Review: ‘Matilda The Musical’ bounces across Coralville stage

CORALVILLE — It’s the best of times and the worst of times for 5-year-old Matilda, who is about to start school and get out from under the thumb of her horrid parents and monosyllabic sibling, Michael.

Unfortunately, Matilda is sent to Crunchem Hall, where the headmistress is even worse than her family. Thankfully, her new teacher, Miss Honey, recognizes her genius.

From the dark tale by Roald Dahl comes a bright and lively musical that City Circle Acting Company sends romping across the stage at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, for another weekend, Friday through Sunday, Dec. 17 to 19, 2021.

Sasha Jakob dazzles as the child who is reading Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” at the top of the show, and taught herself Russian so she can read Dostoyevsky’s work in his native language — a skill that will come in handy when the mob enters the picture.

Her family doesn’t understand her in any language.

Her father, a used-car salesman, calls her “boy,” since he can’t figure out why she’s a girl. Joshua Fryvecind, who has played many serious roles on Corridor stages, cuts loose with bluster to spare.

Stephanie Zimmerman is a hoot as Matilda’s mother, perpetually perplexed by this child who would rather read books than be beautiful. As aspiring ballroom dancer, Mrs. Wormwood has never forgotten that Matilda’s birth knocked her out of a huge competition. But hope springs eternal, and Bryant Duffy is hysterical as her dance partner Rudolpho, who shows up dressed like a disco ball to whisk her off her feet to keep their dancing staying alive.

Oliver Miller as brother Michael evokes the biggest laughs by uttering the fewest words.

Together, Matilda’s relatives create an over-the-top cartoon family to help temper the mean words that come flying out of their mouths.

Only two people understand Matilda — the town librarian, played so delightfully by Krista Neumann, who encourages the child and hangs on every word in the cliffhanger story Matilda is conjuring — and Miss Honey, Matilda’s aptly named teacher, played with such compassion by Chloe Schroeder.

Everything about the show, directed by Elizabeth Tracey, is as bright and lively as the Michael Blake’s versatile alphabet building block scenery and Melisa Wallace Rusk’s costumes and Hans Hinrichsen’s kaleidoscope lighting design.

Katie Milani’s choreography is sharp, angular and so well executed by the young scholars at Matilda’s school. And music director Christian Dollinger and sound designer Evan Schroeder have done a fine job finding the right balance between the voices and orchestra.

British accents can be hard to get in our ears, and occasionally, the kids rushed through their lyrics a little too quickly during the Dec. 9 final dress rehearsal, but not enough to take away from the overall bounce of the show.

The students surround Matilda and bolster each other whenever the real grinch pops up. That would be headmistress Agatha Trunchbull, the 1969 British hammer-throwing champion and 1972 Olympics contender, who now lowers the hammer on the students. Her favorite punishment is tossing them in the Chokey, a cupboard full of sharp objects. But her sharpest object is her tongue, as she often refers to the pupils as “maggots.”

Jason Millsap finds a dream role in this nightmare character. He stomps around the stage with wicked glee, cutting an outrageous figure of a fully padded woman.

Lest you think only bad things happen to Matilda, she has more than a few naughty tricks up her sleeve and of course, Miss Trunchbull gets her comeuppance in the end, thanks to some very clever magical shenanigans and truth telling.

The script and music, based on Dahl’s 1988 children’s book, lets the audience embrace the villains as well as the heroes, so even the youngest viewers should leave this production grinning from ear to ear.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com