It was only on for 5 weeks, so we were lucky to get the last few tickets.  After a very pleasant day out followed by a fish and chip dinner, we took our places in our seats shortly before the show started. I had watched the film beforehand so was eagerly looking forward to the musical. 

Matilda The Musical is the story of an extraordinary young girl with magical powers who rebels against her family, takes a stand and changes her destiny.

It was commissioned in 2010 by the RSC and written by playwright Dennis Kelly, with lyrics and music by Tim Minchin. 9 year old Sophie Woolhouse played Matilda and there was some great songs like Revolting Children and When I Grow Up.  There was also Elliott Harper in he cast as Miss Trunchbull, Carly Thoms as Miss Honey, Sebastien Torkia as Mr Wormwood and Rebecca Thornhill cast in the role of Mrs Wormwood amongst many others.

I was amazed to see that in the musical they actually performed the scene when Mrs Trunchbull swings the student around and around in the class by her pigtails and then throws her off into the distance – I didn’t expect that this would actually happen on stage!

I liked the plot and the choice of actors for the cast – they were good singers.

The scene that I was very pleased to see was the one where Miss Honey's dead father Magnus wrote a horrible message to Mrs Trunchbull on the black board. “Agatha, this is Magnus.  Give Jenny the house back” the writer was actually invisible, very intriguing! Scenery and the set was fabulous and the library and classrooms were very realistic. Miss Honey was the lovely pretty lady I expected it to be from the book.  

It is clear from reading several of his books that Roald Dahl dislikes authority as most of his adult characters are evil or try to harm children like Mrs. Trunchbull.  This was portrayed well in the musical.

The cost of the tickets was exorbitant unfortunately. For a family of 4, it quickly adds up.

We also had to make a 4 hour round trip to Norwich to see this musical which was a lot of travelling for one day and used a lot of fuel.   However, staying overnight in Norwich would have been a lot more expensive.  

I thought it was hilarious to see that a male actor was cast in the role of Mrs Trunchbull! The little genius Matilda looked the part and her parents behaved as despicably as the characters in the film. 

In the musical, Matilda’s mum was pregnant with her but oblivious to this fact which I thought was very funny!

Seeing this musical has made me more interested in this art form. After more research, I have made a list of musicals I want to see such as “Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat”. 

I liked the famous scene where Matilda wrote a horrible message to Mrs. Trunchbull on the blackboard pretending to be Magnus- Miss Honey’s dead father.  It actually looked invisible - “Agatha this is Magnus, give Jenny back the house!”

I thought the set and scenery e.g. the library and classrooms were very realistic.

All in all I was pleased that the musical was quite true to the story as this is not always the case when directors steal artistic license. I thought that the ending was pleasant when Miss Honey adopted Matilda. 

I am glad that I got the opportunity to catch this performance before the Covid pandemic struck. I would highly recommend this musical to anyone who enjoyed reading the book or even if you didn’t.

I am interested in potentially composing for musicals and writing like Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I would also like to try out orchestration for musicals and am going to consider becoming an orchestrator.