'Chitty' duo having bang-up time

NEW YORK — Marc Kudisch and Jan Maxwell certainly seem to be in touch with reality.

As the duo dug in to a pre-performance meal of pasta pomodoro and chicken at a restaurant near Times Square, the talk turned to the rising cost of producing theater in New York and the knee problems each was experiencing.

There was no indication by either, especially Maxwell, of an irrational dislike of children, and both managed to get through dinner without accidentally shooting the waiter. In other words, the two were nothing like their characters in the Broadway musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

As Baron and Baroness Bomburst, Kudisch and Maxwell have been terrorizing the citizens of Vulgaria with their dictatorial ways while delighting audiences with their comic timing and delivery.

"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" is a hugely expensive production in which a flying car is the ultimate crowd pleaser, but pay close attention to the audience's reaction when the villains are on stage. You may notice that Kudisch and Maxwell get the biggest laughs, many of the laughs coming from gags they've created together, independent of the script.

"What Jan and Marc are doing . . . it's just extraordinary," said Frederick Zollo, one of the show's producers. "They've been magical since the first day of rehearsal."

"Chitty" came to Broadway after first being a huge success in London, where it opened in 2002. However, both Kudisch and Maxwell say, the humor in that show — particularly the laughs generated by the Baron and Baroness — struck them as slightly off. So they consulted with director Adrian Noble, who also directed the London version, and were given carte blanche to create their characters in a way they saw fit.

"We noticed there was a little bit of a difference between British humor and American humor," Maxwell said. "So we tried to steer everything to our sense of humor rather than theirs."

Inspiration came from various sources. For Maxwell, she thought of games she plays at home with her 9-year-old son. As a result, she and Kudisch now play patty-cake during the performance of "Chu-Chi Face," the duo's first singing number.

For Kudisch, a tall, hulking man with a face that can look fierce thanks to his bald head and black goatee, the key was getting in touch with his childlike side. For much of the time he is on stage, he bounces around like an overgrown kid, whining for toys he wants and pouting when things don't go his way.