Go see Matilda The Musical!

I think most of us love Roald Dahl. Most people I know have a favourite. Some people have favourites. Mine is Matilda.

It was one of if not my very favourite book as a child. It was certainly one of the only ones that I continued to love uninterrupted throughout my adolescence and into adulthood. I read it nearly every year. No, look, to be honest, it's more like every second year these days. Maybe more than that. Two out of three years I'll read it. I'm pretty sure that's right.

Anyway, there have been advertisements about for Matilda The Musical at the Lyric Theatre, and last night I was lucky enough to be invited to see it, which I momentarily considered turning down due to a recent lack of sleep, but I'm going to be 100% with you, it's better than sleep.

It's better than a lot of things.

Look, I'm pretty much the perfect audience for this sort of thing. Live theatre, musicals, children's books, the source material in particular, the wider works of Roald Dahl, Tim Minchin, and Dennis Kelly (who I only knew as the writer and creator of Utopia), and generally anything that I can later sing along to are all things that I love. Look at my face. LOVE!

So, bias? Maybe, but the audience around me seemed diverse in a great many ways. One had this weird nineties synthetic rainbow cap on, which I'm not sure they still make. So, time travellers probably are turning up for this.

The songs are clever and naughty in a way that makes you think that Tim Minchin wallows in Roald Dahl books osmosising their very essence. Words piled together in intelligent, hopeful, revolting ways that please all the most important word receptors. There are amazing things available to you here.

But, words and music can't be there on their own. They need to find their way to you, and it is done well. The performance and production is simply extraordinary. At no point was I not entirely enchanted by what was going on in front of me.

Every character is exquisitely portrayed. Loving every character is easy. It will just happen. Trunchbull is monstrous, the Wormwoods are disgusting, and the children are cheeky, and they're all wonderful.

This is the way I will always remember Matilda.

You want this. You really, really do. Book tickets! It is far, far better than sleep.


Also, a big shoutout to my lovely brother for being sick last night, so that I was able to sit in his seat, eat his nibbles, and watch the show. Anytime you need me to help out when you're sick, just let me know. More than happy to pick up the slack.