Matilda the Musical
Book by Dennis Kelly, Music and lyrics by Tim Minchin
Based on the book by Roald Dahl
Schubert Theatre, New York, NY
October 19, 2013 8:00pm
It wasn't my plan to see Matilda the Musical on this trip, but I knew I wanted a two-show birthday and I wanted to really enjoy the second. I saw Matilda in London in 2012 and knew, therefore, it would fit the bill. Added bonus: somehow I came back from London without my show programme, so this was a chance to remedy that and get a poster for my classroom. The NY production doesn't have the rest of the clever merchandise available in London, but I'll let that go for now.
Matilda is funny, charming, and infectious. The book and music capture Dahl's twisted wit in unexpected ways. The set and lighting add cleverly to the mood, and the production comes together as an enjoyable whole. Though the audience was mostly children, as one might expect, I was surrounded by adults who were captivated. I feared some of the sparkle from the London production would not have made the transatlantic transfer, and I think this might have been true at the top of the show. Certainly there were several jokes that got much bigger laughs from a European audience and there were certain cultural understandings the NY audience lacked. While Matilda is not the phenomenon on Broadway it was on the West End, overall the transfer was successful.
I've been singing "Revolting Children" all morning and will add the cast album to my library when I'm off this airplane to Minneapolis and back in the world of wifi.
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