Matilda: The musical for children and adults

Matilda The Musical
Based on Roald Dahl’s book

Music & Lyrics,Tim Minchin Lyric Theatre, Sydney
Until November 8

Do you abuse your children? Were you ever abused by your parents? If so, Matilda is the musical for you either as a cathartic experience or a learning experience.

It’s a tragi-comedy for children and a cautionary tale for adults and chidren showing at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney. Based on Roald Dahl’s children's book, the musical traces the life of Matilda from her birth, which is a shocking imposition on her parents and she continues to be a problem, taking to reading, observing and commenting. By the time she turns five and goes to school, she has read all the classics including Dostoevsky, in Russian.

Her teacher, Miss Honey, sees her as a genius but her parent think she is unnatural and ban her from reading. As her dad says “All I know I learned from television.” Fully supporting the parent’s view that she is a maggot is the headmistress Miss Trunchbull.

With the support of the caring teacher, Miss Honey, she triumphs over adversity, even saving her father from suffering at the hand of the Russian Mafia – her reading of Dostoyevsky has its uses.

The musical delves into the nightmarish dreamworld of children where we see the world from the perspective of children but it is also a work about the power of language and the use of knowledge and the pursuit of truth. Matilda flies in the face of the old adage of W C Fields about not working with animals or children. There are nearly as many children as adults and they put on performances as good as those of the adults. There are four Matildas who get rotated around the performances but on my night she was sung by 10 year old Georgia Taplin, a name we are sure to see more of over the next decade. She was a real pro, creating an engaging and believable character and she was brought real emotion to the role. The one problem, and one which is common to young girls, is they often get a squeak in their voices which can obscure the occasional word. As her mother and father Mr and Mrs Wormwood, Daniel Frederiksen and Marika Aubrey gave good solid performances, their cartoon-like behaviours and strident voices a foil to that of Matilda.

Miss Trunchbull was played in proper pantomime fashion by James Millar as a creepy combination of Adolf Hitler and John Cleese. Elise McCann was like a children’s good fairy, sprinkling light and decency into a dark nightmarish world and she had the glorious voice to make it work.

It’s a brilliantly directed work but what makes this musical special is the clever script that never feels as if it is a lot of candy floss. The sweetness is tempered with sharp cutting realism and it all feels much more gutsy than most of the musicals of the past 30 years. The musical premiered at the RSC’s The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in November 2010, playing to sold-out audiences before transferring to London’s West End. Since then it has been playing internationally and picked up numerous awards. The London production went on to smash theatreland records when it scooped a total of seven awards at the 2012 Laurence Olivier Awards, securing its place in the Book of Guinness World Records for Most Laurence Olivier award wins. In the process Matilda The Musical stole the title from the 1980 production of Nicholas Nickleby, also a Royal Shakespeare Company production, which had held the record, with six Olivier awards, for more than 20 years.

Matilda The Musical is written by playwright Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by the anarchic Australian comedian, musician and composer Tim Minchin, and direction by Matthew Warchus. The production is designed by Rob Howell, with choreography by Peter Darling, orchestrations additional music and musical supervision by Christopher Nightingale, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker and the special effects and illusions are by Paul Kieve.

John Daly-Peoples was a guest of Destination New South Wales

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