20th of April I headed up with my Best Friend for a day out in my favourite place ever! London. Again I was going back to the west end after 2 months of parting. After being tourists and visiting the London Dungeons early that morning, a little stroll around the city in the lovely sunny weather, dinner and a quick drink in the pub, it was off to the Cambridge Theatre to the Royal Shakespeare Company ‘Matilda The Musical.’
The playbook Written by Dennis Kelly, and music and lyrics by comedian Tim Minchin, the story is based on the Roald Dahl’s Children’s book it tells the story of a little girl, ill treated by her parents, and misunderstood by all except a few who truly see who she really is. As Matilda has a gift, and so much intelligence. she loved to read, and especially loved stories, and when she attends school at Miss Trunchball’s School, a school run by a horrible headmistress who lives by rules and discipline, it is Matilda’s teacher Miss Honey, who see’s her as she truly is, a girl who helps those who are around her, her classmates, and her teacher, making sure things are put right the way they should. “…And if its not right, You’ve got to put it right!”
I never myself read the book as a child (but now I kind of want to) but I had watched the film starring Danny DeVito, and Mara Wilson. The theatre I believe takes a whole new take on the story, including the classic moments such as, the Newt in the water, and the tricks she plays on her father, and of course her special magical gift, but the theatre makes it all so much more, in the program Dennis Kelly states “one of the great things about Matilda in the novel is her love of books. its infectious…I began to feel that we needed to expand her love of books into love of stories…There are two types of grown-ups in Matilda – the ones who love stories and the ones who don’t. Mr and Mrs Wormwood and the Trunchbull hate Stories. They are irritated by them and threatened by them – they think they are a waste of time and energy-and as characters they are generally mean, irritating and sometimes quite stupid. Mrs Phelps and Miss Honey, on the other hand love stories” The main focus of this production is Stories, and throughout they are shown by Matilda, and you can see the difference from those who love and hate stories, as when she attempts to tell her mother a story she immediately shuts her up and shouts over her to stop her from talking, yet when Matilda is in the library Mrs Phelps loves to listen Matilda’s story and gets upset when Matilda doesn’t finish.
The story for the Musical is beautifully set out, Tim Minchin’s music just adds that little bit extra to this special story, and Tim Minchin says ‘I think theatre should always aim to make its audience laugh and cry, unless there’s a really good reason why not. Stories are best when they are a bit like roller coasters, with highs and lows, twists and turns, a good bit of fear and the significant risk that someone might vomit. Matilda has all these things making it the perfect story for a stage musical. songs allow us to make those highs soar even higher, and those lows seem even darker and the turns even twistier and the ending all the more satisfying.” You can defiantly tell that it is Tim Minchin Telly’ they songs are so enjoyable and the children perform it so well. My dissertation at university was based on the adaptation from Film to Musical, and research and a lot of words demonstrated that going to the musical is much more enjoyable to view than that of the film, because music can effect us in such a good way that it enlightens us and enables us to enjoy the experience so much more than sitting in a cinema. Matilda shows this completely, and the music just makes the story so much more magical that both adults, and children can enjoy!
So that’s the story, and creators views now onto the production, and my views!
This was the first time that I have visit the Cambridge Theatre, having past it many times when Chicago was running, (one of the longest running shows at that theatre) and being based in the 6 Corners of London I wasn’t expecting it to be as big as it was. I was placed in the upper circle, being that Matilda hasn’t been running for too long, it is still a high demand musical and prices are quite high for best seats like in the stalls, upper circle is ranged from 35 to 25 pounds, seats in the stalls are 70 to 65. However placed in for G seats 19 and 20 and our view was not restrictive and we were able to see the whole stage.
The only downside from being up high, and not down in the stalls of front row of the Upper and Dress Circle or the Stalls was you missed a lot of the performers coming out into the audience (as the 4th wall is broken throughout the productions) and what happened when Trunchball walks out into the audience, and the scene where she grabs the girl by the pigtails, so when if you have the money then sitting in the stalls would be best, but don’t feel the need to as I enjoyed it all the same being in the upper circle.
