It’s that time of the year again. Students are gathering in the Performing Arts Center (PAC) outside of school hours where they pour in hours to perfect their performances in the annual spring musical production. This year, the theater department is putting on Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical as the annual spring musical.
Matilda follows the adventures of five-year-old Matilda Wormwood as she navigates her power of telekinesis, tough family situations, and a troublesome school life. She overcomes her struggles with the help of a newfound love for reading and a friendly teacher who helps guide her.
When reviewing the popular musical, Amy Nicholson of the New York Times said, “bitterness never tasted so sweet as it does in Roald Dahl’s Matilda, a jolt of sour candy guaranteed to make you grin.”
Matthew McKay, the director of the school’s productions, chose Matilda for this year’s musical due to the themes that students could resonate with. Last year, the theater department performed Beauty and the Beast, which targeted younger, elementary-age students as a Disney musical. This year, they are trying to better connect with a different audience.
“We thought for this year we’d try to target our middle school-age population,” McKay said. “We thought Matilda is probably right up their alley, [since] it’s about going to a really crummy school but then finding how working together can change your situation.”
Junior Libby Cosby is playing the lead character, Matilda. She has been in previous Northview productions, but this is her first time as the lead role.
“It comes with a lot of pressure that is a little bit unfamiliar to me, but I’m overall very excited, and I feel like this is a really great role to be my big debut and show my strengths,” Cosby said.
With its quirky characters and playful writing, this show is very atypical compared to the musicals Northview has previously done over the years.
“This is definitely an unusual, wacky musical. It is different than any other musical I’ve ever done just because it’s kind of abnormal,” Cosby said.
This musical is a brand new experience for Cosby, not just because of the quirky content and concepts.
“The acting experience for me is very different than anything I’ve ever done because of the way my character is. She’s very secluded and isolated and not very outgoing or emotive,” Cosby said. “So that’s different than anything I’ve ever done and very contrasting with my personality.”
Matilda and the rest of Roald Dahl’s work is a classic for this generation, and McKay is excited about Dahl’s personality and comedic writing in the musical.
“[I’m] really looking forward to the humor. Roald Dahl’s got a dark sense of humor, and I think that comes out [in the show],” McKay said. “But [he creates] those moments where we’re laughing at the characters, and we’re making fun of them, but then we really care and empathize with them and their situations.”
McKay can’t wait for the audience to be able to finally experience the production, especially the set.
“The audience is going to see a lot of fun stagecraft, a lot of use of our set material,” McKay said. “We have a class here at the high school that has made most of the props and special effects along with our [stage] crew, who is going to execute that. [I think that] they’ll be impressed with how much we can do with a small space.”
The star actors on stage aren’t the only people working hard to make this musical a success, students are also operating behind the scenes. Students in stage crew are involved in building sets, sewing costumes, and practicing with lights. All of this comes together to put on a perfect show. Anna Reynolds, who is in charge of organizing things with the stage crew, is proud of everybody’s work.
“I am incredibly grateful for the crew’s hard work,” Reynolds said. “They have a lot less time to rehearse than the cast does, so they have to adjust much more quickly. It is always so impressive to see how it all comes together.”
Reynolds is eager to see the show come to life.
“I can’t wait for the show to debut this weekend,” Reynolds said. “It’s so exciting to see all this hard work come together and pay off in such big ways. I couldn’t be more proud of all the people involved.”
Cosby believes that people should come out and see the show because it offers something for everyone.
“It’s something that appeals to every type of person because, from a six-year-old’s eyes, it’s just this fun story about a girl who has magical powers, fighting against an evil, mean person,” Cosby said. “But from an adult perspective, it’s so much deeper than that, and there’s so much more to this musical that you can’t really understand it until you see it, and there are so many people [in the cast] that portray that so well.”
Matilda will be running two weekends: Friday, March 17, Saturday, March 18, and Friday, March 24 at 7:00 pm. The final performance on Saturday, March 25 is at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $10.00 for students and $12.00 for adults, and they are being sold online, with no sales at the door.
