Playbill: The Royal Shakespeare Company production of Matilda the Musical, which has played more than 5,000 performances in the West End, will welcome several new young cast members later this month.
Beginning March 17 Sithuni Gamage, Bonnie Harper, and Carla Lopez-Corpas will join Emilia Shefford in the title role.
7 comments:
When I was a kid, I used to watch Matilda the movie whenever I was sick or would put it on just for fun. The idea that this show has been on the West End for as long as it has it kinda crazy. Being that most of the cast are kids or teen actors, it is wild to see what they are able to do at their age. This is definitely a family-friendly show and provides a great story that most families would enjoy. I was not really deeply involved in theatre till my teenage years, so the fact that some of these kids are going out and doing the thing makes me excited for them. I also think it is so cool because theatre is much different from film. Rather than getting multiple shots, they have one shot every night to go out, sing, dance, and act in front of an audience. I wonder what the environment is like before a show or in the rehearsal room with the primary cast being so young and gaining this experience so early in their career.
I think it's great that young actors are getting an opportunity to perform. But I think that often it is important to make sure that they are being treated equitably. I don't know what the West End's policies are around young actors but I would hope that there are lots of things put in place to protect them from exploitation. It seems like the actors on the West End are pretty young and so I just hope that there are adults in their lives that are making sure that they are being treated fairly and that they are taken care of. My high school did a production of Matilda my senior year and it was really fabulous in my opinion. We had a lot of fun with the show and all the actors had a lovely time. Obviously, we were all in high school so technically young actors but different because it's a high school production and not their job but also as a high school we have policies in place to make sure that everyone has a good time.
The Matilda Musical is such a fun show, and is especially appealing to young audiences, while being interesting to adults as well. I think it's awesome that they use actual children in the show; a lot of shows have adults play children, and I think it makes them feel so much less authentic. However, when children are involved, especially in a show like Matilda, where the kids in the show have to carry a lot of the show, you have to be super careful that they’re treated well. Kids can’t work the same hours as adults, and really shouldn’t be. It’s difficult for adult performers to do 8 shows a week, and kids certainly shouldn’t be doing that. These talented young performers are all doing what they do because they love it and excel at it, but if they aren’t protected and have terrible experiences, they may not continue, and that would be very unfortunate.
I did a production of Matilda in my high school, and I felt like it was super corny. Most of the cast were almost 18, our miss Honey was actually one of the younger members of the cast. Thinking back, that show is really good, done at the level and scale it is supposed to be. It is a fun musical about being a kid and staying young and lighthearted despite all the seriousness and negativity in the world. I have mixed opinions about a cast of children and child actors, but I think in a show like this, especially since there are so many Matilda alternates, it is a really fun way for talent to grow and children to follow their dreams. I feel more comfortable with the fact that each of the main roles has four or five actors, because these children stilll need to get a "normal" education as well as their theatrical and artistic education.
I really love the story of Matilda, it was always one of my favorite books as a kid, and the movie is a slightly nightmare-inducing cinematic masterpiece for kids that I definitely watched a few times growing up. It’s impressive to me that it’s worked so effectively as a stage show because it has a mostly child cast which seems difficult to maintain, and there is also all the magic that has to occur on stage that could make the show completely ridiculous if not executed well. However, the songs are all complete ear worms in this show, so I’m sure that helps with its success. I do wonder how often they have to rotate out the cast when people get too old to believably play a five year old. I had no idea this show had been running for so long on the west end, and I hope it gets to stay there for the foreseeable future.
I always thought Matilda was such a fun story, so it’s really interesting to know how successful the musical has been, especially in the West End. I was surprised to learn that the production has already had more than 5,000 performances and has been seen by millions of people around the world. It must be really exciting for young performers to have the opportunity to join such a well known production at a professional level. At the same time, I imagine it must also be challenging since performing in a musical requires singing, dancing, and acting consistently in front of a live audience. That’s a lot of responsibility for young actors. I also think it’s nice that there are multiple actors who alternate in roles like Matilda. That probably helps make the schedule more manageable and allows the performers to balance school and work. Overall, it’s impressive that a show with so many young performers has been able to run successfully for so long.
Matilda was the first show I saw on Broadway when I think I was around 6 years old, and I was completely fascinated by it, so I've always had a love in my heart for Matilda, and I think it's insane that the show is still running on the West End. Something the West End does that Broadway doesn't do as often as they replace a lot of their principal cast once every year so there are a lot of people who get the chance to perform because the reality is there's a lot of talent that can be on the Broadway or West end stage so I think it's really lovely to see what they're bringing in over 20 young actors to continue this show and continue telling the story of Matilda which is a classic and exciting story to watch on stage. I really look forward to the future of this show. I hope that it has many more years of a successful run because this show is truly magical and is creating magic on and off stage for audience members, performers, and everyone involved.
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