MATILDA Reviews- Page 3

[jnb9872]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 9:57pm

Brantley is up. In one word: Rejoice!
Brantley: Children of the World, Unite!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:00pm

Most producers would sell their souls for a review like that from Brantley. Wow.

Looks like most critics do seem to mention an issue with the muddled diction/accents from the children, though.

TheaterMania is mixed to positive:
"How do you solve a problem like Matilda? Given that Roald Dahl's 1988 children's novel has been beloved for years by girls who identify with the title character — unloved by her parents and bullied by her headmistress — a stage version seems almost de rigueur. But is this really a substantial enough story to justify a 2 ½-hour multimillion-dollar musical?
As can now be seen at Broadway's Shubert Theatre, Tony Award-winning director Matthew Warchus' rather ingenious solution is to attack this slight tale — faithfully adapted by Dennis Kelly — with relentless theatricality. Kids on scooters, adults on swings, a sudden display of gymnastics (smartly staged by Peter Darling), all appear unexpectedly. Rob Howell's clever set, dominated by hundreds of Scrabble-like tiles, morphs on a moment's notice to reveal everything from a sliding pond to a book-strewn library. Thanks to this magic, it is often easy to forget that there's not much at stake in the story or that Matilda (the steely Oona Laurence at my performance) isn't totally sympathetic."

http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/reviews/04-2013/matilda_64842.html Updated On: 4/11/13 at 10:00 PM

[BOM]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:02pm

I'm so happy seeing these reviews.

[BOM]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:02pm

I'm so happy seeing these reviews.

[JackHell]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:02pm

Now the Award for best musical has finally been won

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:05pm

I'm a nerd and I like seeing what pull quotes they use.

[Pammylicious]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:08pm

Pull Quotes? They can use the whole freaking review!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:08pm

Variety is a rave:
"No one saw it coming. A debuting musical theater team adapting a Roald Dahl children’s story about an unhappy girl whose life is saved by the magic of books? True, helmer Matthew Warchus (“God of Carnage”) was aboard, but his tuner credits include “Lord of the Rings” and “Ghost.” Yet “Matilda” turns out to be an explosion of joy, the most exhilarating and flat-out best musical since “Billy Elliot.”
...
“Matilda” comes with a ready-made audience via generations who have feasted upon the original story. But this transcends its source. As with “Billy Elliot,” having the narrative led by the title character and numerous other children necessitates expensive multiple casts. But “Matilda” is so riotously enjoyable that if the figures can be made to work, its future could be limitless."

http://variety.com/2013/legit/reviews/legit-review-matilda-1200348349/

[BOM]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:09pm

^ was thinking the same thing.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:09pm

"I can certainly understand why people might think it was a homage though. The hand held mic and the school uniforms could certainly conjure images of Spring Awakening for anyone who saw it."

I agree with you there, CATS. It easily could be an intentional nod (Brantley seems to think so in his review). I've stated why I don't feel it is intentional, but I wouldn't say somebody is wrong if they think it is.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:11pm

Holy crap!! Brantley!!!!

That review was amazing. Talk about a rave to end all raves.

The cast and creatives must be on Cloud 9. So happy for all involved.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:13pm

Just from Brantley alone, some pull quote options:

"Rejoice, my theatergoing comrades. The children’s revolution has arrived on these shores, and it is even more glorious than we were promised."

...the most satisfying and subversive musical ever to come out of Britain... and in its melding of song, dance and story it’s as classic as “Oklahoma!”

Above all it’s an exhilarating tale of empowerment...

You just have to use your imagination and think everything through carefully, so it’s all of a piece. That’s what the creators of “Matilda” have done."

And there's a ton of other adjectives to be plucked, including the "incomparable Bertie Carvel, who breaks the mold of cross-dressing on Broadway."

Also, his effusive praise for Minchin's score reads wonderfully in context (he clearly is in love with the lyrics), but doesn't exactly get a good pull quote.

