Matilda the Musical Review

Hey everyone!

So this is my very first show review on the blog! Unlike the lifestyle blogs that come out daily, the reviews are going to just come out every now and then in addition to the daily blogs- so look forward to another lifestyle blog post coming out tonight!

For my first show review I'm going to be talking about Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical. Just a fair warning: I can be a pretty harsh critique, and this is all just my personal opinion!

Also there are spoilers!

Growing up the Matilda movie was a huge part of my childhood, so when I found out that the musical was touring through Toronto last summer, I knew that I had to see it! However, I didn't know that my drama class was going to take a field trip in the fall, so I ended up seeing the show twice- which gave me lots of perspective!

The first time I saw it I enjoyed it! It wasn't my favourite "I have to see it again!" show in the world, but for the most part I thought it was a really good family-friendly show that was able to cater towards both younger and adult audiences. Working with children- especially in theatre is really hard, and for the most part all of the kids were fantastic. However, seeing it for the second time really opened my eyes to a lot of details that, in my opinion, needed to be fixed.

The one thing that really bothered me though from right off the bat were their accents. It was clear that most- if not all of the actors weren't British and their accents made me cringe from time to time- especially the children trying to fake the accents, it just really seemed really fake. Its not crucial to the plot of the show in anyway that the characters are British, so in my opinion it would have been better to leave the accents out completely.

Another thing that didn't really sit right with me was the plot. The plot of the show was a little different from that of the book and the movie, which would have been fine if it were structured properly. In the show, Matilda doesn't discover she has her magic abilities until the end of the show, and has the chance to just use them once in what seemed like a plot cop-out. Let me explain. In the book/movie, Matilda slowly discovers her abilities, which works in nicely with the other plot of Cruchem Hall and Miss Trunchbull. Whereas in the show, it seemed like they completely forgot to add in her discovering her powers until at the very last minute. All I could imagine was a group of people sitting there going: "Hmm, how should we wrap up the show to have a happy ending? I know! Let's just make her have magic suddenly so she can save the day!". The fact that they seemed to disregard the fact that she had these abilities for most of the show made it unbelievable to say the least.

The plot seemed to drag on, and honestly, by the second time I saw it, I wasn't even really paying attention to the show- I was bored.

The other thing that didn't sit right with me was that they had both adults and children playing the students at Crunchem Hall. Obviously for legal reasons they can't have the same children performing at every show, but having the adults singing When I Grow Up sort of ruined the song for me. It really would have evoked more emotions if only the children were singing it.

One thing I really thought they did well, and had more appreciation for after seeing it the second time was the School Song. Its a very clever song, and had clever and impressive choreography to go along with it!

One actress who really stood out for me was Darcy Stewart who played

Mrs. Wormwood. Her commitment to character was amazing, and her dance numbers really had me laughing both times I saw it- so well done to her!

Overall, I'm giving it a two out of five stars- harsh I know! But good theatre doesn't bore you- even the second time around! Needless to say, if it ever comes to Toronto again, I don't think I"ll be seeing it.

Tune in next time for another review!

Rosalie!