Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda the Musical’ opens this week at Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre
By STU CLAMPITT
After literal years of pandemic delays, Civic Theatre in the Center for the Performing Arts, 3 Carter Green, Carmel, is now all set to show Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical starting this weekend. Director Suzanne Fleenor recently spoke to the Reporter about the play, the path it took to get to the stage and why she chose it.
Julia Bonnet (left) plays Miss Honey, Matilda’s teacher. (Photo provided)
“What I love about Matilda is that it’s rather subversive,” Fleenor told the Reporter. “It is unlike most musicals. It’s Roald Dahl, whose books are left of center and yet so wonderfully intriguing and I just always loved them.”
This show had originally been cast in 2020 and was nearly halfway to stage when the pandemic put every live performance on hold.
“We were three weeks into putting the show together when COVID hit,” Fleenor said. “We have had two years to think about the show. We have maintained many of the original cast members, and due to voices changing for some of the boys and going off to college and various other assorted reasons for other cast members, we were easily able to cast this show after two nights of rehearsal in one evening. We were able to do that because we maintained many of the same cast members.”
Kendra Randle plays Mrs. Phelps. (Photo provided)
Fleenor said one of the benefits of this long delay was having so much more time to digest how the show works and how they put it together. There was the added benefit of starting over with many of the same cast members with whom she had already worked.
“The challenges were that it was terribly disappointing for all of us,” Fleenor said. “When we left rehearsal on a Sunday evening, we fully expected that we would be back within a couple of weeks. It went on and on and ON. We were full steam ahead at that point. We usually rehearse for approximately eight weeks, so we had a very good idea of what the show would shape up to be. There was disappointment. Also, we had rented the set, so we knew what the set was going to look like. It was terribly disappointing.”
This is the first show that Fleenor has directed since the world returned to allowing public events, though she has appeared on stage in other shows.
Fleenor said putting on a play again feels exhilarating.
“I must say that it is an extraordinary cast,” Fleenor said. “The actors, a combination of adults and young middle school age children and they are just wonderfully terrific. The show has elements are magic that are beautifully executed. Roald Dahl portrays children neither as heroes nor villains but as a subversive combination of both. I think that is a wonderful draw.”
When asked who her ideal audience is for Matilda, Fleenor told the Reporter, “I see the ideal audience as adults who still wonder what it’s like to feel what it’s like to feel grown up and kids who are thinking about growing up.”
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical will be on stage at Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre from April 29 through May 14. Visit civictheatre.org/matilda for tickets.
Summarizing Matilda
Inspired by the twisted genius of Roald Dahl, the Tony Award-winning Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical is the captivating masterpiece from the Royal Shakespeare Company that revels in the anarchy of childhood, the power of imagination and the inspiring story of a girl who dreams of a better life.
With the book by Dennis Kelly and original songs by Tim Minchin, Matilda has won 47 international awards and continues to thrill sold-out audiences of all ages around the world.
Matilda is a little girl with astonishing wit, intelligence and psychokinetic powers. She’s unloved by her cruel parents but impresses her schoolteacher, the highly loveable Miss Honey. Over the course of her first term at school, Matilda and Miss Honey have a profound effect on each other’s lives, as Miss Honey begins not only to recognize but also appreciate Matilda’s extraordinary personality.
Matilda’s school life isn’t completely smooth sailing, however – the school’s mean headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, hates children and just loves thinking up new punishments for those who don’t abide by her rules. But Matilda has courage and cleverness in equal amounts and could be the school pupils’ saving grace!