Anyone finding Matilda underwhelming?- Page 2

[binau]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 3:38am

Put me in the camp that absolutely loves Matilda. It's a rare example of a British musical that can actually rival great American musicals. The score in particular is witty and clever (don't know how someone could hate the rhyming). The lyrics for "The Smell of Rebellion" and "School Song" are so good they borderline needless showing off!

I really think it deserved the Tony for Best Score over Kinky Boots. I enjoyed Kinky Boots, but that is a feel-good musical with a catchy pop score done well. I don't think there is a single song in that score that made me think "oh wow, that's an interesting way to use music or lyrics to tell a story".

 

[StephieElise]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 5:55am

I was really underwhelmed by it when I saw it on Broadway in November 2014. That weird hybrid accent was just far too difficult to understand and I found several cast members just seemed a bit off (it seemed like they might've overdone it at Thanksgiving dinner the day before). I won some nosebleed tickets to the first Melbourne preview and wasn't really looking forward to it, but ended up loving it once I was able to understand the lyrics and had a cast that really seemed to give their all and ended up buying better tickets for July. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 8:08am

Matilda is one of those shows that is very near and dear to my heart. I have seen it eight times, and will be seeing it many times between now and its closing night. It's one of those shows where every single element works in harmony to create a wondrous, joyous, and spectacular theatrical experience.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 8:32am

I didn't underwhelm me, but the tour certainly annoyed me when I saw it in January. So much so, I left during intermission.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 8:50am

I few weeks ago I wondered if we would ever have a thread about Matilda without somehow bringing up Kinky Boots at the same time.  Sadly, it still seems NO.  Enough already...

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 9:05am

Had much higher expectations for this. My father really wanted to see this so my mother got tickets for the three of us. She and I were immediately unimpressed. My father still held out hope at intermission. As we were walking out he finally admitted that he was so much more captivated by the commercial he saw on television. The three of us went to School of Rock and all agreed that School of Rock was what we hoped Matilda would be but wasn't.

[Leaf Coneybear]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 9:53am

I absolutely loved the show on tour, despite some sound problems, but I wouldn't say it was underwhelming. I do agree that the superpowers seemed less natural in the musical than in the book. They seemed like a last minute thought, and it didn't really work as well as in the movie or book

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 10:00am

I saw this on tour and found it to be very bland. I went in with very high expectations after hearing people rave about it both here and elsewhere, but I was disappointed. The score and the book both fell flat for me, and the majority of the performances were "okay" at best. The one part that I can say that I really enjoyed was School Song - I loved the choreography on the gate with all the blocks. 

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 10:25am

Saw it on Broadway and loved every second of it.   One of my favorites, actually.  I found the score catchy and memorable from my first listen to the London cast recording long before I saw the show.  In fact,  it's the score I return to most often in the past couple of years.   To me, everything from the book, score, staging, direction and choreography were pretty much perfect in style, tone and cohesion.  I plan on seeing it again in London. 

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 10:44am

When I saw the show the performances were fine and I did like the little girl playing Matilda but the score was most definitely weak for me. The score of a show is usually what draws me in but I found the score of Matilda to be sub par. It didn't help Amy Spanger was phoning in. Also so many little kids screaming. I did love Christopher Siber as Trunchbull. 

[gypsy101]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 10:47am

qolbinau said: "The score in particular is witty and clever (don't know how someone could hate the rhyming)."

 

"Miracle" and "umbilical" don't rhyme, for starters.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 10:50am

^yes they do.

[BobBenson]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 10:57am

While I enjoyed many aspects of MATILDA, I felt that we were told so much in advance at how wonderful and brilliant the show would be. We were told how MATILDA would be the greatest show to hit the Broadway stage in years. Even the first paragraph of Ben Brantley's review in the NY Times was vomit inducing:

"Rejoice, my theatergoing comrades. The children’s revolution has arrived on these shores, and it is even more glorious than we were promised. Rush now, barricade stormers of culture, to the Shubert Theater, and join the insurrection against tyranny, television, illiteracy, unjust punishment and impoverished imaginations, led by a 5-year-old La Pasionaria with a poker face and an off-the-charts I.Q."

 

GAG!!!! I felt similar to when the film THE SOCIAL NETWORK came out. Everyone kept saying months before it was released that it was a perfect, brilliant film. While I enjoyed the film, I did not find it to be perfect. I feel like they're setting you up for a loss by telling you how brilliant something is months or years before its release.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 11:33am

miracle rhymes with words like spherical, lyrical, satirical.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 11:49am

It would barely even register as a forced rhyme, something that's been used by well-respected lyricists throughout Broadway history, especially in comedic songs.   Porter was particularly fond of them.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 12:06pm

I saw it in London last month and had no problem with the sound but then again I was in the 4th row of the Stalls.

