July 2013, Cambridge Theatre, Matilda was played by Elise Blake, Bruce by Marcus May and Lavender by Ella Yard. We had no understudies for the performance.
I'll start with the cast, as I do think that the children in these kind of shows deserve a lot of credit. Lots of the children in this show are aged 9-11 I think, which can put people off. However, the adults, especially the Trunchbull, have a lot of stage time compared to other shows with children and lead a lot of the scenes with children in. I can only think of a handful of scenes when there was no adult present on stage as well as the child actors. Sometimes children, especially those from the famous drama schools in London, can overact and it becomes annoying, but in this instance none of that happened. The songs led by the children were probably the best ones.
Obviously, Matilda herself leads a lot of the scenes and songs, which to be honest, is not a big problem. The young lady playing Matilda was a very good actress and she was particularly good in the story telling scenes with the librarian. I must admit that my parents and I were a little disappointed in her performance,through no fault of her own, as we think we was ill. She was twitching her nose a lot and some of the singing seemed a but muffled as though she had a cold/flu. I've watched performances by her online since, and she sounded and acted differently in those which I think confirmed our suspicions that she was ill. This is a little annoying as they made her struggle through and it did obviously affect her performance which is shame for the audience (as we had paid quite a lot of money), when I assume they could have put one of the three other Matildas on in her place, or even switched her in the interval as it was quite obvious she was struggling a bit. That being said most of the singing was fine, I've seen better versions of 'Quiet' online, but 'Naughty' was very good.
Here is Elise's performance of 'Quiet' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoBX7wZO3tE
Here is Elise's performance of 'Naughty' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1uimx6gbd4
The young man playing Bruce was very funny, 'Bruce' is a brilliant song and he also performed 'Revolting Children' very well. The young lady playing Lavender was a fantastic young actress, she was really funny when she was supposed to be and interacted with the audience really well, breaking the forth wall brilliantly. Lots of the other young performers were very good as well, in particular Amanda who get swung around by her pigtails (one of the most memorable moments as it is done in the audience). When singing as a group they sounded great, as well as when they were put with the older cast.
The outstanding performance has to be Miss Trunchbull. I was not expecting the Trunch to be played the way she was at all. I was a bit skeptical because it was being played by a man, and this can cause it to become just completely silly and not funny at times, which is what happened when I went to see Hairspray. All of the things I had seen on the internet before had Bertie Carvel in the part, who I love and I do wish I had seen him perform the role. However, we had David Leonard, who has brilliant! I don't think I have ever laughed so much at a musical performance. His facial expressions were fantastic and his comic timing was spot on. When she runs through the audience, all of the children did visibly back away and were afraid, which was quite amusing. The Trunch's power over the children is very good and she does come across as very scary and very mad.
We had Steve Furst as Mr Wormwood, who my sister was excited to see as he was in some of Dick and Dom's shows on CBBC. He was very funny and his version of Telly I did like, his interaction with the audience was very good and I like how they break the 4th wall with that song. The other performance I particularly liked was Melanie La Barrie as Mrs Phelps. Her interaction with Matilda was really nice and her enthusiasm for Matilda's story really did come across to the audience. The rest of the cast were really good as well, Miss Honey seemed very genuine and the casting of her to contrast Mrs Wormwood was spot on. Mrs Wormwood did a spectacular job in 'Loud', which must take so much energy to perform.
Moving on now...
I'll be honest and admit that the only reason I went to see Matilda was because my sister had not stopped talking about it. However, as soon as I agreed to go I started listening to the soundtrack and loved it straight away. 'Revolting Children' is the most famous song and there is a reason for this. It is probably the most upbeat, and the children really do get into it. It is a very fun song but also gets you riled up a bit and wanting to join in. They get the audience clapping along and even throw paper areoplanes into the audience, and my Dad managed to catch one. It is Amanda's school report and is quite funny. I'll try and post a photo at some point, but my sister will go nuts if I unfold it and then can't get it back! If anyone is interested though as I had a few messages on Twitter about this when I first tweeted about it on there, I can post some photos of it in sections or just do some quotes! ' The Smell of Rebellion' is very strange, especially the day dream part, but is very funny at the same time due to Miss Trunchbull's expressions. 'Naughty' is another fun song and really gets you on Matilda's side. 'Telly' is another one of my favourites as it makes you see the Dad in a different light, that he isn't completely mean and just a bit of an idiot really. I think I prefer the Broadway version better, performed by Gabriel Ebert, but that might be because I like his style of singing more and the book title rhyming section is slightly different, which I personally prefer. As I said earlier, 'Quiet' could have been better and I think 'This Little Girl' could be a bit longer as Miss Honey's songs are quite short which is a shame as her songs are nice and the most emotional in the show.
Here is 'Revolting Children' performed by the original Stratford cast so a very early version when they were in rehearsals still, but I do quite like the Bruce in this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kn-fEuRB0Q There are lots of other examples on Youtube, as it usually part of the medley which is performed on lots of TV shows e.g. children in need.
Here is part of the Broadway 'Loud' at 4:10 as Mrs Wormwood is very funny in this, and part of Gabriel's 'Telly' is at 4:33 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7ECOMgQvas
The set is fascinating, the stage is surrounded by block letters and before the show and in the interval you can have a mini word search game of trying to find words related to the show in the letters. The desks rise and fall from the stage, which is a good way of avoiding big set changes. I liked how the swings are almost flying over the audience as it really makes you want to have a go and miss doing that as a child! The part where Amanda is swung around is really good as well as that is in the audience so puts you in the scene and you feel helpless along with the children against the Trunchbull. As I mentioned before, having the Trunchbull move through the audience was a fantastic idea! I'm pretty sure there were no technical issues with the sound at all. The lighting is also good, with very bright lights representing the happy scenes, and dark for Miss Trunchbull. The 'School Song' lighting is good as it plays on the idea of school being a prison and a very bad place to be with minimal lighting and having the bars reflecting onto the stage. Again, I don't recall any issues with this.
The costumes are what you would expect, and I did like how they go over the top with the colours for Mr and Mrs Wormwood's outfits compared to the dull uniforms and the browns/pale colours of the Trunch and Miss Honey. Mr Wormwood's hair throughout is very funny, so well done to the wig department for getting them on and keeping them fixed well throughout the show. The Trunch's costume is possibly the most interesting as they do try and make her as big and imposing as possible. They keep her looking very military like, with not a hair out of place, with big warts, making her look very scary to children I am sure.
Overall, I would thoroughly recommend this show, especially if you have children. If you have children who have never seen a musical before, this is a really good place to start. Even though it is mostly a children's and families show, please do go along as I think people will be pleasantly surprised with how much you enjoy it. I certainly was and my Dad really did not want to go but admits that it was very funny and the Trunch is his second favourite westend character (after Thenardier n Les Mis!). The soundtrack I think is the thing that makes this show as well as the talent of the cast, especially Miss Trunchbull. I hope to go back in the near future as the cast is completely different and I would like to see another young lady in the role of Matilda and the new Trunchbull to see if he plays the role differently at all.
p.s. If you go to London, I'm not sure about the other locations, they sell really nice slushies in the interval!
Ticket link for London, but you can get to the other locations ticket websites through this: http://uk.matildathemusical.com/
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