“Matilda The Musical,” which swings into The Bushnell April 26 through May 1 on its first national tour, is famously full of spectacle. There are wild children, bright lights, towering sets, a television, cake, claustrophobic classrooms, evil authority figures and the sweetly swaying “When I Grow Up” number that comes early in the second act.
There are also shelves and shelves and shelves of books, which may be the most encouraging way to describe the show for the legions who know and love the Roald Dahl novel on which the show is based.
“Matilda The Musical” has all the snarkiness, tastelessness, youthful exuberance and intellectual precocity you can find in the works of Dahl, the British curmudgeon who also wrote “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “The BFG” and “James and the Giant Peach.”
“Matilda” is the story of a young girl whose love for reading helps her survive a horrid home life, a scary school and some odd supernatural happenings. A love of literature not only pervades Rob Howell’s set design but the intricate, articulate lyrics by comedian/composer Tim Minchin and the neatly balanced script by Dennis Kelly.
When Howell first thought about what Matilda’s set could look like, he said in a phone interview from his native England last week, “I was searching for some holding space — a general setting that was not exhausting for audiences to follow from scene to scene.” After discarding a generic classroom concept, he came up with a design based around walls of bookshelves, alphabet blocks and giant letters.
“The world of the library,” he says, “is a sanctuary for Matilda. It’s potent and powerful and secure.”
Ora Jones, who plays kindly librarian Mrs. Phelps in the show, agrees. In a phone interview last week, Jones related that “Matilda just wants to read. In the book, it’s Mrs. Phelps who gets her on her way. They both have this love of great literature and storytelling. There’s a story Matilda keeps telling in the middle of all this chaos. It’s not just to establish her character, but a way for the world of books to come alive. The library is one place where Matilda can pursue her passion. The story looks extreme, but the entire journey is about her finding a place where she can express herself.
“That’s a very grown-up thing. This show is about a little girl, and that is wonderful and empowering. But the piece itself is not necessarily only for children. In the past 15 to 20 years, child-themed theater and performance have come a long way. These stories aren’t just big bright distractions. They challenge.”
Tough Roles
The taxing role of Matilda is alternated among three different performers on the tour so that the children do not have to endure a grueling eight-show-a-week schedule. The dozen kids who tour with “Matilda” do schoolwork with special tutors in the morning, rehearse some afternoons and perform (when it’s their turn) in the evenings. “The producers,” Jones explains, “want there to be as smooth a transition as possible from their home life to this theater experience and back again.” In this spirit, the young Matilda stars do not appear at the stage door after performances to sign autographs, or give interviews.
“Matilda” is a major physical and mental workout for young and old alike. Jones marvels at the “School Song” number where schoolchildren sing a complex alphabet-themed song while constructing a set out of large alphabet blocks. “‘School Song’ is so involved. I watch it all the time. It’s one of my favorite moments in the show, them building the set on the stage while singing that song.”
Not every character in “Matilda” is so in love with words and language. The least literate, most loutish role (and there’s considerable competition) may well be Matilda’s brother Michael Wormwood, who barely speaks and spends most of his time in front of the “telly.”
In his big number, naturally titled “Telly,” Michael stands idly by while his (and Matilda’s) father expounds:
Somewhere on a show I heard/That a picture tells a thousand words/So telly, if you bothered to take a look/Is the equivalent, of like, lots of books!
When Michael adds a raging guitar solo to the song, the elder Wormwood compliments him: “You can’t learn that from a stupid book.”
Varsity Theater Education
Michael Wormwood may hate books, but the actor who’s playing the role on tour, Danny Tieger, has actually just written one — “I Am Your Songwriting Journal,” which he describes in a recent phone conversation as “a guide to teach kids to turn ideas into songs.” As a member of the sketch comedy troupe Story Pirates, he helps adapt the writings of elementary school children into freewheeling stage musicals. Tieger also writes songs, including the “Sung History” series for DreamWorksTV.
Tieger — who was born in Hartford and grew up in West Hartford — praises his teachers at the Watkinson School for giving him “a varsity education in theater, doing three or four shows a year” and giving him “exposure to the sort of art one should be making.”
Besides Michael, Tieger plays several other roles, including schoolchildren, in the show. “I have 12 costume changes back and forth,” he says. “There’s such frenetic energy with all these large scenes for the kids.” Most of the adults in the cast are in their mid- to late 20s, which Tieger feels is “the perfect age, because you can still relate to being a kid.”
Michael Wormwood would not agree, but Tieger seconds his castmate Jones in declaring that “Mrs. Phelps, the librarian, is the soul of the show. She is the adult who will listen to what a kid has to say.”
“MATILDA THE MUSICAL” is at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford, from April 26 to May 1. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $27.50 to $119. Information: 860-987-5900, bushnell.org.
