"Come to the Funfair" is a song first written for the 1968 musical film

Musical film

The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 musical film with a script by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, and songs by the Sherman Brothers, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. It starred Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious. The...

but was cut almost entirely from the final edit of the film. The musical theme is still heard in the soundtrack immediately after "Caractacus Potts

Caractacus Potts

Caractacus Potts is one of the main characters in the family film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He is an eccentric inventor who lives with his twin eight-year-old children, Jeremy & Jemima, and Grandpa Potts, on the Potts' hilltop farm...

" (Dick Van Dyke

Dick Van Dyke

Richard Wayne "Dick" Van Dyke is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer with a career spanning six decades. He is the older brother of Jerry Van Dyke, and father of Barry Van Dyke...

) sings "Hushabye Mountain

Hushabye Mountain

"Hushabye Mountain" is a ballad by the songwriting team Robert and Richard Sherman. It appears twice in the 1968 Albert R. Broccoli motion picture Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: first as an idyllic lullaby by Caractacus Potts to his children; and later when the children of Vulgaria have lost all hope of...

". Then Potts gets the idea to earn money by cutting hair at the funfair. The music is heard as carnies walk by in the distance. The song was written by Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman.

Musical resurrection

The song was resurrected for the 2002 stage production

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (musical)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, also known as Chitty the Musical, is a stage musical based on the 1968 film produced by Cubby Broccoli. The music and lyrics were written by Richard and Robert Sherman with book by Jeremy Sams.-Productions:...

 of the same name and was fashioned into a big transitional dance number. It was choreographed by Gillian Lynne

Gillian Lynne

Gillian Barbara Lynne , CBE, born , is a British ballerina, dancer, actor, theatre director, television director and choreographer noted for her popular theatre choreography associated with the iconic musicals Cats and the current longest running show in Broadway history, The Phantom of the Opera.-...

. The song was directed with a "tinge of the psychedelic" by Royal Shakespeare Company

Royal Shakespeare Company

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

 director Adrian Noble

Adrian Noble

Adrian Keith Noble is a theatre director, and was also the artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1990 to 2003.-Education and career:...

 partly as an ode to the original film's director's (Ken Hughes

Ken Hughes

Ken Hughes was a British film director, writer, and producer.-Personal history:Wife Charlotte Hughes living in LA...

') fresh filmic treatment of the story.