Matilda the Musical Review

Matilda the Musical has been a regular fixture on the West End since it premiered in 2011. It has now been adapted into a feature film thanks to Working Title Pictures and TriStar Pictures.

Matilda Wormwood (Alisha Weir) is a brilliant, intelligent child who has been ignored by her parents (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough). Matilda jumps at the chance to go to school where she gets to make friends and her talents get noticed by her teacher, Miss Honey (Lashana Lynch). But she also must face up against the tyrannical headmistress, Miss Trunchbull (Emma Thompson).

Matilda the Musical has been a big hit. Besides its current run on the West End, the show has a five-year run on Broadway, has toured the UK, and US, and has been performed in many other nations. The stage show won numerous awards. Added to this Roald Dahl’s Matilda had been adapted once before back in 1996, which people have a lot of nostalgia for and there has a current trend of more Dahl adaptations being made. The Witches was adapted in 2020, and there’s an upcoming adaptation of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and a Willy Wonka prequel. So, it was a ripe time for an adaptation of Matilda the Musical.

The creative team behind Matilda the Musical returned for the film adaptation. Matthew Warchus directed, Dennis Kelly wrote the screenplay, and they used the same songbook. Fans of the musical can be reassured on this front, while newcomers can enjoy it as a family-friendly musical.

Australian comedian/musician Tim Minchin wrote the songs and there were some incredible lyrics throughout. Warchus is an experienced theatre director, as well as a filmmaker. Together they crafted some terrific song-and-dance numbers. An example of this was “The School Song,” especially when the prefects sang at Matilda and Lavender (Rei Yamauchi Fulker) and the lyrics and the set dressing incorporated the alphabet. “Revolting Children” was a brilliant song-and-dance number and the term had a double meaning because Miss Trunchbull found children revolting, and the children were revolting against the system.

The staging was altered for the film to make it cinematic. The setting for the opening song was bright and colourful as Matilda’s mum discovered when she was about to give birth. The staging for “Naughty” was notably different from the stage show. In the film Matilda was sneaking around the house and dancing on the roof. Warchus and his team took advantage of the change of medium and allowed it to show a variety of locations and have fluid camera movements.

Matilda the Musical had a strong cast of child and adult actors. Weir was an incredible find for the film. She was obviously a good singer and had a wonderfully mischievous smile. Weir was from Ireland and she was able to perform with a convincing English accent, which was impressive considering her young age. She must have been picked from a wide selection of candidates. Weir was surrounded by a decent set of young actors and her version of Matilda did have a set of friends whose sense of rebellion was ignited by the child genius.

Emma Thompson is obviously an acting legend and she did a great job as the film’s villain. She was an intimidating brute yet also funny in a child-friendly way, like when she had issues with a salamander. Lashana Lynch had previously played tough girl roles in films like Captain Marvel, No Time to Die, and The Woman King, so playing Miss Honey was different for her. Lynch was wonderful at being the kind, supportive adult and acting as a surrogate mother to Matilda, and experiencing wide-eyed fear when she had to interact with her boss. The role gave Lynch a chance to show her range.

Graham and Riseborough didn’t fare so well. Their characters were broad, one-note caricatures as they neglected their daughter. They weren’t bad but they didn’t have much to do. An example of this was when Mr. Wormwood told a story about selling a load of cars and reducing the mileage with a drill. In the 1996 film this event was shown and not just told.

The final adult character was Mrs. Phelps, played by Sindhu Vee. Mrs. Phelps was the librarian at the mobile library and the only other adult that was kind to Matilda. Mrs. Phelps and Matilda had a fun relationship, especially when Mrs. Phelps was enthralled by Matilda’s stories.

Sony produced the film but they pre-sold the international distribution rights to Netflix. They did this because it was produced during the pandemic and the studio feared cinemas wouldn’t reopen. This turned out to be a short-sighted move because of the popularity of the stage show and it topped the British and Irish box office in its first week.

Matilda the Musical was a delightful musical flick for the whole family. There were great musical numbers for fans of the genre and there was plenty of child-friendly humour for youngsters to enjoy.