MATILDA WAS ROBBED — Page 9

Once you've looked at the graph, take a look at the % Capacity numbers, too. Hasn't had an empty seat seven weeks running now. Keeping in mind, too, that the staging eliminates the possibility of standing room and MATILDA is doing just fine for what it can.

The producers know what their nut is. They know what their plan is. At 100% capacity and presale running months ahead, they can hold all the chips and are pricing their tickets exactly where they want to... and it just so happens that they are doing it at an average of $24/seat less than KINKY BOOTS.

Everybody pay yeah!

Sorry, couldn't resist...

---

"Was it the sound design or the way the lyrics were put to music, I am not sure."

I think this is the question that needs to be answered before the lyrics are dismissed....the problem is there are so many variables here that could affect being able to understand the lyrics:

1. The songs are being sung by very young girls

2. The songs are being sung with strong accents

3. The sound design might be poor

4. The lyrics are too poetic and not simple or clear.


I really don't think the issue is poetry here. The lyrics for Naughty are actually quite straightforward and not poetic:

http://www.maxilyrics.com/matilda-the-musical-original-cast-naughty-lyrics-befe.html

That Sondheim discussion seems to be more about being able to understand the meaning of lyrics rather than being able to hear them correctly.

---

Updated On: 6/16/13 at 12:59 AM

Saw it in London and in NYC. Could not understand it in either city. And no, it was not the accents. It was sloppy singing (at least it was in London). I think it was poor sound design in NYC. I was with someone when I saw it in NYC and he could not understand it either.

While I wouldn't necessarily use the word poetic, Tim Minchin does write very wordy and rhythmic songs, such that it can be very difficult to catch every word on first listen.

I doubt Minchin is trying to be overly clever. And I don't find the lyrics overly clever. I agree that there are lots of words, which sometimes makes intelligibility a challenge. But it's a show about words, about the power of being literate. So it's a choice that works for me.

I enjoyed Kinky Boots. I loved, and was much more moved by, Matilda.

The Matilda audibility problem extends to lines that are spoken as well as sung.

"Your claim was that the grosses were trending to drop in ticket price and total gross. Neither were true. Let's establish that before we start to discuss why they aren't increasing."

Thank you for letting me clarify. I meant the show slid in relative terms, compared to the other shows that opened this season. Pat Healy wrote about this in the NY Times (link below). My point was that I think this has happened despite the many merits of the show because of its widely noted audibility problem. Someone analyzed it above as follows:

"The main criticism with Minchin is his command of prosody (or lack thereof) and his sometimes odd setting of rhythmic values to stressed and unstressed syllables, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it assault of ideas in his songs, and somewhat odd use of enjambment that can break up ideas over different melodic segments."

This thread is about whether Matilda on Broadway was "robbed" of the Tony for Best Musical. The analysis above explains why it wasn't, and why it kept losing Best Musical contests several times with diverse voter pools -- not because of some conspiratorial fantasy about a handful of dissed producers masterminding their revenge. That wouldn't explain the loss with Outer Critics Circle and Drama League, which don't reflect producers. The conspiracy theory ignores the real problems with the show, which is why it didn't climb to the top 5 level of blockbusters like its competitors with the general public after opening.


Pat Healy NY Times on Matilda Box Office Slide

>> Someone analyzed it above as follows:

"The main criticism with Minchin is his command of prosody (or lack thereof) and his sometimes odd setting of rhythmic values to stressed and unstressed syllables, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it assault of ideas in his songs, and somewhat odd use of enjambment that can break up ideas over different melodic segments."

Someone isn't familiar with how young children speak and write due to their immature command of language skills. The qualities listed above are not consistently present in every song; very few, in fact. Minchin experiments with words and rhythms in a similar manner that children do when learning a language.

"Enjabment" is too sophisticated a term to apply, here. "Run-on sentences" is more applicable, because it mirrors the process of how children learn language skills. (...and is in keeping with what the show is about.) Not sure what's meant by "the blink-and-you'll-miss-it assault of ideas"? Does that refer to Revolting Children, again?

Updated On: 6/16/13 at 08:14 AM

How about in between shows on matinee days?

I heard he takes a meal with Daniel Day-Lewis. It's fascinating to hear the conversations between Trunchbull and Lincoln...

Oh, and yes -- New York theatergoers were not only lazy, they were shallow, as some of Matilda's proponents kindly explained.