Following an acclaimed season in Stratford, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s world premiere production of Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical transfers to London’s Cambridge Theatre.
Roald Dahl's much-loved story of Matilda bursts into life on stage in this brand new musical version where children and adults alike will be thrilled and delighted by the story of the special little girl with an extraordinary imagination.
Matilda’s parents think she is a nuisance and she thinks, quite rightly, they are only interested in watching telly. Life is not much better at school, where the monstrous headmistress Miss Trunchbull terrifies both students and teachers ALIKE. Then one day Matilda discovers she has a very special power and decides it's time the grown-ups were taught a lesson. Be warned, the children are revolting...
Matilda The Musical played to sold-out audiences at the Royal Shakespeare Companies Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon for twelve weeks from November 2010 to January 2011.
The Matilda musical, which captured the imagination of young and old alike during its short run, is written by the highly acclaimed playwright Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by the anarchic Australian comedian, musician and composer Tim Minchin, and direction by Matthew Warchus.
Many adult cast members from the original production will reprise their roles at the Cambridge Theatre with the Matilda cast including Bertie Carvel (Miss Trunchbull), Paul Kaye (Mr Wormwood) Josie Walker (Mrs Wormwood) and Lauren Ward (Miss Honey).
We have some great Matilda tickets so follow the buy tickets links for a magical evening for young and old alike!
Dates: Opens 25 November 2011. Tue 19:00. Wed-Sat 19:30. Sun 15:00. Wed,Sat Mats 14:30 21 March 2012 14:30 - Audio Described 12 April 2012 19:30 - Captioned 12 April 2012 19:30 - Captioned 10 June 2012 15:00 - Audio Described 13 June 2012 19:30 - Captioned 18 August 2012 14:30 - Captioned 18 August 2012 19:30 - Captioned 30 August 2012 19:30 - Audio Described 11 October 2012 19:30 - Audio Described 21 October 2012 15:00 - Captioned
The hotly-anticipated West End transfer of the RSC's Matilda the Musical opened to critics last night (24 November, previews from 25 October) at the Cambridge Theatre following a sell-out season in Stratford.
Roald Dahl's story of the little girl with astonishing wit, intelligence and psychokinetic powers has been adapted by Tim Minchin (music and lyrics) and Dennis Kelly (book) and is directed by Matthew Warchus, whose previous West End credits include the large-scale Lord of the Rings musical and Ghost.
Bertie Carvel plays formidable headmistress Miss Trunchbull whilst Lauren Ward takes the role of teacher Miss Honey. They are joined by fellow original cast members Paul Kaye and Josie Walker as Matilda's parents Mr and Mrs Wormwood as well as three teams of children in the younger roles. The production is designed by Rob Howell with choreography by Peter Darling.
Matilda the Musical is currently booking at the Cambridge Theatre until 12 February 2012 - though on the evidence of these reviews, we can probably expect an extension announcement sometime soon...
"After its cascade of rave reviews in Stratford-upon-Avon last December, I was expecting to really enjoy the RSC’s musical version of Roald Dahl’s brilliant children’s story. And I did. But there are a few bumps in the adaptation by Dennis Kelly, and Tim Minchin’s songs are deficient in nothing except melody. It’s a good stomping, syncopated score, with some incessantly intricate lyrics and some especially good choral numbers for the schoolchildren of all ages, but hardly a tune to savour all night ... I saw the delightful, waif-like pocket dynamo Sophia Kiely ... Bertie Carvel has been rightly acclaimed in this role, which he manages to discharge as a glinting pantomime dame without going too far over the top ... James Beesley ... is just one of many outstanding singing and dancing juniors on show. Top marks and no detention for that lot. If Lauren Ward wasn’t so delightful as Miss Jenny Honey ... you’d say Carvel stole the show. She actually makes Miss Honey as unselfconsciously nice as she is in the book, no mean feat. And she has the best voice in the show, too ... Mr and Mrs Wormwood, Matilda’s ghastly parents, are splendidly caricatured by Paul Kaye and Josie Walker ... You can’t see the band – always a negative in a musical – but Chris Nightingale’s orchestrations are top notch, and Rob Howell’s design, beautifully lit by Hugh Vanstone, is a playground marvel ..."
