Matilda the Musical Arrives on Broadway

Lauren Ward, Bertie Carvel (right) and the Broadway cast of Matilda the Musical. Picture: Joan Marcus

Opened April 11 at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre, New York, for an open-ended run.

Bless her little heart! And her big brain, too. Matilda the Musical has landed on Broadway in a blaze of glory. This musicalisation of novelist Roald Dahl’s dark depiction of childhood fears – and how gumption, smarts and literacy can overcome them – has made the trip over from London with absolutely no evidence of journey fatigue. Her arrival was greeted with hosannas and hoorays from the highest quarters of the critical establishment, and she seems more than ready to do ticket-selling battle with the likes of those witches from Wicked, those boys from The Book of Mormon and, less formidably, those orphans from Annie.

The Royal Shakespeare Company and its minions, along with its US producing partner for this show, The Dodgers, has put together a splendid cast for this replica of its London smash. And as far as I can tell, there’s been no tampering to make things more palatable for perceived American tastes. The in-your-face obnoxiousness of Matilda’s parents, the unsentimental earthiness of Matilda’s fellow students, and the irredeemably evil grotesqueness of the school’s headmistress Miss Trunchbull are played to the hilt. And the British accents are there in force. (I’m sure some Brits will find fault with some of those accents, as spoken by Americans. They always do.)

Repeating his acclaimed cross-dressing characterisation from the London cast, Bertie Carvel makes Trunchbull a wondrous new specimen of drag queen. She/he could well be the love child of Margaret Rutherford and Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein monster, and she punctuates things with breathtaking surprises, like her mat gymnastics climaxing a physical education class. Also coming from London is Lauren Ward as Matilda’s vulnerable and empathetic teacher, Miss Honey, in a very appealing turn. And both Carvel and Ward – as well as the other London import, Ted Wilson who plays Eric, one of the tykes – meld impeccably with all the newcomers to the show. The mix gives full value to Dennis Kelly’s script, Tim Minchin’s pungent score, the endlessly inventive staging of director Matthew Warchus and the invigorating choreography of Peter Darling.

The ensemble of kids gathered to play Matilda’s schoolmates is simply astounding. They are not miniature adults nor darling youngsters, but distinctive individuals performing like seasoned troupers. They are truly, as the opening number proclaims but with irony, little “miracles”. Equally wondrous are Gabriel Ebert and Lesli Margherita, who in some alchemy of performance, make Matilda’s loathsome parents not only tolerable but often winning.

Then, of course, there’s Matilda herself, with four girls, all making their Broadway debuts, rotating in the role. As the performance I saw, Oona Laurence invested the role with the magnetic nobility of a Joan of Arc, reading great books rather then listening to heavenly voices, but nevertheless deliciously equipped to be herself, even be a little naughty, and ignore the doubters and tormentors around her.

And undoubtedly there will be some New York theatregoers who will have doubts about her show, be confounded by the edgy darkness of it compounded by the welter of British accents and attitude, but with a little bit o’ luck, Matilda will remain victorious.

Ron Cohen