Matilda

[edjames]

Move over Annie, there's a new girl in town and she's got a very dark side.

 

The latest British import, Roald Dahl's Matilda is in previews at the Shubert theater. Based on the classic children's tale, this is a very entertaining and imaginative show that will surely appeal to many, including children. Matilda won 7 prestigious Olivier Awards in 2012 including Best New Musical.

Matilda's other Olivier awards included the best actor in a musical prize, to Bertie Carvel for his cross-dressing performance as its tyrannical headmistress Agatha Trunchbull. The show was also recognised for its choreography, set design and sound design.

 

A sure Tony nominee, the music was very good, the choreography terrific and the cast delightful. Bertie Carvel was absolutely brilliant as Miss Trunchbull.

 

The role of Matilda is shared by three young actress, much like that of Billy Elliot. I saw Oona Laurence last night and she was just wonderful as the extraordinary little girl who decides that despite a bad beginning filled with rotten parents, a terrifying school and a vicious head mistress, her story is going to be an astonishing one.

 

This is a sure winner....opens April 11.

 

ED

[skynyc]

Matilda...took some time to put my thoughts into words. LONG with SPOILERS

 

I suspect I will be in the minority, but while I really appreciated it, I didn't LOVE it. I had fun, and it's a remarkable production, but I had the most basic problem...my Matilda didn't draw me in...she seemed very cool, almost aloof. (There are four girls alternating in the role, and so folks will have different experiences. But I saw all three of the original Billy Elliot performers and they were all terrific...in different ways.) The Matilda we saw played it like the character in the movie version; standing and watching, calculating the whole time...and it was hard to read her from the third row of the mezz.

 

Bertie Carvel is pretty awesome as the horrible Trunchbull. His voice is so androgynous, I ran home to find a youtube clip of him talking, and his practically a baritone. I don't know how he sings like that alto for two hours. His costume is fabulous. So imposing and ridiculous. That's got to be the oddest padded suit ever made. And honestly, his presence is just HUGE because of the costume. I find it hard to believe that this is a Leading Actor role, when he only sings 1 1/2 songs. But whenever he's on stage, you cannot look away.

 

Matilda's parents are also just a riot. Personifications of the ignorant adult that Mr. Dahl was able to portray so perfectly.

 

And the production is amazing. There's so much going on with the set...(I love the school desks...don't want to say more), that I thought it sometimes overwhelmed the show. There was always so much to look at, and it wasn't always the performers.

 

But...

Yes, a but.

 

I kept trying to find a musical in there. The score is completely unmemorable. There were some fun songs, and thinking about them I could name when they occurred and what they were about...but couldn't quote or hum any. There's one lovely song about growing up that the kids sing on the playground...my fave of the show, but again...I couldn't remember it when I got home. They're still playing with the sound...whenever the kids were singing, I couldn't understand the lyrics, and there are a LOT of lyrics. One knows what's going on, but can't catch the exact words.

 

Also, to be honest, my experience was obviously colored by the little twenty-something who kept texting throughout and when I told her to turn the light off (after asking twice) snapped: "You don't run this theater".

 

I expect the critics will love it. But it didn't have any of the hysterical moments of Book of MOrmon or Producers.

 

Overall, I would probably give this a 7.5 out of 10.

[bostonman]

The score is completely unmemorable. There were some fun songs, and thinking about them I could name when they occurred and what they were about...but couldn't quote or hum any. There's one lovely song about growing up that the kids sing on the playground...my fave of the show, but again...I couldn't remember it when I got home.

 

Listen to the recording a few times - you'll start to get the songs in your head. ;-)

 

Terms like "unmemorable"/"unhummable" etc are liberally thrown at new scores all the time. I don't know why there's this expectation that one can hear a song ONCE and remember it that well. You know the songs from the classic shows because you've heard them before seeing the show, lol. (But to be totally serious, older musicals also used reprises and other ways of repeating the main tunes over and over so that you WOULD probably remember some of them after the show. Contemporary writers can sometimes be more interested in writing only for the specifics of each moment in the show, and not focusing so much on drilling the tunes into your head with repetitions. With the result that the tunes go by in one hearing, without a chance to get to know them better.)

 

You also mention The Book Of Mormon and The Producers. In my estimation, Mormon might fit into the "unhummable" mode (though it's a very clever score - unfortunately I feel that one of the biggest hits of the show, "I Believe" has an almost nonexistent melody, aside from the very memorable "hook"), and The Producers is much more in the "hummable" camp. But one of the reasons for that is that Mel Brooks' tunes (fleshed out into real songs by his mostly uncredited staff of writers, particularly the very talented Glen Kelly) sound, most likely on purpose, like songs you already know. ;-)

 

I also tend to find, btw, that the song I remember most (or "hum," even if I don't hum it) leaving the theatre is the last one I've heard - the song the orchestra plays for the exit music, etc. It's the song in your brain at the moment because you've just heard it. It could sometimes be one of the more obscure songs in the show (an example being "The 5:15" from Gre​y Gardens which stayed in my head every single night after performing the show, because we had just played it), but the point is that it's the music you just heard. It had much less to do with how popular or accessible the song is.

 

I somehow doubt the first audiences at Oklahoma in 1943 went out humming the title song, for instance. Though it's in the overture, it isn't heard again until about 2/3 of the way through Act II, and then never again in the show. (The last 2 songs to be sung are "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning" and "People Will Say We're In Love," and the last song played by the orchestra is "The Surrey With The Fringe On Top.") But would we ever, ever dare to say that the song "Oklahoma" is unhummable?

[rguer]

But would we ever, ever dare to say that the song "Oklahoma" is unhummable?

 

It's certainly singable. It's less hummable - the range is too large.

[bostonman]

It's certainly singable. It's less hummable - the range is too large.

 

Actually, the general range is just about the same as the "Humming Chorus" from Madame Butterfly. "Oklahoma" is in a lower key, making the song that much easier to actually hum. ;-)

[edjames]

And the reviews are in...this will be a long running show on Broadway. It;s appeal as "family entertainment" will have parents and grandparents all buying tickets.

 

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/176843-The-Verdict-Critics-Review-Matilda-The-Musical

 

http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/theater/reviews/matilda-the-musical-at-shubert-theater.html?_r=0

 

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/matilda_one_for_the_books_NkTbt6HPoEmm0lbz7uDVbK

 

This is a sure Tony nominee and winner.

 

My only gripe, and I agree with Mr Brantley, is that the accents could have been better and their diction could have been better and clearer, hopefully it will improve in future performances.

 

ED