When the RSC took on Victor Hugo’s Les Miseraables, there was much criticism so when it was announced that the company would set Roald Dahl’s Matilda to music, there was less criticism but more pressure to maintain this high standard. So it does – with knobs on.
The writing by Dennis Kelly is gleefully mean and genuinely funny and is at its best when depicting the cruelty of the adults and the anarchic defiance of children. Tim Minchin’s music and lyrics are charming and witty, resulting in a much less cloying production than the usual West End fare.
The cast is uniformly excellent, especially the children who all acted beautifully, sang well and danced exactly as children do (with much waving of arms and jumping around). The actress who played Matilda on the night we went, held the stage, especially during her story telling segments.
Paul Kaye shone as Matilda’s dad, extolling the pointlessness of learning and books as compared to TV and sales, and performed a great skit during the interval.
The show was closer in theme than plot to the book and despite the changes to the story, captured some of the joy of Dahl’s classic, but with a little less edge. In short, however, this is a wonderful production that deserves all the plaudits nd awards it has received.
