MATILDA THE MUSICAL AT THE CAMBRIDGE THEATRE, LONDON
Theatre Run: Continual
Performance Viewed: Press Night Wednesday 13 June 2012
Reviewed by Kyle Pedley
Occasionally a musical theatre production will come along that is so strikingly original and confidently self-contained in its execution that you can't help but be instantly won over by it. Matilda the Musical, based on the beloved children's novel by Roald Dahl (and thankfully nothing to do with the egregious 1996 movie adaptation) is one such experience and quite simply one of the richest, freshest and most irresistible musicals to hit the West End in quite some years.
As with the book, the show follows the story of Matilda Wormwood, an exceptionally gifted young girl with talents and abilities beyond more than just her age, as she is forced to endure unappreciative parents (Steve Furst and Josie Walker, both excellent) and the horrors of her new school and it's larger-than-life behemoth of a headmistress, Agatha Trunchbull (Bertie Carvel, more on whom later...). Amongst the suitably Dahl-esque mischief and mayhem, Matilda finds solace and comfort in her kind-hearted teacher Miss Honey (a beautifully tender and earnest Haley Flaherty), telling stories to local librarian Mrs Phelps (Melanie La Barrie) and befriending some of her fellow terrorised pupils.
