Official website: http://uk.matildathemusical.com
Timeline
- Courtyard Theatre, Stratford upon Avon
- 9 November 2010 [previews]
- 9 December 2010 [opening night]
- 30 January 2011 [end of run]
- Cambridge Theatre, London
- 25 October 2011 [previews]
- 24 November 2011 [opening night]
- Booking until December 2024
- Shubert Theatre, Broadway
- 4 March 2013 [previews]
- 11 April 2013 [opening night]
- 1 January 2017 [end of run]
- US Tour
- 7 June 2015 – Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles
- Melbourne, Australia
- 28 July 2015 [previews]
- 20 August 2015 [opening night]
- 11 November 2016 [closing]
- Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto, Canada
- 5 July 2016 [opening night]
- January 7 2017 [final performance, after 26 weeks]
Creative Team
Book: Dennis Kelly
Music & Lyrics: Tim Minchin
Director: Matthew Warchus
Orchestrator & Music Supervision: Chris Nightingale
Set Designer: Rob Howell
Lighting Designer: Hugh Vanstone
Sound Designer: Simon Baker
Illusions & Special Effects: Paul Kieve
Lighting Cues
There are over 700 cued lighting cues during the show, along with another few hundred ‘follow-on’ cues which run automatically.
The School Song has such precise lighting cues that it runs on timecode. A time signal started by the musical director in the pit sends signals to the lighting desk which triggers the cues with no human intervention. However, if there’s a problem with the timecode signal, or if it doesn’t get started properly, the lighting operators have to take over manually, and have to learn the cues during the song as there’s no chance of the DSM cueing them.
Automation
The desks which rise up through the stage floor have a high degree of safety built in. As child performers are involved, there can be no chance of an injury. As well as there being chaperones in the wings watching each child, the desks have safety-edges, which automatically stop the moving scenery if something is in the wrong place. This is so sensitive it can be triggered by the paper aeroplanes which get thrown around the stage. This has caused a show stop on a few occasions (when the automation system ‘E-Stops’ and needs to be reset before the show can continue).
- Bathroom cutout (from stage deck)
- Desks (through stage deck)
- Letters
- Library
- School Gates
- Swings
- Upstage Wall (open & close)
- Wormwood Slider
Creative Team Chat (2011)
Matildas performing at The Olivier Awards, 2012
Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Cleo Demetriou, Kerry Ingram and Sophia Kiely
When I Grow Up – The Royal Variety Show, 2012