Updated On: 4/11/13 at 10:13 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:17pm

Doesn't anybody edit Ben Brantley? Maybe the Arts editor Richard Francis should stop moonlighting on Smash and get out his red pen back at the office.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:18pm

So excited that this is getting so amazing reviews! So glad that we bought tickets! My performance just got sold out!! Can't wait to tell my mom the reviews tomorrow morning

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:18pm

The Wall Street Journal is a rave:

"The makers of "Matilda" have done the impossible—triumphantly. They've taken Roald Dahl's popular children's novel and turned it into a big-budget musical that is true enough to the book to satisfy its youthful readers, yet sophisticated enough to delight childless adults who normally wouldn't be caught dead partaking of such kid stuff. It's smart, sweet, zany and stupendous fun.
...
Four different girls alternate as Matilda. I saw Milly Shapiro, who plays her with sober straightforwardness. I never saw her smile, not even once. Very likely this was Mr. Warchus's doing, since "Matilda" goes to much trouble never to get soppy. Instead of shoving the show's emotions in your face, he and his collaborators merely present them, letting the audience connect the dots. That's part of why "Matilda" is so much more touching than musicals in which the crying-time sign is flashed with Pavlovian predictability. The rest of the cast is very, very good, above all Messrs. Carvel and Ebert, the second of whom has the best song in the show, a jaunty paean to illiteracy called "All I Know I Learnt From Telly" whose idiotically catchy tune is lifted in part from "Old MacDonald Had a Farm": "Endless content, endless channels / Endless chat on endless panels / All you need to fill your muffin / Without having to really think or nuffin.""

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323741004578414582107592170.html

[JackHell]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:21pm

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2013/04/11/broadway-review-matilda-the-musical/2063827/

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:22pm

Looks like most critics do seem to mention an issue with the muddled diction/accents from the children, though.

The above was an issue in London as well.

But that was a love letter from the Times, when was the last time any think got a review like that?

Congrats to all involved

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:29pm

Newsday is positive for the production, but she has a major problem with the "auditory clarity":
The show, adapted from Roald Dahl's mordant 1988 children's book, is a surprisingly low-tech pleasure from the same Royal Shakespeare Company that blew up "Les Misérables" into a mega-spectacle. Director Matthew Warchus, a master of character-defining physical comedy, has put big handfuls of tiny gifted actors and monstrous authority figures into Rob Howell's relatively simple set of Scrabble-like alphabet tiles and towers of bookshelves.

The problem, at least at Tuesday's preview, is a lack of auditory clarity. Oona Laurence, one of four teeny talents who alternate playing the British Matilda, is a marvelous, subtle young actress with a serious scowl on her delicate face and the ability to dominate the entire action-packed production with her self-reliant, yet still childlike power. But I had to strain to understand too much of what she and several other castmates were yelling, a special frustration given Dennis Kelly's word-loving dialogue and composer Tim Minchin's deliriously articulate lyrics."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/matilda-the-musical-review-a-brit-hit-1.5047416

USA Today is positive with three and a half stars out of four:
"It's not a coincidence that musical theater reached its peak in this country in the 20th century. The English may have had a huge influence on the breezier musical comedies that dominated Broadway into the 1930s; but the form, as it developed, came to demand an emotional forthrightness that is, or was, more intrinsic to our culture. Smart will get you only so far, even if you're Stephen Sondheim, whose works appeal openly to the heart as much as the mind.

The U.K.-based Matilda the Musical (***½ out of four stars), which opened Thursday at the Shubert Theatre, is the smartest musical to arrive on Broadway in years — and its creators never let you forget that. There's a distinctly British self-consciousness to acclaimed playwright Dennis Kelly and comedian/musician Tim Minchin's adaptation of Roald Dahl's beloved children's novel, a critical and commercial smash in London."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2013/04/11/broadway-review-matilda-the-musical/2063827/ Updated On: 4/11/13 at 10:29 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:31pm

Forbidden Broadway is gonna have a diction field day, the likes of which haven't been seen since Big River.

[JackHell]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:31pm

With Terry giving it a rave I think the tony award will go to there is no question now there is no debate. Its done the impossible got almost perfect reviews

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:37pm

^^ Agreed. I think it's all pretty much over for the rest of the entries this year. These are incredible reviews.

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:37pm

"Its done the impossible got almost perfect reviews."

Impossible? There was no greater certainty on earth.

Now it's the poor audiences that will have to pay the freight..... and the piper.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:37pm

Forbidden Broadway is gonna have a diction field day, the likes of which haven't been seen since Big River.

Forbidden Broadway is closing at the end of the month...

I am SHOCKED at that WSJ review. Who knew that Terry Teachout could be so effervescent.

[Pammylicious]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:39pm

What was the last show that got such stellar raves? Does one exist?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/13 at 10:39pm

I hope they use the pull quote where Brantley compares Matilda to Homeland.