"When it came to deciding which production should receive the prize for best musical at the Evening Standard Drama Awards this year, there was virtually no debate among the judges. It was crystal clear that the statuette should go to the RSC’s hilarious, moving and magical production of Matilda ... Aussie comedian Tim Minchin has come up with a smashing score ... There is an exuberant sense here of two writers who have clicked together – and magnificently expanded their range ... Matthew Warchus’ thrilling, warm-hearted production, exuberantly designed by Rob Howell and with pin-sharp choreography by Peter Darling, constantly combines comedy with a sense of wonder ... The children in the ensemble are terrific. At the performance I saw Eleanor Worthington Cox achieved a lovely mixture of solemnity and mischief as the heroine ... Full marks, too, to Jake Bailey as plump Bruce Bogtrotter, who proves both hilarious and heroic in the sequence in which he is forced to eat a gigantic chocolate cake. Josie Walker and Paul Kaye are memorably vile as Matilda’s grotesquely vulgar parents, Lauren Ward touchingly sweet as the kind teacher who is bullied herself. But the star turn is Bertie Carvel as Miss Trunchbull, the hammer-throwing champion of a sadistic headmistress ... Carvel ... is at once terrifying and hilarious, and the cherry on the cake of this glorious production."
"Writer Dennis Kelly and composer and lyricist Tim Minchin go to the top of the class with this anarchically joyous, gleefully nasty and ingenious musical adaptation of Roald Dahl's story about a girl, Matilda, played by Kerry Ingram, who scoffs Dickens and Dostoevsky like other kids eat sweets ... This classy and ultimately touching addition to the West End ... wears its learning and wit proudly, but has undoubted box office appeal too: it is likely to do for the RSC for the next 25 years what Les Mis has done for the past 25. If anything, it is actually richer than Dahl's novel. It captures all the original's delicious nastiness ... but it also celebrates the solace of books and the transforming powers of the imagination ... Like Matilda herself, the cleverness is evident in Kelly's nifty script, which never shirks the cruelty, or Matilda's feelings of rejection and loneliness ... It's also apparent in Minchin's witty lyrics and playful tunes, in Rob Howell's design ... and in Matthew Warchus' production keeping things nicely on the boil without ever exhibiting signs of hyperactivity. The production has a razor-sharp tongue-in-cheek edge that cuts in at the slightest hint of sweetness. Yet seldom has the inner rage of the hurt and powerless child been so effectively dramatised. That everyone is having a good time is apparent in every performance, particularly the children who are terrific. Nowhere is it more apparent than in Bertie Carvel's show-stopping turn as Miss Trunchbull."
"Matilda is a fabulous family fizzer. It has strong tunes, witty lyrics and enough ‘eew!’ moments to satisfy the most revolting urchin ... It is a measure of Bertie Carvel’s brilliance as la ‘Trunch’ that he nearly steals the show from the delicate sparrow playing Matilda ... Miss Worthington Cox is blessed with a quirky charm and her little classmates are terrific, too ... If Matthew Warchus’s RSC production has a fault it is the overdone amplification. Might a broader stage and bigger theatre have been a good idea? And adult dancers playing some of the pupils don’t add much ... Would Miss Trunchbull have passed her check by the Criminal Records Bureau today? Would Ofsted not have swooped to put the school in ‘special measures’? But let us just pose this caveat about the politics in Matilda. Is there not something to be said for Miss Trunchbull’s belief in discipline? I bet her school would turn out more successful pupils than the spongy-brained loafers who have been minted by the liberal teaching establishment and its factories of bog-standardism. It all ends with the audience uncertain whether or not to blub or cheer. You might even do both."
