Matthew Warchus’ “Matilda the Musical”
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical (2022)
An adaption of the stage musical(Matthew Warchus, Dennis Kelly, Tim Minchin) adapted from Roald Dahl’s book Mathilda, this is a joyous rendition with enough to differentiate it from Danny DeVito’s non-musical film to exist on its own while not invalidating its predecessor
This is everything you really want to expect from a musical with great songs, terrific choreography, and brilliant casting that leaves room for interpretation. It works best when it was set in closed locations and sets. As the film opened, it reminded me of the excellent “Little Shop of Horrors” from Frank Oz which limited itself to film sets even for the exterior shots. Somehow, the exterior shots here being real outdoor locations felt a little off kilter from the rest of the film but that’s a minor gripe. Perhaps in the effort to differentiate from the stage version, this was a consideration but I think it could have been handled differently. In terms of any other criticisms, I wish there was more dancing or that the dancing set pieces lasted longer but that’s a result of the routines being so good. I might be the boy wanting all the cake with this attitude.
From Matilda(a sparkling Alisha Weir) to Lashana Lynch’s Miss Honey and an unrecognisable Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull, the casting is fantastic. It’s hard to square to Lynch’s role here relative to her recent work on “Woman King” and “No Time to Die”, but she pulls it off. Among the ensemble of children, individual characters are given room to breath and leave an impression even when only given a handful of lines.
Tim Minchin’s songs also give a lot of nuance to proceedings and are full of humour and wit throughout which I suppose isn’t too surprising. Having not seen the stage production, I’m taking a stab in the dark that with the same team on board here, it’s likely to be faithful to that adaption.
Overall, it’s an enjoyable rendition of a familiar story with its own character that has enough to differentiate it from Danny Devito’s adaption to allow both to exist happily together.
