Opening Night of Matilda The Musical, Review by Fiona Lister (24 November, 2011)

Showing now at the Cambridge Theatre, London

'Matilda', Roald Dahl’s powerful, dark children’s story, has been lifted from the pages onto the stage. The Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning musical is enthralling audiences over at the Cambridge Theatre.

Last Thursday night the atmosphere at The Really Useful Theatre Group’s elegant 1930s theatre was electric. Stars and theatregoers waited in the foyer for the show’s inspirational composer and lyricist, Tim Minchin, to arrive. I couldn’t wait to see what the mind behind songs such as ‘Inflatable You’, ‘If the Pope Owned A Disco’ and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Nerd’ has created for the West End stage.

Australian composer, lyricist and comedian Tim Minchin is known for his colourful lyrics and vibrant comedy songs about the absurdity of every day living and attitudes. Combine this talent with Roald Dahl’s ability to write through the eyes of a child and the end result is explosive. It’s such a shame that Dahl is not here to see the mesmerising end result. Minchin is also blessed with a childlike charm that enables him to interpret Roald Dahl through music in a way that doesn’t detract from the author’s original text. Minchin stays true to Dahl’s surreal observations and sprinkles his own unique magic in the form of music onto the story. Both children and adults totally identify with his vibrant treatment of the author’s love of storytelling.

Minchin collaborated with Dennis Kelly on this production. I was interested to read that Kelly’s plays have been performed in over thirty countries worldwide and translated into twenty languages. Kelly’s productions for young people include: ‘DNA’ (National Theatre) and ‘Our Teacher is a Troll’ (National Theatre of Scotland).

Matilda is directed by the award-winning Director Matthew Warchus who directed Matilda in Stratford last year. It was Warchus who first approached Minchin to get involved in the musical for the RSC. In one scene the children are singing on swings high above the stage and in another they are dancing on their desks. Warchus has made maximum use of the stage, which I thought was slightly small for such a spectacular show. The stage direction is varied and explores the energy and vibrancy of youth; the children are able to run amok through the energetic dance numbers, choreographed by Peter Darling (Choreographer) and Ellen Kane (Associate Choreographer). The animated children climb, they dance and they scamper about. The set design is sensational. Rob Howell (Set & Costume Design) has created a world full of colourful scrabble letter blocks that change throughout the show. There are swings, a climbing frame, and desks to dance upon.

The fantastic creative team must be given credit and includes: André Ptaszynski (Executive Producer); Christopher Nightingale (Orchestrations, Additional Music and Musical Supervisor); Bruce O’Neil (Musical Director); Luke Sheppard (Associate Director); Lotte Wakeham (Associate Director); Hugh Vanstone (Lighting Design); Jessica Ronane (Children’s Casting Director); Jeanie O’Hare (Commissioning Dramaturg); Paul Kieve (Illusion); Hannah Miller (Casting Director) and Simon Baker (Sound Design).

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a just a story for children – it’s not. It’s a trip down memory lane and you will re-live your own childhood ghosts! The story of ‘Matilda’ is a parable for our own fears, rebellion and love of stories and it does bring out the inner child in most of us. The characters are exaggerations of people we meet in our everyday lives – sometimes they are ghastly and occasionally they are delightful.

Minchin has poured a huge amount of punch into this already heady children’s tale of loss, bullying and rejection. The end result is like watching a combination of Lionel Bart’s ‘Oliver!’ and ‘Annie’ by Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan, having drunk several potent cocktails. Minchin’s powerful concoction is dreamlike and trippy – rather like one of those dreams where you are running on the spot or flying over hedgerows and buttercup-covered hillocks. It’s surreal in an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ way and is utterly charming. There’s a sensitivity and freedom to this treatment of Dahl's work. The characters play upon our childhood sense of fun and daring. They make you think, laugh and cry.

The West End hasn’t seen anything like this since Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Tim Rice burst onto the stage with the brilliant ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’. However, I’m not going to say that Minchin is the next Andrew Lloyd Webber, because he’s not. Both composers are totally unique and have their own very different styles, but the one characteristic they share is their love for grandeur, zest for colour and their ability to magnify the surreal. I would also think that like Lloyd Webber, Minchin is a perfectionist – his attention to songwriting, lyrics, direction and detail are incredibly slick and profound. The musical score in this show is unforgettable and the lyrics are infectious, particularly in ‘Naughty’, ‘When I Grow Up’, ‘Revolting Children’ and ‘My House’.

The central character, Matilda, is played on alternate nights by four up-and-coming child stars: Sophia Kiely, Kerry Ingram, Cleo Demetriou and Eleanor Worthington Cox who played the role on press night. The story follows Matilda’s unhappy childhood with her dysfunctional parents, Mrs Wormwood (Josie Walker) and Mr Wormwood (Paul Kaye). Lacking any love or compassion from the beastly pair, trickster Matilda hides away in her room with books for company and becomes enthralled by reading and stories. Just as Matilda’s intelligence and love for literature and stories grows, her ignorant parents become more vicious and demand to know why she’s not watching telly – in fact there’s a musical number called ‘Telly’. Super intelligent Matilda doesn’t fit with their perception of how life should be and she’s left fending for herself. They are downright abusive to Matilda leaving you thinking that she should probably be taken into care!

Bertie Carvel plays the role of Miss Trunchbull, Matilda’s terrifying headmistress, a deeply disturbed woman with scraped back hair in a bun and a massive wart. Carvel cuts a beastly figure as a savage, demented matronly demon, with a pair of knockers so large they appear to make his female form look ultra butch and top-heavy. He swings himself about like a hefty Nazi Frau and picks on the schoolchildren at whim, forcing one young lad to eat an entire gigantic Shetland pony-sized cake. In one monstrous scene, the Trunchbull picks up a schoolgirl by the pigtails and swings her around in the air as though she were a rag doll. The whole audience gasped in horror; the special effects team had of course seamlessly covered the cracks between illusion and reality. Enter school inspectors and Ofsted!

Bertie Carvel is much scarier than Sir Robert Helpmann CBE who played the role of the Child-Catcher in the classic family film ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’. I would rather accept a lollipop from the Child-Catcher than a cake from the Trunchbull. The Trunchbull cares nothing for childish stories or Matilda and only wants to use fear on her pupils in the same way that governments like to use this emotion to control people. Thank heavens that another school teacher, Miss Honey (played by Lauren Ward), decides to rescue child prodigy Matilda from her desperate confines.

Matilda The Musical is a show that both children and adults love, in fact, most of the audience are adults! ‘Matilda’ has just won The Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2011. It’s a show with universal appeal.

Seeing this exquisite production is a must. If you miss this remarkable musical The Trunchbull will force feed you a gigantic cake the size of a Fresian cow as punishment! CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION AND TICKETS