Book by Dennis Kelly
Music and Lyrics by Tim Minchin
Based on the book by Roald Dahl
Matilda tells the story of an exceptional girl born into an unloving and crude family. Matilda convinces her parents to send her to school but her dreams of solace are squashed when the evil principle, Ms. Trunchbull, sets her sights on punishing the little girl because “children are maggots.” When Matilda discovers she has telekinetic powers, she decides to fight back, not just for her sake, but for the sake of all the children in her school.
I have to applaud anyone who decides to take on this beast of a show. Aside from the book and the songs, this production showcased silk work and intricate choreography. On top of that, a large portion of the cast is made of up children.
The set for this production was visually stunning. Great job on the use of props as set dressing. Everything seemed to have a purpose yet nothing drew too much attention.
Blake Aburn as Ms. Trunchbull. It was an unexpected choice to give Ms. Trunchbull a pseudo-super-feminine drag persona. While I thought that was interesting, I would have liked a bit more originality instead of tongue pops and struts. I sincerely appreciated Blake's choice to keep the character subdued so when she finally flew off the handle, it hit hard. Blake felt a little young for the role but he definitely had fun portraying our villain which was extremely delightful.
The cast was made up of a plethora of remarkably talented actors including Amanda Decker who was sweet as Miss Honey and had a lovely voice. Rob Stack as Mr. Wormwood was unafraid and dug his heels hard into the character. It was fun to see this song and dance man parade around the stage at the top of the second act. Sarah-Lee Dobbs as Mrs. Wormwood made bold, specific choices and Jonathan Dorsey, the man of many hats.
The production felt as if it were made up of individual pieces which could have fit together but there wasn't enough time to make it work. The choreography was strong but often felt disconnected and a bit too intricate for some of the children to focus on anything else. There was a lot of acting at the children which often made the reality of the world dissipate. While I applaud the ambition, I wish the directors would have stripped back the production and focused on character connection which helps create the story as opposed to building the fluff.
Bravo to the cast for exerting themselves and their dedication to the work. I look forward to seeing the members of this cast in more productions around Orlando in the future.
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