Matilda the Musical, Birmingham Hippodrome Thursday 02 July 2026 | until 02 August 2026 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by David Gray & Paul Gray
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan
Matilda the Musical
Birmingham Hippodrome Thursday 02 July 2026 | until 02 August 2026
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by David Gray & Paul Gray
“A vibrant, exhilarating powerhouse of a show with serious stuff to say.”
Celebrating its 16th year on the stage, Matilda is still fresh and vibrant and displays no signs of ageing. Indeed, as a show it seems even more immediate that it did when it was first launched. This is because, disappointingly, its themes around wantonly cruel abuse of power, and emotional neglect have become more relevant, rather than less. What a world we live in.
So, it is a show with a serious message. But, true to its Dahl source material, it masks this with dark humour and subversive wit. It manages, at once, to be grittily hard hitting, and feel good. The storytelling is clever, weaving psychologically driven myth -making, magic, and cartoonishly grotesque characters with a core of emotional truth and genuine warmth.
The great strength of this show isn’t just that all of its component parts are all near perfect, it’s that they are all so perfectly integrated. In this sense it is a true Gesamtkunstwerk - a piece of total theatre. So, the sets, visually arresting in themselves, aren’t just a place where the action happens; they are an essential part of the action. They always have something to say. And the fantastically tight choreography doesn’t just flow around them; they adapt and flow around the choreography.
The score is perfectly married to the words and always hits the right expressive level to complement the drama of the moment. The many levels of reality and metaphor on which the story works, interact with one another in a completely fluid and organic way.
All of this would be nothing if not delivered by a perfectly cast ensemble of singing actors. It seems almost churlish to name names. Richard Hurst, as Miss Trunchbull, manages quite miraculously to project, through a horrifically distorted body suit, a character which is hugely engaging, although not entirely believable, and entirely repellent. Tessa Kadler is simply beautiful as Miss Honey. Her singing is perfectly understated, and then when she needs to let rip, perfectly not so.
Other main comic roles, the Wormwood parents, Rebecca Thornhill and Adam Stafford, also manage to invest their characters with a clever blend of absurdity and psychological truth, so that we believe in them enough to let them function in the drama.
The powerhouse of the show, however, is the children. All of whom shine, delivering character, personality, energy and astonishing choreographic precision throughout.
One slight quibble: on the night in question, the actor playing Matilda seemed to have some amplification problems. Too much reverb, or a bit too much treble mixing meant that some of what she said - and much of what she sang - was lost. A turn of a dial or two should sort this out. Otherwise her performance was physically and emotionally stunning.
This is a show which speaks for itself in terms of longevity, weight of awards and well deserved audience appreciation.
Cast
Mrs Wormwood – Rebecca Thornhill
Mr Wormwood – Adam Stafford
Rudolpho – Ryan Lay
Michael Wormwood – Samuel Leon
Mrs Phelps – Esther Niles
Miss Honey – Tessa Kadler
Acrobat – Lizzie Nance
Escapologist – Ben Tyler
Miss Trunchbull – Richard Hurst
Alice – Portia Jeffries
Hortensia – Nicole Manumbre
Matilda – Felicity Brown, Madison Davies, Petra Hutchins, Millie Hutton, Olivia Ironmonger Sanna Kurihara, Caroline Ravansari
Bruce – Jett Austin-Richards, Isaac Cruikshank, John Johnson, Kobi Lau, Carter-J Murphy, Osin-Luca Pegg, Brodie Robson
Creatives
Writer – Roald Dahl
Book – Dennis Kelly
Music & Lyrics – Tim Minchin
Director – Matthew Warchus
Choreographer – Peter Darling
Sets & Costumes – Rob Howell