'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' stage musical to debut in Australia

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is coming to Australia for the first time.

The stage musical, which is based on the 1960s film starring Dick Van Dyke and Sally Ann Howes, is scheduled to premiere in Melbourne late next year and then tour all over the country.

The show's producer Tim Lawson told the Herald Sun: "I don't know where it's going to be starting, but it's definitely coming."

Lawson is holding auditions in Melbourne next week for 300 actors and singers hoping to take part in upcoming production A Chorus Line, due to open early next year. He described the show as "probably one of the hardest musicals to cast".

Child musical Annie will relocate from Sydney to Melbourne's Regent Theatre in the middle of next year, while Rock of Ages is scheduled to move to Brisbane and Sydney after it finishes in Melbourne in November.

It was announced last month that a musical version of An Officer and a Gentleman will debut at Sydney's Lyric Theatre from May 24, following in the feet of Dr Zhivago and Strictly Ballroom: The Musical before it.

After the producers managed to secure the show over London's West End and New York's Broadway, New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell said: "This again cements Sydney's place as the leading city for musical theatre across Australia."

Watch a clip from the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie below: