Matilda The Musical

The breathless anticipation for the opening of Matilda almost led to an unseemly fight between my 19 year old and 11 year old daughters, over who would accompany me to the starry, starry opening night.

Looking around at the uber A list audience it seemed everyone wanted to be there, including Hollywood A Lister Mel Gibson.

Is it worth the hype?  One hundred percent yes.

The larger than life twisted characters of Roald Dahl blend seamlessly with the quirky, rule breaking, sweet and sour music of Tim Minchin. 

Fancy the chutzpah of ending the first act not with a big sing and dance number, but a chord. But there still are a few hummable tunes in there, including ‘When I Grow Old’, ‘Quiet’ and ‘Revolting Children’.

Dennis Kelly’s book adds a nice bit of humanity to one of Dahl’s sour characters - the used car salesman, male chauvinist pig father of Matilda - Mr Wormwood.

And he fleshed out a sub plot in the novel to give Matilda’s imagination even more scope to run wild.

The children and choreography are revoltingly dazzling. They twist, turn and cavort with a discipline that would challenge adult dancers.

Bella Thomas – aged 11 – commanded the stage. You need plenty of spunk to portray a child genius and she had it by the bucket load.

Tightly kept under wraps in the pre-publicity was the larger than life villain Miss Trunchbull, amply fleshed out in the role of his lifetime by James Millar.

How they will fight and scratch to play this role in amateur theatre land when the rights are released (in a very long time).

James looked so ridiculously funny that you could not be genuinely terrified of him. He was more pantomime dame that wicked witch of the west.

Sweetness personified was Elise McCann as Miss Honey – conquering the almost unsingable song Tim Minchin penned for the role.

She was a foil for the Matilda’s ghastly parents played by Marika Aubrey and Daniel Fredereksen.

As you’d expect there are a few magic tricks thrown into the mix in a night of zany fun.

Matilda will thrill those who are young and young at heart.

David Spicer

Photographer: James Morgan