CLARKSON Miss Independent Miss Self-Sufficient becomes Princess -of Pop At Hammerstein Ballroom Wednesday with Graham Colton Band edged guitar-fueled version of the Dreams (Are Made of Clarkson rocked hard through new songs "Walk and from her album as well as a punk version of the ballad "A Moment Like This" that sounded like a one-finger salute to Simon Cowell Even some ballads term career as an artist breaking away from her past On her current tour she shows how far she has come Clarkson opened with "Since Been the pop trifle from the Swedish hit factory of Backstreet Boys Britney Spears maestro Max Martin that she turned into a chart-topping smash by calling for loads of rock guitars to play off her- powerful voice Professional that she is Clarkson pogoed and spun throughout the song even though she stepped on some glass early in the song (the mitial shock causing her to flub a line though she quickly recovered) and a piece got embedded in her foot The injury and some recurring problems with her skirt which she at times held up to keep it from falling off slow her down during the 75-minute set gonna rock out a bit so get she said meriy of Evanescence Her powerful version of and a stripped-down "Beautiful showed she still has one foot in the pop world while her covers of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My and BB Thrill Is Gone" make it clear not ready to break with world just yet Clarkson is still in transition but her new rock ballad answers any questions about her current direction Opener the Graham Colton Band shared nice-and-earnest rocker image but lacks her star power Their likable but bland pop-rockers "Killing which included some of and were catchy enough to- win some love from the crowd That could be due to the politeness of Clarkson's fans though trying to be like their hero after all ready to break away but not too far LHhJLq jir'i ti trjiL-zi'q ti LiL BY GLENN GAMBOA STAFF WRITER Thanks to both her nervous giggle and her "American Idor-winning roar Kelly Clarkson has gone from Burleson Texas waitress to promising pop star in three short years Until recently the 23-year-old rare ability to take someone song and take it over a skill needed both on as well as the pop world where songs from a variety of writers are thrown at young singers to turn into hits has brought her success Clarkson now seems poised to take that short-term victory and turn it into a long- including (which have a dramatic rock Clarkson called "my favorite edge to them thanks in part song ever and to her collaboration with Ben the new single of Moody and David Hodges for- ijiijfcA hoduinsl tol 1 Jl.