Review: MATILDA THE MUSICAL Dazzles in Nashville

More than a mere prodigy and so much more than precocious could ever mean, five-year-old Matilda Wormwood is a genius: one who uses her imagination to whisk her away from the woeful confines of a home life with repulsive, repugnant and irredeemably bad parents and a lazy and feckless brother. Using her brilliant mind - despite all her family's worst efforts to stifle her creativity (her father, for example, always call her "boy" or an increasingly insulting panoply of names - Matilda creates stories that take her away from the horrid aspects of a life that exists only in Roald Dahl's acclaimed book, a book that makes her seem so real, so completely genuine to the countless readers -- both young and old -- for whom she exists on paper, in memory of words read, or in hearts in which she will forever continue to soar as a meaningful and inspiring character, no matter how surreal the world in which she exists seems to be.

Can there be a better way to capture Matilda's spirit so evocatively than in a sparkling new work for the musical theater? A musical journey through which we can chart her soulful, heartfelt ascent into a literary hierarchy in which readers can live vicariously? Matilda's forays into a fictional world of devil-may-care adventure, oftentimes aided by her gift for telekinesis or her penchant for clever tricks (like switching her father's hair oil with her mother's peroxide) - which is at once darker than other offerings of like ilk, yet somehow rather more confectionary than even the fluffiest of musical comedies - lend themselves exquisitely to Matilda the Musical, the critically lauded stage extravaganza that is somehow effervescently uplifting while remaining grounded.

Now onstage at the Nashville's Andrew Jackson Hall - the larger of Tennessee Performing Arts Center's three theaters - as part of the 2015/16 HCA-Tri Star Health Broadway at TPAC series, Matilda the Musical is sure to entertain and delight you, while provoking you to think about the power of books and the fantasies found therein.

Offering audiences a sincere appreciation of the written word, via a creative and artfully conceived entertainment that cannot help but touch your heart in unexpected, yet ever so welcome, ways, Matilda the Musical - with a cleverly written book by Dennis Kelly and music and lyrics by Tim Minchin that captures the very best of the Dahl-written source material - offers a story that is somehow moralistic without ever becoming preachy, while remaining refreshingly free of dogma or didactic overreach.

Rather, Matthew Warchus' artful direction - and the world created by Dahl - helps to create an altogether believable setting, time and place in which Matilda's fantastic tale of the magic found in books (leavened with a bit of paranormal activity, for good measure) plays out. Warchus keeps the action moving ever forward (thanks, in large part, to the stunning choreography created by Peter Darling), helping to delineate the various characters who live in that fictional world with an even-handedness that is impressive.

Darling's choreography makes grand use of every theatrical element available to him and his dazzling cast of dancers and gymnasts, including four swings in which the company sings of "When I Grow Up" in a moving way that completely eclipses Peter Pan's same exhortation, and a show-closing finale that has every member of the ensemble on scooters to reprise some of the score's most effective tunes.

Minchin's score - filled with songs that will leave you humming along and/or absolutely filled with a sense of enchantment that will accompany your ride home post-curtain - is an amalgam of expected musical theater tropes, English music hall motifs, and inventive and contemporary themes and genres. The exuberant score is played with confidence by dozen or so professional musicians, including the traveling players who accompany the tour and a brace of Nashville-based players who beautifully complement their efforts.

Warchus' efforts are beautifully enhanced by the production's eye-poppingly gorgeous design aesthetic: Hugh Vanstone's impeccable lighting design perfectly illuminates the gorgeous set and evocative costumes created by Rob Howell, while Paul Kieve's "illusion" design provides a visual sleight of hand that makes Matilda the Musical so much more than a simple night at the theater.

Despite an amazingly gifted cast of actors bringing the colorful characters to life - three young actress alternate in the eponymous role of Matilda (with the utterly engaging Savannah Grace Elmer bringing her to life in the performance reviewed on Wednesday, January 27) and they are joined by eight young actors who play her classmates at the Crunchem Hall School, each of whom is splendidly cast, and an ensemble of more seasoned actors who bring spirit and heart to every role - Matilda the Musical may not be everyone's cup of tea, yet if you give yourself over to the tale playing out before you onstage, you are likely to find yourself totally captivated by the antics and hijinks transpiring only a few feet away. And, if you are like me, at least - someone who grew up with the wonder found in books whisking him away day-after-day from a humdrum, small-town life in which he was perceived to be an outsider - Matilda will take you on a fantastical journey filled with imagination and hope.

The over-the-top characters - all the adults, save one (the benevolent Miss Honey, played with convincing sincerity and sweetness by Jennifer Blood), are child-hating malcontents - are made more palatable by their cartoonish demeanors and the brightly colored costumes designed for them by Mr. Howell, even if they are spouting words like "maggots" and such to describe the children in their charge. David Abeles is given the most horrific litany of words with which to address students at the Crunchem School in the enviable role of Agatha Trunchbull, the school's vicious headmistress who, we are informed, is a past English hammer-throwing champion. As played by the tremendously versatile Abeles, Miss Trunchbull looks as if she were a member of the 1976 East German Women's Olympic Swim Team and he gleefully seizes upon every opportunity to use his immense stage presence to his advantage. The camp elements of Miss Trunchbull's personality ensure that all eyes will be on her during her time onstage, but it is Abeles' restraint that makes her most memorable.

Blood's kind-hearted and devoted Miss Honey and Ora Jones' welcoming librarian Mrs. Phelps, provide the perfect foils or counterparts to Abeles' Miss Trunchbull, while Cassie Silva (as Matilda's ballroom-dancing obsessed harridan of a mother) and Quinn Mattfeld (who gives a perfectly calibrated performance as Matilda's telly-loving, used car salesman father) are resolute examples of people who should never have had children (case in point: Matilda's oafish and foolish older brother, played skillfully by Danny Teiger).

• Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical. Book by Dennis Kelly. Music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. Directed by Matthew Warchus. Choreography by Peter Darling. Musical direction by Matthew Smedal. Presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Dodgers at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall, Nashville. Through Sunday, January 31. For tickets and other information, go to www.TPAC.org. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (including one 15-minute intermission).

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