Matilda The Musical JR

The Junior version of Matilda is very popular with schools and youth groups, and it is easy to see why.  The children know the songs and the story.  It gives them the opportunity to be enthusiastic about the show they are doing and that is the main thing with young people’s performances.

The cast did an excellent job and there were some noteworthy performances from the principals.   Sophie Deane played the title role with great style, although she was plagued with an uncooperative mic and had to perform a lot of the time without it as a support.  This was fine in her songs, but we did lose her dialogue quite a lot.

This brings me to an important point that I feel needs re-enforcing.  This theatre is small, and the acoustics seem to be good, so the cast should be able to perform without the use of mics.  Most of them could not be heard if they were not mic’d so I would suggest that some exercises in vocal projection would be a good thing to do before the next show.

Even adults tend to rely on their mics to make themselves heard but, if the performer projects to the audience properly (as ably demonstrated by Millie Smith as the librarian) then even if the mic goes down, the audience will still be able to follow the dialogue.  But that’s enough about technique for now!

The principal school children were all good.  Kayleigh Clark (Lavender) was great, a lovely performance.  Riley Maynard (Bruce) was good although he has a tendency to go ‘over the top’, remember Riley sometimes “less is more”.  The other children Poppy Evans (Amanda) Christopher Sherwood (Nigel) Toby Sarll (Tommy) Isabella Howe (Hortensia) Elli Maudsley (Alice) and Noah Hall (Eric) were all excellent.  Given that all of them except Christopher had already played leading roles earlier this week in the KATSACT Juniors show, The Magic Storybook, I was really impressed with their performances.

The other principals were all good, Grace McCarthy (Miss Honey) was delightful with excellent characterisation throughout. Gurmehar Kaur (Miss Trunchbull) was good, although I felt she needed to be much scarier!  Her song The Smell of Rebellion, could have been much more forceful.  The afore mentioned Millie Smith (Miss Phelps, the librarian) delivered a good character and her vocal projection was excellent.  Alex Bennetto (Mr Wormwood) Lily Hutton (Mrs Wormwood) and Jessica Sarll (Michael) all gave good characterisations.

The rest of the cast played multiple roles and well done for making them all appear different.  A good show cannot work without a good ensemble, and this was a good show.

This is quite a technical show, and I must congratulate the Director and the tech team for the effects.  I understand that the lighting for both this and the juniors show was designed by a member, Jake McCreith and that he intends to study at a leading theatre college to progress his career as a theatre technician.  Good luck, on this week’s showing, you have a future in this field.

The costumes were very good, particularly Miss Trunchbull’s; costumes are my ‘thing’ so it is a pleasure to give recognition to these hard working creatives.

The audience clearly enjoyed the performance as did I and I came away thinking that the future of theatre is in very safe hands with the members of KATSACT.

Once again, my thanks for your hospitality, I was made to feel very welcome and I look forward to future visits.

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