From the photo the staging was very ‘square’ and was kind of seen as a scrabble board in some ways, with blocks with different letters, and if you look carefully hidden are some words which was fun to look for during interval. The different settings for each of the scenes flowed so swiftly, from the book cases, to the desks for the classroom coming from the floor all the squares fitted together like a puzzle, and anything else that needed adding such as the chalk board, and living room chairs were brought on by the cast neatly, and believably you understand that they are actually in the living room, or classroom…its amazing what your imagination can do, and I have a feeling that is what the director and writers wanted you to do with Matilda, use that noggin and like in a book to create the visual of the story you use your imagination!
We were very lucky for this performance as we had all lead principles playing except for one understudy. The cast this was:
Mrs Wormwood – Annette McLaughlin
Mr Wormwood – Steve Furst
Michael Wormwood – Nick Searle
Mrs Phelps – Melanie La Barrie
Miss Honey – Hayley Flahety
Miss Trunchbull – David Leonard
Doctor/ The Escapologist – Tommy Sherlock (Understudy)
And our Matilda that night was played by:
Lucy Mae Beacock.
Sadly I was unaware of what children played which roles for the other students such as Bruce and Lavender, though I must say each and everyone of them were so amazing, and my best friend also agrees as when asked if she wanted to put any input into this blog the first thing she said was ‘the kids were AMAZING!’, Im so jealous of their talent, and what they are doing as I myself would have loved to have done that as a kid, they performed so professionally and it was hard to tell who were the adults and who were the kids! The only thing that was a downer was during ‘Miracle’ I felt I had to listen harder to understand what they were singing and seemed a bit messy and too quick, but when my ears adjusted all the rest of the songs I was able to enjoy especially the ‘School Song’
Lucy Mae Beacock is such a little star, and stole the show, she was confident, acted in such a manor that it was second nature, and her voice was beautiful! How she learned all her songs, lines, cues, and dance moves I don’t know but she pulled it off well, and I loved watching her. Parents Mrs and Mr Wormwood played by Annette McLaughlin, and Steve Furst (who is probably the well known of the cast having been in Little Britain, the Orange Wednesday Adverts, and a few British movies, he also attended my past University of Winchester, so he gets brownie points right there!) were a great couple, though I don’t think you need an amazing voice to play these roles as there songs don’t hold much of a note to them, but playing the role and portraying the character is very important, and both actors did this swimmingly! Micheal included though he said very little, he made the audience laugh, and that’s all that mattered in making sure he played him well!
Mrs Phelps the library manager was a lovely character played by Melanie La Barrie, she was the character that helped show how much stories were important to the story, and was always there to listen to Matilda’s stories and always wanting to know what happens next, she doesn’t have a solo in this but her presence on stage, and what she stood for was very important to the story, she was funny, and a character you enjoy, and eveytime she would egg on Matilda to carry on with the story of the escapologist and the acrobatic you knew that the rest of the audience was right behind her! Miss Honey played by Hayley Flatley, had a strong yet petite voice which was perfect for the character, she was sweet, and innocent and yet towards the end she demonstrated how Matilda had influenced her and helped her grow stronger and stand up for herself…and she could dance! You could tell that she loved working with the kids, as a teacher and as the actor.
Mrs Trunchball, the villain of the story, took a leaf out of ‘Hairspray’ and chose a male actor to portray the role in the performance, David Leonard was part of the original cast of Matilda, and still stays strong today, I think the reason behind choosing a male to portray Mrs Trunchball is to show how masculine and strong willed she really is, and I don’t think any female could demonstrate that as well as a male could, I believe anyway, unless it was the actress who played her in the film version it would be very hard to match up to her. But David was great! I really loved him, when ever he was on stage you couldn’t take your eyes of him, his facial expressions, his looming presence, he made us laugh, he made us gasp and sometimes I really believed that the children or Maggots as Mrs Trunchball would say, were afraid of him, and although he was male, you don’t see that he just turns into the character and you can’t think of him any other way!
One thing I really loved about this show was the curtain call, it was done in such a unique and fun way that I would have loved to have done it! They all come out in scooters, and each was individually personalised for their character! It really was a great way to end the show, especially as Matilda and the children took their last bow and you see Mrs Trunchball flying across the stage with one final line of ‘Maggots!’ it was the icing on the cake so to speak!
I highly recommend this show, its for everyone, and if you loved the book or film as a child then you will love it more live on stage and if your an adult. Its one for the family to take your kids to, or just with your mates or partner, I know next time I will try and get seats in the stalls, but hopefully soon there maybe some offers going but I don’t think it will be too soon!
