Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical |
Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical streams on Netflix from December 25
RATING (* * * * 2022 ‧ Musical/Fantasy ‧ 1h 57m)
An adaptation of the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical. Matilda tells the story of an extraordinary girl who armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination dares to take a stand to change her story with miraculous results.
Cast: Alisha Weir Emma Thompson Lashana Lynch
Official Trailer
Review
7.4/10 IMDB
90% TOMATOMETER
100% AUDIENCE SCORE
FOR MATILDA THE MUSICAL'S WRITER AND STAR THE STORY IS TRULY INSPIRING
Siobhan Duckand Angela Mollard
Tim Minchin doesn't believe any book should be held sacred.
And that's not just because he is an out and proud atheist.
"I don't believe that anything is fundamentally sacred or untouchable" Minchin says.
"There's no earthly reason why one shouldn't climb up a rock. Just as there's no earthly reason why one shouldn't jump on an altar or piss in the holy water.
"None of it is logical but the stories we tell ourselves about what's sacred do matter. They matter profoundly actually.
"In fact humanity depends on shared stories of meaning. But in terms of holding some artistic property sacrosanct I take them as they come."
This is why Minchin had no qualms about writing musicals inspired by Roald Dahl's classic book Matilda and the cult favourite movie Groundhog Day.
His musical adaptation of Groundhog Day won over not only the film's most ardent (and sceptical) fans but it's original star as well.
"Bill Murray came twice in a row because he's hilarious and he absolutely loved it" Minchin says.
Matilda the Musical - which has now been made into a Netflix movie - wasn't the first time that story has been adapted. Before his playful lyrics and catchy tunes gave the book a new lease on life on Broadway in 2010 Matilda was made into the 1996 movie starring Danny DeVito his real-life wife Rhea Perlman (Cheers) and Mara Wilson.
Matilda the Musical quickly wowed theatre audiences around the world and won five Tony Awards seven Oliviers and
13 Helpmanns.
Despite his success Minchin doesn't believe all stories have musical potential.
"I think nearly everything should not be turned into a musical" he says.
"I think most musicals are not great. I get asked all the time (to turn a film or book into a musical) and I can't hear it. I can't see it. What you want is a story with an amazing conceptual underpinning.
"Groundhog Day has got this incredible philosophical underpinning like what is the meaning of life? It's a redemption story that if you want to change the world you need to change the way you look at the world. And the musical doesn't compete with the movie."
Minchin found inspiration in Matilda's story of rebellion against authority as well and he approached writing it in much the same way he penned the script for his Foxtel series Upright.
"I really believe you should trust your audience that they will come with you wherever you need to go and that the main job of storytelling in any form in art is to make your characters sympathetic so your audience can feel their pain and feel their laughter and go with them on an adventure and care deeply about how shit turns out" he says. "That's the job."
Of course it is rather tricky to make Miss Trunchbull - the cruel and foreboding school principal who locks unruly students in a torture chamber known as The Chokey - remotely likeable even with someone like Emma Thompson in the role.
It's not the first time Thompson has hidden herself under dowdy make-up for a role in a children's classic. In the Harry Potter film series she donned thick glasses and a frizzy wig as Divination Professor Sybil Trelawney. In Nanny McPhee she morphed on screen from a plain wart-faced babysitter into her true self.
And now in Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical the Oscar winner is unrecognisable buried under a prosthetic nose fat suit and a glowering expression.
For Thompson the appeal of Matilda lay in its female-centric storyline. And in addition to Thompson the key players are the gifted but underappreciated Matilda (Alisha Weir) Lashana Lynch (Brotherhood) as her sweet teacher Miss Honey and Shindu Vee (Sex Education) as an eccentric librarian.
Making films with strong female characters has been Thompson's "guiding principal" since she was 19 just starting out as an actor. "I'm constantly looking for great great female heroic roles and villain roles" she explains.
That quest resulted in her winning an Oscar for her 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility which she also starred in alongside Kate Winslet.
The Titanic star has since said that the guidance Thompson offered her on that film set has inspired her to also be a mentor to young actresses herself.
Thompson still gets a kick out of working with young performers too marvelling at their positivity and openness.
On Matilda she found herself in a cast of more than 200 children spearheaded by 11-year-old Irish actress Weir.
"Alisha's in a different kind of position because she's in all the scenes and she's on her own" she explains of her young co-star.
"But you see how all of those children just step right up to the plate you know Ashton (Robertson as Nigel) Charlie (Hodson-Prior as Bruce Bogtrotter) and Winter (Jarrett-Glasspool as Amanda Thripp) and everyone playing the parts around Alisha they really took them on.
"It could have been that Matilda was the only child you remember and you only remember her and somehow have a vague sense of there being other children obviously that's the director as well as Denis Kelly's writing. It's a great joy to work with young people like that.
"I was absolutely at their feet; I completely worship the ground they walk on" Thompson says.
Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical streams on Netflix from December 25
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Tuesday Dec 20 2022
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