"This is an excellent home-grown British musical, although initially so frantic that, watching Peter Darling’s furious dance routines punched out by the ecstatically well-drilled troupe of children, you start to think you’ve eaten too many sweets. Yet director Matthew Warchus succeeds in adding glorious Technicolor to Dahl’s original written monochrome with a production full of exploding theatrical fireworks ... Matilda combines a queasy darkness with a joyous effervescence ... Carvel holds the show as Miss Trunchbull – a nightmarish icy spectacle of mincing, sadistic camp ... At the same time, Trunchbull beautifully reinforces – along with Matilda’s ghastly parents, the Wormwoods (played by Paul Kaye and Josie Walker) – how, in Dahl’s world, evil is always luridily, even exuberantly physical. Eleanor Worthington Cox’s Matilda (one of four young actresses sharing the role) is an innocent abroad in this world of repulsive adults while among the excellent young cast, Jake Bailey stands out as the beleaguered Bruce. There are quibbles: Minchin’s music at times gallops so fast you can’t hear the lyrics; Miss Honey (Lauren Ward), Matilda’s teacher, her role here expanded, is far too saccharine to belong in a Dahl story and is in great need of a few eccentricities. But Matilda is a triumphant testimony to stories themselves. You leave feeling a little bit giddy."
Dominic Maxwell The Times ★★★★
"... Although Matthew Warchus’ pyrotechnical production is faithful to the spirit of Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel, and although it makes nods to Quentin Blake’s illustrations too, it makes darn sure to establish a theatrical character of its own. So Tim Minchin’s songs and Dennis Kelly’s script reorder and amp up this story of a book-loving five-year-old genius, the family and horrible headmistress who don’t understand her and the teacher who does ... Four child actresses play Matilda in rotation: on our night it was Cleo Demetriou, who dances, sings, affects a working knowledge of Dostoevsky, and looks a plausible five yet never pleased with herself ... Matilda’s grotesque parents are geared towards the younger audience, but a spivvish Paul Kaye and a peroxide-glam Josie Walker pitch them perfectly. And everyone will adore Bertie Carvel as Miss Trunchbull, the hammer thrower turned head teacher ... Minchin’s songs are, like Matilda, smart but not smart-arsed ... But the upside of that is a family show that you don’t need a family to enjoy, which injects invention and energy to everything it does ..."
"Matilda is a gem. On its debut at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Stratford-upon-Avon home last winter, it looked a show of rare inventiveness and charm. Now, as it bursts onto the London stage, it seems every bit as enchanting - a winter warmer but with a nice side-order of surrealism. At the heart of this satisfyingly fresh adaptation of a cherished Roald Dahl story are Australian comedian Tim Minchin's music and lyrics, which ooze humour without veering towards smugness ... Rob Howell's towering design is ingenious, there is delicious choreography by Peter Darling and director Matthew Warchus marries moments of dazzling, noisy brilliance with others of real poignancy ... Matilda, played last night with aplomb by Sophia Kiely, is a sensitive creature ... Bertie Carvel is stupendously good as this hulking villain ... Each of the character's mannerisms feels perfectly calibrated. And there is lovely work all around him. The young performers are energetic and appealing and there are notable contributions among the adult members of the cast, from Paul Kaye as Matilda's greedy, vain and ridiculous father to Josie Walker as her preening mother. This is true family entertainment. Children will enjoy its blissful mix of fantasy and irreverence and adults will savour it for these same reasons as well as a host of different ones. This generous, big-hearted piece is already being spoken of as one of the best new British musicals in years. It seems set to run and run - and deservedly so."
After its cascade of rave reviews in Stratford-upon-Avon last December, I was expecting to really enjoy the RSC’s musical version of Roald Dahl’s brilliant children’s story. And I did.
But there are a few bumps in the adaptation by Dennis Kelly, and Tim Minchin’s songs are deficient in nothing except melody. It’s a good stomping, syncopated score, with some incessantly intricate lyrics and some especially good choral numbers for the schoolchildren of all ages, but hardly a tune to savour all night.
The narrative adds a fairy-tale told by Matilda to the school librarian (Melanie La Barrie) about the lost child of an acrobat and an escapologist, and it rather muddles up the clean classicism of Dahl’s conclusion. There’s also a sudden incursion of Russian Mafia that over-complicates the exodus of Matilda’s family to Spain, leaving her in happiness with Miss Honey.
But I have no complaints at all about Matthew Warchus’s production, which is a “school’s out” exercise in joyous liberation as Matilda – I saw the delightful, waif-like pocket dynamo Sophia Kiely, one of four girls rotating in the role – which pitches our heroine against the malign forces of her book-hating parents (one lyric rhymes Ian McEwan with spewin’) and the child-hating gargantuan head mistress Miss Trunchbull, an athletic hammer-throwing former champion with a sadistic side-line in gymnastics.
