Theater review: ‘Matilda the Musical’

Roald Dahl’s books are ripe for musical theater adaptations, with darkly comic fantasies that resonate with children and anyone who used to be a child. Matilda, about a book-loving girl with special powers who finds ways to cope with less-than-ideal situations, is a fine example.

The 2012 musical version, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and book by Dennis Kelly, is splendid. Its national tour has been anticipated, especially by Dahl-loving parents, bringing their children out for perhaps their first time at a major touring musical.

But the production currently bookmarked at the Winspear Opera House, opening AT&T Performing Arts Center’s 2015-16 Broadway Season, will be met with mixed feelings. It’s so fun to look at and watch, and the songs are clever and catchy and sometimes, fiercely beautiful. The problem: It’s very hard to understand most of them.

Signs throughout the Winspear warn patrons that the lyrics are intricate and they’re performed in authentic British accents, of various regions, but the problem goes beyond that. If you listen to either the original Broadway or London cast recordings, you can hear every word of those lyrics, thick accents and all.

Directed by well-regarded comedy interpreter Matthew Warchus, with music direction by Matthew Smedal and voice direction by Andrew Wade, this leg of the tour is rough going, sound-wise.

That’s too bad, because it was clear that Mia Sinclair Jenness in the title role (she alternates with Gabby Gutierrez and Mabel Tyler) is everything you want this character to be: precocious, spunky and a little odd, not willing to be held back by adults around her who seem willing to do that.

Peter Darling’s choreography is inventive, and Rob Howell’s set, dominated by alphabet blocks and images of books and libraries, make you want to crawl into this imaginative world.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Theater review: ‘Matilda the Musical’."