Matilda on Broadway

            Sitting in the theater, the lights come onto the stage and small children come on to begin the first song. The fact that these nine year olds are on Broadway singing, dancing, and acting makes your jaw drop. Once you recognize that these young children stand out much more than the fully trained adult actors and actresses, you find yourself completely in awe of the incredible talent. Every last character, no matter whether they are part of an ensemble or the main character, has their own persona and they express it with such ease and pleasure that it looks almost natural. All of the songs have a story and all leave you singing for days, hoping and wishing that you were back in the theater watching them be sung on stage. As you walk out of the theater, in between your pleads to relive the show all over again and your flashbacks to your favorite moments in your head, you feel like you are surrounded by a glow of joy! Matilda’s ending leaves you 100% satisfied and almost jolly.  You realize that you must take your friends and family back to see the show, not only for them to experience it, but so that you can watch it all over again!

            The article “Matilda the Musical at Shubert Theater” by Ben Brantley, discusses the show Matilda. The show opened in London but moved to New York City in April of 2013. Matilda was inspired by the Roald Dahl novel, which was also turned into a movie in 1996. Although it is a movie pointed towards children, it is completely appropriate for adults and just as suspenseful and exciting as the season finale of an adult television show. The musical shows Matilda’s home and school lives which are both less than great. Her father is a sleazy car salesman and her mother is ballroom dancer, both whom believe that Matilda is “weird” for reading. The article expresses Matilda’s first day of school as a “new beginning”, as she meets a new teacher who cares for her and encourages her love of literature. The musical perfectly captures Roald Dahl’s intended whimsical and mysterious vibe for the show. Ben Brantley uses this article to show readers many aspects of this creative show and truly makes readers want to see Matilda.

            As Brantley is exposing readers to this incredible musical, he uses many craft moves to help express emotions and give readers a great picture. One choice that he made was that he used great, exciting vocabulary to show how he really feels. Some examples of this are his use of “torturous, liberation, revolutionary, and expressive”. His choice of words here really captures the show in such an honest, positive light where readers are left wanting to see this unbelievable show. Another craft move that he made was that he included comparisons from his own life. This gave readers a great perspective and allows readers to see how adult and kids can react to the show, both similarly and differently. When he was discussing Miss Trunchbull, the cruel head mistress of Matilda’s school, he told a story of when he was a student and he had a very similar teacher. This comparison showed a piece of Brantley’s life and allows readers to relate to the musical on a closer and more understanding level. Lastly, the author didn’t include any quotes from outside sources in the article. This can be a negative in other articles, but it allowed this one to have a very easy flow. It let readers have one, but wide ranged, perspective to see the musical in, which was a good idea. These are just some of the intentional craft moves that Ben Brantley made throughout this article.

            After seeing Matilda on Broadway, I immediately immersed myself in the soundtrack and articles about the show. This article was one of many that I read but this one stood out. I especially enjoyed this one because not only was it a review of the show that showed opinions, but it gave an overall summary of the show. This lets people who have already seen Matilda relive the show and gets people who haven’t seen the show yet get excited to see it. That made the article very fun to read because specific scenes that stood out to the writer were shown and readers are able to remember them all over again. I also really liked this article because watching Matilda was such an incredible and memorable experience and this article just added to the whole experience. Overall, “Matilda the Musical at Shubert Theater” by Ben Brantley, does a fantastic job explaining Matilda to readers and gives a perfect image of what the show is all about.