Bertie Carvel has been rightly acclaimed in this role, which he manages to discharge as a glinting pantomime dame without going too far over the top. In the show’s best stunt, he twirls a repellent student by her pigtails and despatches her to the gods; whence she falls with a vapid thump (illusions by Paul Kieve, natch).
The business with the rogue newt in her water jug, and indeed Matilda’s sudden onset of telekinetic powers, are less imaginatively done. The lyrics during Bruce Bogtrotter’s cake-eating feat are deliciously chewy but mostly inaudible. But James Beesley (the Bruce I saw, one of three) is just one of many outstanding singing and dancing juniors on show. Top marks and no detention for that lot.
If Lauren Ward wasn’t so delightful as Miss Jenny Honey (is that a deliberate onomatopoeic inversion of Miss Moneypenny, I wonder?), you’d say Carvel stole the show. She actually makes Miss Honey as unselfconsciously nice as she is in the book, no mean feat. And she has the best voice in the show, too.
Mr and Mrs Wormwood, Matilda’s ghastly parents, are splendidly caricatured by Paul Kaye and Josie Walker, the latter swopping her bingo obsession in the book for a theatrically obvious ballroom dancing habit and a snaky gigolo (Gary Watson).
You can’t see the band – always a negative in a musical – but Chris Nightingale’s orchestrations are top notch, and Rob Howell’s design, beautifully lit by Hugh Vanstone, is a playground marvel of Scrabble-style letter blocks, huge swings, school gym equipment and Miss Trunchbull’s green laser web for catching kids in the chokey.
i dont care for british musicals in the main, but found this amusing. i come in once a year from nyc to see some plays. found this year slim pickins' hence matilda, the physical was brillant. - r liam hackett
09 Feb 12
Read the other critics who rated it rather more highly and this OAP agreed. I had not read the book, fortunately I also have not read your review which blew the plot and would have spoiled it.
Is this the kind of critic who tells who dun it in the mouse trap perhaps? - BW Fatcat
25 Jan 12
I find some parts of this review somewhat harsh! I disagree with the lack of any songs to savour as 'The Smell of Rebellion' is an hilarious showstopper which contrasts perfectly with 'When I Grow Up' which prevents itself from becoming too oversentimental with its fair share of witty lyrics slipped in, a characteristic of many of the songs in this wonderful musical. The intricacy of this show's lyrics is what elevates it about the mediocrity of lyrics in many other productions in which the lyrics fail to live up to the magnificent orchestrations. I'm pleased to finally see a musical in which no-one steals the show too as all actors are given the moment to shine and they do with aplomb. I must admit that I did enjoy Bertie Carvel's performance the most though as it could have so easily been a ridiculous drag act but he was unnervingly menacing and you forget swiftly the gender of this character, overwhelmed by the melodious cruelty with which he executes his lines, milking them for every comical moment possible. There is a perfect balance of hilarity and pathos in this production and I have no doubt that this musical will have an extremely successful run. An extraordinary production and I must say far superior to Billy Elliot, the music of which is noticeably disappointing in contrast to its otherwise capitivating staging. - Rob
16 Jan 12
Walking through the foyers to your seats at the Cambridge Theatre is great fun as they’ve covered the walls with mini blackboards, each with a different chalked comment. When we got to our seats, in pole position in the front row of the Dress Circle, our mouthes fell open – Rob Howell’s extraordinary design spilled out from the stage onto the auditorium walls and ceiling.
Sadly, when the show started the sound was so bad we were missing a good quarter of the dialogue and lyrics (the developing cacophony of crisp & sweet rusting and malteser rolling increased that to 33%). What followed was brilliantly performed and executed (well, apart from the 15 minute pause to solve a technical problem – and I’m not entirely convinced it re-started at the exact point it stopped), but I didn’t think the book, music or lyrics were really that good. Has everyone been seduced by the spectacle and the hugely talented kids?