[binau]

Posted: 4/21/16 at 6:37pm

Mister Matt said: "It would barely even register as a forced rhyme, something that's been used by well-respected lyricists throughout Broadway history, especially in comedic songs.   Porter was particularly fond of them.

 

"

I don't know if they are explicitly trying to rhyme those two words (though if you ask me, they are pretty close).

For example, here is another section (which I think is clever) where they attempt to rhyme each of the words at the end of the line:

"Specialness" seems de rigueurn.
Above average is average; Go fig-ueur,
Is it is some modern miracle of calculus,
That such frequent miracles don't render each one un-
miraculous

But on the line you refer to, they don't really emphasise on the words to make them rhyme. Also, because of the internal rhyme that happens on "clear" and "peer" by the time we get to the word "miracle" its relationship with "umbilical" is definitely lost. 

Ever since the day doc chopped the umbilical cord,
It's been clear there's no peer for a miracle like me!
 

Updated On: 4/21/16 at 06:37 PM

[brdway411]

Posted: 4/22/16 at 12:58am

Saw it in London before it opened on Broadway, had a hard time understanding it there. There were some good moments, but as a whole I was bored. Then saw it here on Broadway and really had a hard time understanding what was being said. Got cheap tickets through friends. Was still bored but even more so this time because I knew what was coming. 

[Nickhutson]

Posted: 4/22/16 at 2:55am

qolbinau said: "Mister Matt said: "It would barely even register as a forced rhyme, something that's been used by well-respected lyricists throughout Broadway history, especially in comedic songs.   Porter was particularly fond of them.

 

"

I don't know if they are explicitly trying to rhyme those two words (though if you ask me, they are pretty close).

For example, here is another section (which I think is clever) where they attempt to rhyme each of the words at the end of the line:

"Specialness" seems de rigueurn.
Above average is average; Go fig-ueur,
Is it is some modern miracle of calculus,
That such frequent miracles don't render each one un-
miraculous

But on the line you refer to, they don't really emphasise on the words to make them rhyme. Also, because of the internal rhyme that happens on "clear" and "peer" by the time we get to the word "miracle" its relationship with "umbilical" is definitely lost. 

Ever since the day doc chopped the umbilical cord,
It's been clear there's no peer for a miracle like me!
 

 

"

Clear ... peer and mir-acle all rhyme.   As in "Meer-a-cool".  It doesn't rhyme on paper, but to the ear it rhymes. 

Minchin is playing with words and our expectations of rhyme to get them out.   Miracle and Umbilical do rhyme - because they both end in "cool".  There's no arguing it.  

Updated On: 4/22/16 at 02:55 AM

[hannhannham]

Posted: 4/22/16 at 10:29am

As someone who recently saw Matilda for the first time, I found it underwhelming. It was fine, the kids and set were very impressive, but the book was all over the place for me. 

Sorry if this was talked about when Matilda first started, but I was baffled by the choice to have Miss Trunchball played by a man. Is there any reason to it other than for laughs? Not to be that person, but it came off as a little transphobic for me and a little odd to be presenting that notion to kids that it's "funny" when a man is dressed like a woman. 

It didn't detract from my enjoyment of the show, just kind of jarring at first. Did anyone else feel the same?

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 4/22/16 at 1:00pm

I do remember reading that there were very few women who could manage to do (for example) the pigtail swing..it's hard enough for a man. But to ultimately answer your question, I really don't know...

 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/22/16 at 3:22pm

I thought it was because that's what Dahl based the character off, a guy.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 4/22/16 at 3:55pm

Call_me_jorge said: "I thought it was because that's what Dahl based the character off, a guy."

 

Then why wouldn't he have made the character a headmaster instead?

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/22/16 at 3:59pm

Isn't the character already the headmaster? 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/22/16 at 9:18pm

hannhannham said: "As someone who recently saw Matilda for the first time, I found it underwhelming. It was fine, the kids and set were very impressive, but the book was all over the place for me. 

Sorry if this was talked about when Matilda first started, but I was baffled by the choice to have Miss Trunchball played by a man. Is there any reason to it other than for laughs? Not to be that person, but it came off as a little transphobic for me and a little odd to be presenting that notion to kids that it's "funny" when a man is dressed like a woman. 

It didn't detract from my enjoyment of the show, just kind of jarring at first. Did anyone else feel the same?

 

"

6:36 

http://youtu.be/UeHy4YEYHeA