Review: Matilda The Musical at Bristol Hippodrome
By Garry Mistry
Some musicals offer a great night out. Others become part of family life. I first saw Matilda in London in 2015 with wife and daughters, then aged six and eight. I loved it then and over a decade later still counted it as the best musical I’ve ever seen. Better than Wicked? Sure. Better than Hamilton, really? I think so! Returning to see it at the Bristol Hippodrome last night, I wondered whether nostalgia had inflated my memory of it over the years.
The standout surprise was the strength of the young performers. I was prepared for and loved – as did the Hippodrome’s full to capacity audience – every subtle preen, strut, and grimace of theatre’s most adored villain, Miss Trunchbull, vivaciously played by Richard Hurst. We were enthralled by the high energy stage production of such lavish props with seamless scene change, not to mention a child sent flying, acrobatics, laser lights, and of course the telekinetic magic effects.
All of this high energy was perfectly counterbalanced by the warmth and calm of the pitch perfect Miss Honey and totally engaging librarian Mrs Phelps, played by Tessa Kadler and Esther Niles. But what I wasn’t expecting was to be so utterly moved by Sanna Kurihara’s outstanding performance of Matilda; nor was I expecting to be captivated by Matilda’s best friend Lavender played by Dottie Jones with such confidence and comic timing.
Then we come to Tim Minchin’s brilliant lyrics and score – of course this has always been at the heart of why Matilda is so loved, from the opening wit of ‘Miracle’ which sends up every proud parent, i.e. every parent, there’s ever been, to ‘Telly’ which perfectly embodies Dahl’s abhorrently ignorant character Mr Wormwood, but more on him in a moment. What caught my breath was soon after the interval, that moment often encountered post interval – “can the second half really live up to the first?”, and you’re hit with ‘When I grow up’, not the mischievous witticism of Minchin but a counter side to his genius, a simply beautifully written tender piece and it was at this moment I fully emersed myself in the beauty of the live orchestra, and remembered why musical theatre is just so damn good, and why Matilda does musical theatre just so damn well.
Watching Matilda again, I realised how thoroughly Matilda had woven itself into our own family life. The Choky became a regular (and entirely fictional may I add) disciplinary threat in our house, while chastising my eldest book loving daughter that she ought to spend less time reading and more time watching telly fortunately fell on deaf ears.
More than ten years after I first saw it, Matilda remains every bit as inventive, funny, moving and uplifting as I remembered. In fact, more so, it’s evolved too. Looking round the Hippodrome auditorium in the interval, I wondered how crisp the start of the second part would go – how do you get an audience comprised largely of families with small children all seated ready to go for when the lights fall? The answer? With the multi-talented Adam Stafford playing Mr Wormwood, who enters stage towards the end of the interval and starts engaging, in character, hilariously, with the audience in a semi stand-up routine. This continues, subtly becoming less interactive and before I knew it the lights had fallen and we were in the second part and all were seated and I literally hadn’t noticed how that had all happened.
My advice? If there’s one musical you see this year, make sure it’s Matilda. If you’re lucky enough to get to a musical twice this year? Make sure you see Matilda again.
Matilda is at Bristol Hippodrome until June 26th