I don’t know which Matilda we had, but she was brilliant. Bertie Carvel’s Miss Trunchbull is a wonderful creation, and Paul Kaye and Josie Walker as the parents are excellent. Matthew Warchus’ staging and Peter Darling’s choreography are also superb….but at the end of the day, I really do think this is all papering over mediocre material. It’s not a ‘great British musical’ – it’s an up-market kids show and somehow I feel Roald Dahl’s story would be served better by a minimalist imaginative staging at the Young Vic or BAC where the kids could use their imagination rather than have it shoved in their faces like a video game.
Of course, it’s not for me. Maybe it’s great if you’ve got a few hundred quid and a couple of kids with ADHD to amuse for a few hours…… - Gareth James
13 Dec 11
5 stars from everyone else, come on Coveney only the hardest of hearts could not be won over by this piece! Absolutely brilliant, we have another hit British musical we can all be proud of!! - DC
06 Dec 11
Slightly overloud and overbusy at times (no doubt to entertain the children), this is nonetheless a great musical and an even more brilliant production. Bertie Carvel, Paul Kaye and Josie Walker are some truly terrible adult caricatures in the classic Dahl mould. Carvel, in particular, is droll and nuanced, cleverly underplaying some moments to increase the shock value of others, milking moments to maximise both suspense and humour. Lauren Ward, as the one adult who is decent to Matilda, is moving, and does self-hatred down to a tee. But at today's matinee, the show was made by tiny little Eleanor Worthington Cox as Matilda, who anchors the musical in loneliness and loss, and is frequently forlorn when others on stage are frenetic. She is a sweet singer and an emotive actress, with immense stage presence, and ridiculously, is only 10. Her character, Matilda, is constantly on stage and dominates the production with an immense amount of lines, so I can't say whether with another Matilda I would still give this 5 stars. In any event, don't miss Paul Kaye's appearance (with Peter Howe) in the interval, as his anti-reading tirade of a Tim Minchin song in support of "Telly" had me in hysterics. :) - steveatplays
04 Dec 11
Sometimes expectations for a show are built up so high that they are impossible to live up to and I felt a bit like that for Matilda.It's undeniably exceptionally enjoyable, brilliantly performed and designed, but it didn't quite have the magic I had hoped for. At times it's close to a pantomime and it doesn't engender the fear or pity for the children that the RSC previously achieved with Nicholas Nickleby. There are also times when Tim Minchin's frenetic tunes render the lyrics unintelligible. However that's enough negatives because Matilda succeeds superbly as a family show which will be loved by children. The choreography for the kids is breathtaking for such young performers. Matthew Warchus pushes the story along at a cracking pace and one effect of a child plummeting from the ceiling is better than anything in Ghost. We saw Kerry Ingram as Matilda, who has been with the show since Stratford, and she is astonishing, like a little female Liam Mower. Her Matilda has a winning mixture of solemnity and mischief and she even has to master some fluent Russian. For a girl of this age to carry such a massive role in a major show is quite remarkable and she does it without a hint of cloying precociousness. Matilda will be a huge draw during school holidays but I have some doubts that it has a broad enough appeal to emulate the longevity of Billy Elliott or The Lion King.
- David Baxter
01 Dec 11
Wonderfully Joyful production filled with amazing performances, fantastic score and very witty and moving dialogue. - Jack Stewart
25 Nov 11
Simply wonderful. - Paul Jones
25 Nov 11
Matilda is a reasonably good musical but not a great one, which has been over hyped in the press. Although beautifully staged and lit with a good cast it is unfortunately let down by the sound system which is over amplified and distorts the singers words during most of the songs. This is especially so during the childrens ensemble musical numbers when you can not hear the lyrics just a noise. The impressive staging is also let down by the lack of memorable music/songs but some of the lyrics are good, when you can hear them. I have to say though the young lady who played Matilda on the night we saw this, gave a 5 star performance as did Paul Kaye as the father. Bertie Carvel though as Miss Trunchbull gives a average comedy performance which has been once again been over hyped by the press and not a best actor award winning one. There have been better musical actor performances in the west end this year. In conclusion we much anticipated seeing Matilda, following the superb reviews it had at Stratford but unfortunately it does not live up to them and we regret going and would not see it again. Noticed a lot of empty seats in the theatre the night we went and there appeared to be quite a lot of friends of the cast too, so there should be plenty of reduced price tickets soon. In our opinion Betty Blue Eyes is still the best musical of 2011. - ils
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