The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Olivier-winning production of Matilda the Musical returns to London's Cambridge Theatre September 16. The musical, which premiered at the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon home in 2010 before transferring to the West End in October 2011, has been closed since the pandemic shuttered theatres worldwide in March 2020.
The four performers sharing the title role are Imogen Cole, Alyssa D’Souza, Alex Munden, and Zoe Simon.
Carly Thoms takes over the role of Miss Honey, joining Elliot Harper as Miss Trunchbull, Sebastien Torkia as Mr. Wormwood, and Annette McLaughlin, who returns to the company in the role of Mrs. Wormwood, taking over from Marianne Benedict.
The adult ensemble includes Liberty Buckland, Georgia Carling, Roger Dipper, Katrina Dix, Kate Kenrick, Ben Kerr, Matt Krzan, Connor Lewis, Tom Mather, Bryan Mottram, Kane Oliver Parry, Landi Oshinowo, Ryan Pidgen, James Revell, Gemma Scholes, and Dawn Williams.
Other young performers include Hari Aggarwal, Thommy Bailey Vine, Kieron Bell, Tom Bonomini, Drew Edwards, Robyn Elwell, Rory Finnegan, Darcy Kelly, Ben Lee, Keanna-Skye O’Quinn, Nicholas Parris, Bella Perdoni, Chancé Quaye, Scarlett Jayne Rackham, Bren Reilly, Niamh Ritchie, Jacob Savva, Jayden Seder, and Alex Stockton, who join Kaspar Cahill-Ritter, Sienna Clarke, Rosie Gell-Marquez, Beth Gilmour, Louie Gray, and Gracie Hodson-Prior.
Adapted from Roald Dahl’s 1988 book, the musical tells the story of an extraordinary little girl who, armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind, dares to take a stand and change her own destiny.
Written by Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, and direction by Matthew Warchus, the production is designed by Rob Howell, with choreography by Peter Darling, orchestrations, additional music, and musical supervision by Christopher Nightingale, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker, and special effects and illusions by Paul Kieve.
The film adaptation from the same creative team as the theatre production—direction by Warchus, adaptation by Kelly, with a score by Minchin—will be released theatrically in the U.K. by Sony Pictures/TriStar Pictures and by Netflix in the rest of the world.
READ: Matilda Movie Musical, Starring Emma Thompson, Sets 2022 Release
Matilda won seven 2012 Olivier Awards. The subsequent Broadway production won four Tony Awards and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre for the four girls sharing the title role. It has since toured North America, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and Ireland, South Africa, and China and played its first non-English language production in Seoul, South Korea, in 2018.
Matilda is produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company with Denise Wood and Griselda Yorke as executive producers.
