Dazzle, shock and awe would seem to be appropriate descriptors for this long-running (since 2010) musical spectacular. Along the way, it has harvested multiple awards from around the world, including 25 for Best Musical. With a punchy live orchestra including electric guitar and pounding percussion section, multiple special effects, lasers raking the audience, earth-shaking booms ricocheting around the house, fabulous dance routines, shadow puppetry, acrobatics and ‘flying’ children, the show did not lag for a second during the entire two hours and thirty-five minutes. Yet, despite the razzmatazz, the book’s most trenchant theme – the power of stories – is never lost, thanks in large part to Rob Howell’s overarching, scattergun set composed of letters, words and books.

Dennis Kelly’s witty script is laced with ironic jabs. Matilda’s uncaring, self-interested parent, Mr Wormwood (Adam Stafford), persistently mistakes her gender, despite his wife (Rebecca Thornhill) trying to put him right soon after the girl is born, pointing out that she’s ‘got no thingy’. There are also playful variants of common sayings (‘you could hear a fly burp’). The songs by Tim Minchin, while catchy and occasionally memorable, particularly the child-pleasing Naughty, are massively enhanced by Christopher Nightingale’s stupendous orchestration. Peter Darling’s choreography was particularly delightful in its quirky attention to detail, as when the wicked Miss Trunchbull (Richard Hurst), a demented version of Widow Twankey, shot-puts a pile of books into the wings.

Typically, the ‘good’ characters are less entertaining, but in this case kind-hearted Miss Honey (Tessa Kadler) – dismissively referred to as ‘Miss Chutney’ by Matilda’s mum – helps to anchor the dramatic heart of the plot. Similarly, Mrs Phelps (Esther Niles) provides oases of calm, as we learn of Matilda’s phenomenal appetite for reading, reeling off a list of classics by Dickens, Austen and Hemingway, ending with Winnie-the-Pooh.  Kadler sings with a pitch-perfect clarity that cannot always be said of the children’s songs. Admittedly, articulating Minchin’s intricate lyrics whilst cavorting and swinging out into the auditorium must be something of a challenge. The central role, Matilda (Sanna Kurihara) has magnetic stage presence.

Matilda’s telekinetic powers are somewhat disappointingly revealed to Miss Honey, who walks to the table on which stands a glass, as if she already knows what is coming. More thought could have gone into building the tension of that important moment. Also, when Matilda publicly denounces and demolishes Agatha Trenchbull, the magically appearing writing on the board is barely legible.

Elsewhere, there are moments of real poignancy as between Matilda and her imagined absentee father, oddly got up in a shadowy trilby and trench coat, or when she visits Miss Honey’s poverty-stricken hovel. There is also plenty of latitude taken with the original book, which is probably fair dinkum given that Dahl himself rewrote it several times and seems to have inadequately acknowledged the important plot input of others. One major narrative change is the appearance of Russian mafiosi near the end, impressively speaking Russian and, even more impressively, being answered in Russian, by Matilda. The scene provides her with an elegant opportunity to underpin the importance and value of books and learning, as she explains she wanted to read Dostoyevsky in the original. In our world of diminishing attention spans and passive imagination, this is a message well worth stating and re-stating.

★★★★☆    Peter Jordan   4 June 2026 

Photographers credit @ Manuel Harlan