Matilda (Nov. 2 2013)

MATILDA

Here is another brief little review of a show, this time Matilda! I previously saw it in NYC while it was still in previews. I was really hoping to see Elise Blake or Christina Fray as I'd heard good things about them both, but I quite liked the Matilda I ended up with (Lollie McKenzie). It's quite a simple, point form review, but I hope you enjoy anyway. 

Lollie McKenzie as Matilda

I actually quite liked Lollie (but honestly, who names their child Lollie? Isn’t that a type of candy?); she didn’t have the strongest voice on the planet (I struggled to hear her at points), but I thought overall she was quite good. She hit all the notes with no difficulty or strain, and despite the volume issue she did have nice articulation. She was quite a nice dancer as well; she managed to make those awkward dance moves in Naughty look sharp and realistic. I did like her more than Milly Shapiro (whom I saw in NYC), despite Milly having a stronger voice.

As for the Children's Cast: I don’t actually know the names of all of the Children I saw; I only know Lollie and Garret Tennant (Bruce) for certain. The rest I’ve guessed by trying to match their faces to the pictures in the program book. To talk about the children’s cast as a whole, I thought they were much stronger than Broadway’s. The songs were comprehensible, and the children honestly just looked better trained/better rehearsed. Specifically, I thought the children playing Bruce, Nigel, and Lavender were fantastic. Three incredibly talented kids; all of them were very animated without it being overwhelming or annoying, and they all had nice voices and great facial expressions.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the Adult Cast. On Broadway, the adult cast looked young; most of them looked no older than 25, and a large majority looked much younger than they probably were. This was very clever casting, and I didn’t appreciate it at the time. The Adult Cast in London just looked… old. I mean, half of the men had facial hair, and they’re playing 11 year olds! One in particular looked like a 40 year old man, which was just a little creepy. It’s not as if their abilities made them any better; I actually thought the Broadway adults were overall a lot stronger.

I was indifferent about Mr Wormwood. He was not a stand out, but I didn’t dislike him. Mrs Wormwood, however, I found highly irritating. Whereas in NYC it was the children who couldn’t articulate properly, here it was Mrs Wormwood. I couldn’t understand half of what she said. I much, much prefer Lesli Margherita. I really liked this Miss Honey though; I don’t like the character in general, but she managed to make her slightly less annoying and appeared to be quite a strong performer. She made My House into an interesting song. 

And finally, for Miss Trunchbull. I vastly preferred Bertie Carvel. Alex Gaumond plays it like a man. That probably doesn’t make sense, but Bertie Carvel really put on an act and a voice trying to make Trunchbull just a very manly woman. In Gaumond’s case, Trunchbull was a man in drag, and that was it. He does handle the ribbon quite well though (that’s one of my favourite parts in the show). Not much else to say about him.