Matilda the Musical

Last weekend I saw Matilda the Musical at Playhouse on the Square. I originally saw it at the Orpheum in January 2016, and fell in love!

About that performance, I said:

I was only halfway through [re-reading] the book when we went to see the play, but I liked it that way - I couldn't remember the original ending, so the play was still somewhat suspenseful. 
          [The play is] hard to review because... it's amazing. I would have gone to see it again the next night if I could have! The stage looks fantastic with all the letters and colors and blocks, and it pulls you right into Matilda's world. The actors are perfect in their roles. We saw a native Memphian play Matilda on opening night, so that was a nice perk!
          The musical differs quite a bit in that Matilda's mother has a different hobby, which doesn't add much to the story, in my opinion. Matilda also tells an ongoing story she's made up, which is overly sentimental and also doesn't add much to the story, especially since Miss Honey's backstory is explained so concisely in the book. But I am a huge Tim Minchin fan, so I appreciate how these divergent storylines help develop the musical side of the story. Tim Minchin's songs are very clever and add jokes and wit to the story.

Besides being excited to go with a group and show off my photography exhibit in the cafe lobby, I was excited to see how it was interpreted for the smaller stage at Playhouse. The set was pared down, of course, and the letters were projected with lighting instead of being hung all over the stage. One thing I love about smaller theater performances is how much they do with limited sets and space. Using the doors and blocks for multiple purposes was really creative. The actors themselves were all fantastic, and there's nothing that makes me tear up faster than young locals blowing an audience away, and having that audience cheer like crazy. (I think there were lots of family and friends in the crowd that night, but still.)

Everyone I was with really loved the musical, and as someone who saw it years ago and has listened to the soundtrack countless times since, hearing the songs performed onstage was almost like seeing a band in concert. I loved hearing the music live again!

As far as I could tell, the show was sold out, and so many local businesses and families had wanted to sponsor the show that I hope it's performed here again before too long. I think it's great that it's based on a book, of course, but it seems like several plays each season are book-based at Playhouse. I think I mostly love how there were people of all ages there, and everyone seemed totally into the story and songs. I think Dahl is a timeless author, obviously (see: Author Study), and I've enjoyed some of the movies I've seen based on his work, but I do love that he's being updated and exposed to more people by having his stories transformed into plays and musicals.

Dahl Study: Georgy Porgy

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Georgy Porgy" from Collected Stories (read 1/11/19)

A vicar has never settled down, and all of the "spinsters" in his parish are after him. He resists, but one finally puts something in his drink and gets him alone. The vicar had a traumatic experience as a boy - watching a mother bunny eat her newborn, and then thinking his mother was going to do the same to him. He ran away from his mother at the time, and she ran after him but got hit by a passing car. In present day, when the spinster leans forward to kiss the vicar, he freaks out about her mouth. She apparently actually eats him and he lives inside her?

"Georgy Porgy" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 7/4/19)

This was... pretty different from the story in terms of specifics and story building. I didn't remember the story that clearly, but it didn't stand out to me as weird or unsettling, besides the odd ending that didn't seem typical for Dahl. But the show version was very strange, and I felt uncomfortable the whole time I was watching it. The vicar is weird from the start, kind of twitchy, and it kept showing him clench his fists behind his back while preaching and singing. There were flashbacks showing how off her rocker his mother was - she really messed him up. To the extent that the father was shown nearby in all the scenes, and I wanted to scream at him "Why aren't you stopping her?!" She was so inappropriate with her son. 

          The woman of interest in the show wasn't a spinster from town, but rather one of their younger, female, married, relatives. This woman spikes the vicar's drink, and when she leans in to kiss him, he freaks out as he did in the story. But in the show, he strangles her. She falls to the floor, bleeding from the mouth, and two spinsters come to see what happened. He yells about his mother and runs past them. The strangled woman is still alive on the floor, and then we are shown the vicar in a straitjacket, talking to a therapist about where in the woman's body he is living now.

          I wonder if this was how the story ended. I remember the writing explaining that the vicar is living inside the woman because she ate him, but maybe I read it wrong, or didn't read into it enough, and it was actually him in therapy talking about it.