Matilda The Musical JR

It was nice to see All Saints Elton Theatre Youth getting their teeth into Matilda The Musical JR. It is quite a fast paced musical with lots of themes running through, the foremost runner being bullying. The cast as a whole dealt with this confidently and I felt that the themes were emoted well to the audience.

The set by Waterloo and Crosby Theatre Company was definitely complimented by props from North West Theatre Arts Company, because of the set up and size of this theatre performance space within The Met Bury -  the stage had to have all its prominent set pieces on show at all times, but due to some clever lighting by Rebecca Foster, our eye was always drawn to the action instead of wandering around looking at other pieces of set. At one point there was a very long blackout – I’m assuming there was some sort of wardrobe or some such malfunction backstage. Sound by Andy Milthorpe was solid with no gremlins or crackles, the vocals when singing all together was good, harmonies could be distinguished.

There were quite a few prompts which were made all the more obvious by the prompter Wendy Crowley sitting in the front row – perhaps it might be better in future to have the prompter sidestage where, if a prompt is needed, it is not so obvious to all the audience. Costumes by Su Terry and Bridget Foster were good and were very fitting to the scenes. It is always nice to see NODA trophies used as props in a production and Mia (Agatha Trunchbull) handled them very competently.

 Billy Harper and Luke as The Wormwoods had some good chemistry on stage - there were some very good comedic moments. Freya (Miss Honey) gave a lovely performance, she had some good diction and managed to connect well with the audience both in dialogue and during vocals. Mia (Agatha Trunchbull) showed us a slightly darker side, but personally I would have liked to have seen much more character development. Georgia (Matilda) obviously enjoyed this role. She had a great connection with the audience, her diction was good and she had some great vocals . The ensemble did a solid job throughout, they worked hard to deliver each musical number and to do choreography too - my favourite was “Revolting”.

Thank you for inviting me. Both myself and my guest enjoyed the performance and I look forward to seeing you all soon.

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