After booking tickets to spend the weekend in London and deciding Matilda was the West End show me and my best friend, Meg, wanted to see; we arrived in London on Saturday 25th June and after our bus didn't turn up and we initially couldn't figure out which tube line to take, we started to have a bit of a panic and I wondered why we ever thought it was a good idea to come alone to London in the first place. But, after we eventually managed to make it to Shaftesbury avenue, where we seeked out the Cambridge Theatre and went to the Theatre Cafe for lunch, things started to seem a little bit brighter and we both started to actually enjoy ourselves.Matilda The Musical is based on the children's novel 'Matilda' written by Roald Dahl. It was adapted into a musical by Dennis Kelly (with music and lyrics from Tim Minchin) and although he changed a few things about the story such as writing a part for the librarian who runs the library Matilda visits, and including more of a base story for the history of Miss Honey's mother and father; there were reasons for these changes, he wanted to keep Matilda's love for books in the play - as this is one of the main character values for Matilda - so to do this he changed her love for books into a love of stories, so the play stayed interesting for the new and old audiences and this meant we continue to love the story, in it's new musical form. The most iconic parts of the play were also kept in the musical, these were parts of the story such as Amanda being swung around by her plaits and launched into the air, Matilda's unique gift of moving things with her eyes and Bruce being forced to eat a whole chocolate cake; all the parts of the story that we instantly think of when we think of Matilda were kept, for me, these are the most memorable parts of the story, they show what a horrible character Miss Trunchbull is and the karma that follows these vile acts, comes back to bite Miss Trunchbull on the bum, and helps add comedy to the story; these iconic moments are therefore very important to the story of Matilda as they hold the basis of why the children start playing naughty pranks on their headteacher in the first place.
Matilda is an extraordinarily clever 5 year old girl, with horrid parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood - who never wanted another child, and a dumb older brother who has been brain washed by the rubbish TV he's watched his whole life, Matilda is a lonely girl who visits the library and reads books as a way of expanding her mind and finding some happiness within her lonely life. Her cleverness completely overthrows her parents and she outwit's them throughout the book and musical , making them look stupid and act silly - which adds further comedy to the story.
Miss Trunchbull is the horrid Headteacher that runs Crunchem Elementary Hall, the mean Aunt of Miss Honey, she gets away with vile acts that no normal headteacher would be allowed to do - the Chokey is one example of a punishment she carries out on the children and her character was always one that scared me when I was younger; with the greasy hair and the largeness of the character - next to that of the tiny children never failed to make me terrified whilst watching the film or reading the book. The children continually carry out pranks on the headmistress and there's always the fear they're going to get caught no matter how well you know the story. Its the fact the children actually carry out these naughty acts, that shows how brave they are and Miss Trunchbull's karma comes from a lot of these naughty pranks.Miss Honey is Matilda's kind and caring teacher - Miss Honey is blown away by the fact Matilda is so clever when she's only 5 years old and although Mr and Mrs Wormwood and Miss Trunchbull both try and deter Miss Honey from helping Matilda - it doesn't work and Miss Honey becomes the mother that Matilda never had, as well as bonding with her over stories/books. She's the only character in the story that really believes in Matilda and helps her develop her gifts. She protects all the children from Miss Trunchbull - even though she is terrified of her Aunt; and when she meets Matilda she starts to find her bravery to stand up to her - which first comes clear in the song "Pathetic" when Miss Honey - despite being scared - knocks on her Aunt's office door and talks to her about Matilda's extraordinary cleverness.
The Children aka Matilda's school friends are Amanda, Bruce, Lavender, Alice, Eric, Nigel, Tommy and Hortensia - these are the amazing children that help make the play feel realistic, they give Matilda friends, give Miss Honey's class actual students, create mischief like Lavender putting the Newt in Miss Trunchball's water jug, add comedic moments - like Nigel's inability to hold up an exercise mat in Phys-ed, they dance on their desks and get frightened by the older school kids in the school and I think the musical would be a lot duller without these characters being portrayed by actual children; yes adults can play children just as good as actual children can - but there's something about their innocence, cheekiness and fun way of going about life, that I think made the play a lot better by being portrayed by the young actors and I think this decision, made by Dennis Kelly and the director - Matthew Warchus - was the correct one.
Mr and Mrs Wormwood are Matilda's mean parents - at the beginning Mrs Wormwood has no clue she's pregnant and it's straight away obvious neither parent cares about their daughter. With Mr Wormwood constantly calling her a "he" and them both constantly finding Matilda irritating as she disagrees with their crooked ways. These two characters also add a lot of comedy to the play - their stupidity because of their simple lifestyle makes them humorous and as Matilda constantly out wits them throughout the play which adds to the comedy in the story.
I think Mr Wormwood's simple mind, silliness, over-gelled hair and weird green suit made him one of my favourite characters from the show - I found his crazy mannerism's absolutely hilarious and this just made me love his character even more. Strangely, the next morning me and Meg saw a man that looked and spoke exactly like Mr Wormwood, it was really weird how similar they were but also hilarious; because the man probably had no idea that he looked like a well-known character that was purposely styled for comedic reasons.
My favourite songs from the show are "When I grow Up" and "Revolting Children" both of which featured in Act Two of the show. The Swings that were used in When I Grow Up made the scene quite magical to watch. The children and adults effortlessly make all the swings in-sync throughout the scene and I think this just made the whole thing absolutely incredible and it was probably my favourite part of the show to watch as it bought out the big kid in me and had my enraptured throughout the entire thing. Revolting Children was amazing as well - Bruce began the song and I really love how he gets to show off his outstanding vocals. The high energy in this scene is great - and I think this is one of the things that made me absolutely love it, the characters take what Miss Trunchbull says about them and turn it against her - having fun whilst singing and dancing along to a song that is taking the mick out of the horrible comments that are meant to offend them - they are beating a bully by not letting her untrue comments effect them. I also love how all the children are included in these two scenes and you can tell they're enjoying every moment of it - just as the audience is.I would hugely recommend going to see Matilda The Musical, it's a fun filled family show and in my opinion it was absolutely incredible, I couldn't rave about it enough. If I had the opportunity to see the show again I would jump at the chance; it's one of those shows that you know you could sit through a hundred times and not get bored; sort of like a good movie or a good book - both of which I've seen/read many times in the case of Matilda. And I can't stop listening to the Matilda soundtrack - the songs are so catchy and they're making me reminisce on a great evening/weekend away with my best friend.
"Just because you're little, doesn't mean you can't do a lot"
To find out more about Matilda The Musical click here to visit the website.
Until Next Time,
Alice x
