Review: Matilda the Musical at the Liverpool Empire *****

It recently entered its 15^th year on the London stage, putting it in the top 10 of longest-running West End shows.

But when the RSC commissioned the stage musical version of Roald Dahl’s children's book Matilda back in December 2008, it was a leap of faith for a company best known for presenting the works of Shakespeare to generations of theatregoers.

Not only that, but they enlisted musicals first timer Dennis Kelly to adapt the book, and kohl-eyed, wild-haired Aussie comedian, composer and actor Tim Minchin to supply the music and lyrics.

I happened to interview Minchin around the time Matilda had just enjoyed its initial – acclaimed – run at Stratford’s Courtyard theatre and was about to head for the West End. A self-confessed Dahl fan, he spoke with pride and passion about the project.

But one suspects even he had only a vague notion of just how successful the musical would turn out to be.

More than 100 national and international awards (including 24 for ‘best musical’) and global audiences of 12 million later, Matilda has finally made it to Liverpool for a bewitching festive run at the Empire as part of its second UK tour.

And what a brilliant home it is for the production which looks like a bona fide West End spectacular on the 100-year-old theatre’s vast sweep of stage which sets off Rob Howell’s fabulously creative set – with its a tumble of alphabet squares framing the action - to full effect.

Above and top: Matilda the Musical. Photos courtesy of the RSC touring production.

For the few uninitiated, Dahl/Kelly’s story concerns Matilda Wormwood, the imaginative young girl genius who at five is able to add, subtract and multiply instantly in her head and whose reading matter, borrowed from the local library, runs to Dickens and Dostoevsky.

The library is a source of escape and refuge from her awful parents - slippery used car salesman dad (Adam Stafford, giving strong Only Fools and Horses vibes) and selfish, salsa-dancing mother (Rebecca Thornhill) who instead of lavishing her with love treat her as an inconvenient nuisance and weird outlier.

Things look even less promising when Matilda is packed off to the bleak, Dickensian Crunchem Hall primary school run by the fearsome, child-loathing Agatha Trunchbull who, to be honest, reminds me of a maths teacher I once had.

Richard Hurst’s embodiment of this statuesque psychopath educator is part Miss Hannigan, part Julie T Wallace in The Life and Loves of a She Devil, part 1970s East European women’s track and field competitor, part preening Samurai - and all glee. If this was a panto, he’d be a magnificent villain-come-dame.

Above: Miss Trunchbull (Richard Hurst) goes head to hem with Matilda. Photo courtesy of the RSC touring production.

But despite all this, and with the kind-hearted but timid Miss Honey (Tessa Kadler) in her corner, Matilda’s spirit and sense of justice – and a newly-discovered and unexpected talent – shine through.

The cast is split half-half between adult and child performers, and the youngsters’ roles are no mere window dressing, they carry a lot of the action and drive much of the plot.

None more so than Matilda, played with absolute confidence on press night by the hugely impressive Mollie Hutton, making her professional debut in the musical and commanding the stage despite being one of the tiniest figures on it.

Matilda is a Hamlet of a role for any performer let alone one so young; there are pages and pages of lines (including some in Russian!) and some quite complicated concepts to impart, but she does it with seeming ease and absolute aplomb.

Hutton is one of four young performers sharing the title role during the Liverpool Christmas run – the others are Madison Davis, Olivia Ironmonger and Sanna Kurihara.

Incidentally, several former Matildas have gone on to forge successful adult acting careers, including Formby’s Eleanor Worthington Cox who took home an Olivier Award for her part in the musical’s original West End run, so who knows what else we may see this quartet doing in a decade?

Above: Bruce Bogtrotter and young classmates in Matilda. Photo courtesy of the RSC touring production.

Similarly, chocolate cake-gorging classmate Bruce Bogtrotter is being played on rotation by one of four young actors (Carter-J Murphy, Oisin-Luca Pegg, Brodie Robson and Takunda Khumalo). Press night fell to Murphy who was delightfully engaging as the boy bullied by Miss Trunchbull but who, like Matilda, ultimately refuses to be cowed.

There’s great attention to detail in the staging, lighting, direction and in Peter Darling’s effervescent choreography, and a lively live band in the pit buoys the performers as they romp, joyfully, through Minchin’s clever musical numbers.

It’s not all fun and frolics. This being Roald Dahl there’s darkness as well as light, and it includes some themes and references which tiny theatregoers may find challenging or upsetting. But then isn’t that the way with the best-loved fairytales? And this Matilda feels like an enchanting addition to those.

The only slight issue on press night was around the sound early on where it was tricky to pick up some of what Matilda was saying. But that’s rectified easily enough, and doesn’t change what is a beautifully staged, wonderfully heart-warming, family-friendly festive treat.