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Young Jaime Maclean is a terrifically talented "Matilda," leading the touring musical's cast with professional aplomb far beyond her years in Wednesday's show, but the touring production's garbled sound mix swallowed the majority of the show's lyrics.
This unlikely musical is inventively crafted out of the dark fable of Roald Dahl's 1988 novel, with beautiful stage pictures and a darkly subversive book and lyrics. It would be tempting to blame the sound on the acoustic challenges of a new hall, as high registers have been a problem at the Eccles Theater since the facility opened in October.
But newspaper critics have been complaining about garbled sound as the tour has wound across the country, which suggests that producers have had plenty of time to fix technical problems and they haven't. This English-language production needs supertitles projected above the stage.
The musical "Matilda" tells the story of a young bookworm (played on alternative nights by Gabby Gutierrez and Jenna Weir) who entertains herself by telling stories to an enthusiastic librarian (Keisha T. Fraser), while at home she's bullied and taunted by her oafish, narcissistic parents. At school, Matilda is nurtured by her mild-mannered teacher, Miss Honey (Jennifer Bowles), who is herself under the thumb of an ogre-of-a-headmistress, Agatha Trunchbull (Dan Chameroy), a former hammer-throwing champion.
Chameroy's Trunchbull is terrifying, with the actor employing perfect timing to create a villainous tension. That's paired with the character's overstuffed bosom shelf and a bun hairstyle itself so intimidating that not one hair would dare to stray from his/her head. Bowles' schoolteacher has a honey of a voice, which finds the emotion in her character-revealing number, "My House."
Since the story's adults are written as caricatures, that means the kiddie versions of "Spring Awakening"-style schoolhouse choreography should steal the show — and would, if you could understand the lyrics.
I mean who wouldn't want to sing the lyrics of "Revolting Children" as you spill out the aisles into the lobby after the show? (As a consumer service, here are some prescient lyrics so you can sing one charming stanza along with me: "We are revolting children / Living in revolting times / We sing revolting songs / Using revolting rhymes.")
The first act's expositive storytelling is cluttered, slow and dark, but the show reveals its rich charms at the top of the second act, beginning with Mr. Wormwood's (Matt Harrington's) fourth-wall-breaking ode to the "Telly."
Then comes the show-stopping "When I Grow Up," in which Matilda and her mates swing out over the front rows of the audience while breaking out in rich harmonies, followed by the shadow-casting magical storytelling of Matilda's "I'm Here."
"When I Grow Up" is so visually beautiful that it makes me long for a live-theater rewind button. I'd gladly watch the scene again and again, as the evocative choreography (matched by the scooter-riding movements of the show's curtain call) embodies everything this musical gets right about being a kid. Being a kid, that is, who has enough quiet power to call out when life isn't fair.
"Even if you're little, you can do a lot, you mustn't let a little thing like 'little' stop you," Matilda sings in "Naughty."
And it's just not fair that theatergoers (who pay up to $100 per seat) can't hear those words.
facebook.com/ellen.weist —
'When I grow up I will have treats every day'
Sound problems overshadow the inventive choreography and young talent that's the magic of the dark-edged adaptation of "Matilda."
When • Reviewed Wednesday; continues through Feb. 26; 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26
Where • Eccles Theater, 115 S. Main St., Salt Lake City
Tickets • $45-$100 at 801-355-ARTS (2787), or arttix.org and theater box office