Matilda, the Musical

Photo taken from here

Last Wednesday, for my birthday, Stuart took me to see Matilda, the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre, London. When I was younger Matilda was one of my favourite books, and certainly my favourite Roald Dahl story. I was a bit of a book worm and I loved that Matilda was a precocious reader. I adored reading the book and looking at all Quentin Blake's illustrations as they really brought the story to life.  As I got older I watched the film version and although they had moved the whole story to America it kept all the magic of the book and I must have watched it hundred of times! Therefore it was only time and money that had stopped me seeing the musical version as soon as it came out.

I've been to lots of shows, and lots of theatres in London but I've never been to the Cambridge Theatre before. When we arrived I was pleased to see that despite being in the Upper Circle the theatre is relatively small so our view was good; I could see the whole stage which wasn't too far away so although I might not be able to see the actors facial expressions I would certainly be able to tell who was singing (strange I know but I've been to shows where I had no idea what was going on because I was so far away!). The next thing to check out was the set, cover in letters and books it was exactly what you would expect of Matilda. Then, before the curtains went up and the lights went down the worst thing happened. The row behind us which had been completely empty started filling up... with noisy school children. Now I may be a little Trunchbull here but I'm not the biggest fan of kids, especially in the theatre (I know, why didn't this cross my mind before we booked tickets for a show based on a kids book, with dozens of child actors!). However I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt that they'd shut up eventually so I waited patiently for the show to start. Then it started and all the child actors ran on stage to sing and dance their little hearts out. As this happened, I realised something that I had put to the back of my mind when I heard Matilda was going to be a musical, I realised I don't like kids singing! Shit! This was shaping up to be a disappointing evening! I'm not saying the kids were bad singers at all, but there is just something whiny or extra sugary sweet about kids singing that just gets my goat. This is the reason I have only seen Oliver! and The Sound of Music when I took my mum as a birthday treat. I know I am sounding like a complete Scrooge but I have to be honest. Perhaps my feelings were summed up best in the first song 'Miracle' where the kids sang about how their parents thought they were each a precious little snowflake. I don't know where this dislike of kids and particularly singing kids comes from, I'm going to blame it on the fact I didn't get part of Annie at our local theatre when I was younger....

Things brightened up for me with the appearance of Miss Trunchbull. In the books she is a vile person in every way, she is the perfect villain you love to hate and the show portrayed her just as I imagined. As we were quite far back it took a few minutes to realise she was played by a man - Bertie Carvel, who won an Oliver Award for Best Actor for this role. I loved her, she was evil, grotesque, and easily the best character in the show. I personally loved both her songs, and if you go look out for her ribbon dance!

Matilda & Miss Trunchbull - photo from here

Another of my favourite bits of the show is the story Matilda tells to the Librarian about an Acrobat and an Escapologist. Although this story isn't in the book I think it works perfectly to bring Matilda and Miss Honey's stories together. As Matilida's story builds so do the characters in it, I particularly loved how they used puppets and silhouettes to animate it.

Matilda's story - photo from here

Now although I don't like children singing there were some very good songs, I particularly liked 'When I grow up' and 'Quiet'. I really think I would have enjoyed this show more if the kids behind me had shut up (I'm not one to sit there and do nothing, I did turn round and ask them to be quiet, and they were  for a few minutes and then straight back to talking amongst themselves - does this school have no teachers!) and if the tickets weren't so expensive. Stuart paid £47 each for our tickets. This would be ok, if we were in the Royal Circle, but when you are up the the Upper Circle it seems little expensive. Normally I wouldn't pay more than £40 for a show and £30 for Upper Circle tickets. To have paid almost £100 and still have to put up with kids messing around behind you it kind of put you in a shit for the whole performance.

So in conclusion I would say Matilda is a great show, with some funny songs, a wonderful set and an amazing Miss Trunchbull but before you go make sure you are more like Miss Honey and a little less like the Wormwoods, you may enjoy it more!