How did Matilda compare to a disney musical? — Page 2

I honestly believe Matilda's score has some of the most insightful and intelligent lyrics I've heard from a Broadway score in a very long time. Even six years after he debuted I still haven't found a new score that matched this score's intelligence and brilliant wordplay.

Updated On: 6/19/18 at 04:27 PM

LesMisRulz said: "However, Ido not believe it was often alack of diction/elocution. The children constantly worked with vocal coaches to avoid issues. Listen to them in other venues(like Matilda on the Tony Awards or Broadway productionsbefore, during, and after Matilda)and they speak andsing clearly."

It was a MAJOR complaint ion Broadway. The staff were bombarded with complaints about not understanding the children (I personally didn't have that problem , my bad luck). It wasn't as much of an issue at Billy Elliot, so there was definitely a problem with Matilda.

A potentially controversial move was made for Broadway audiences after the first yearwhen cast memberswere directed to reduce but not eliminatethe British accents and change some of the words, allegedly to make it easier for audience members to understand. I believe this reduction was a mistake, but admittedly I often spend summers in London and throughout the UK, so Ihavehadtime to growaccustomed to hearing differencesin daily life, a much greaterdisparity than one might hearinfilms or inTV series likeDownton Abbey.

So you think that simply because you can understand it, no one else should?

I personally didn't have a problem understanding, but I do think a lot of people hearing the show cold would have had a lot of issues understanding a lot of the overlapping singing in say "Miracle" from both the kids and adults and "Revolting Children" where the kids are singing in such a fast paced with put-on accents. I often wonder how much I was able to understand was due to me being very familiar with both the Broadway and London cast recordings and my brain naturally filling in the lyrics that I already knew. I had the same question with Ken Watanabe's dialogue and "A Puzzlement" but I heard other people talking outside saying they were afraid they wouldn't have been able to understand him but were happy that they really could and seriously enjoyed his performance.

Even if I didn't have problems, I think so much was written about it and so many people complained about it that it was a real and legitimate problem. The fact that the production was snubbed in Best Sound Design at the Tonys also pretty much goes along with this.

Fosse76 said: "LesMisRulz said: "However, Ido not believe it was often alack of diction/elocution. The children constantly worked with vocal coaches to avoid issues. Listen to them in other venues(like Matilda on the Tony Awards or Broadway productionsbefore, during, and after Matilda)and they speak andsing clearly."

It was a MAJOR complaint ion Broadway. The staff were bombarded with complaints about not understanding the children (I personally didn't have that problem , my bad luck). It wasn't as much of an issue at Billy Elliot, so there was definitely a problem with Matilda.

A potentially controversial move was made for Broadway audiences after the first yearwhen cast memberswere directed to reduce but not eliminatethe British accents and change some of the words, allegedly to make it easier for audience members to understand. I believe this reduction was a mistake, but admittedly I often spend summers in London and throughout the UK, so Ihavehadtime to growaccustomed to hearing differencesin daily life, a much greaterdisparity than one might hearinfilms or inTV series likeDownton Abbey.

So you think that simply because you can understand it, no one else should?"

I never said or meant to imply there weren’t complaints, that a problem didn’t exist, or that others shouldn’t have the opportunity to understand it, only that the problem was more to do (though not exclusively) with those working with sound design and amplification at the Shubert, not adapting well to the venue and the cast.

I agree with Scotty that the problem was multifaceted. However, if it were primarily the children’s voices, I do think they would have been just as difficult to understand during their performances on the Tony Awards, David Letterman, The View, etc. Other than the fast-paced nature of some songs making it a challenge, that does not seem to be the case. Your opinion may differ and that’s fine. It’s an online forum.