Matilda: The Musical a dream show for young Regina performers
After a decade in this musical theatre company, Kayla Weir’s dream show has finally come to Do It With Class Young People’s Theatre.
“Honestly this is the show that I would have crossed my fingers for,” Weir, 17, said of Matilda: The Musical that runs next week in Regina.
“I saw this for the first time in New York actually on Broadway and … I fell in love with it. I love the music and it’s so, so fun.”
Weir had known the story from seeing the 1996 movie starring Danny Devito, Rhea Perlman and Mara Wilson, based on the book by Roald Dahl.
“It’s a really, really fun story about a little girl who is really smart for her age, and she loves reading and she loves to learn. She was just unfortunately put into a really bad family that she does not fit into,” said Weir, who plays the title character’s mother, Mrs. Wormwood.
Her counterpart as Matilda’s father is 17-year-old Elie Decorby.
“I think the story is just really relatable to everyone. Like, it’s that feeling of just being wronged when you’ve done nothing wrong, and feeling that you’re not being treated fairly or not being treated right even though you’ve done nothing wrong,” said Decorby.
Playing the title character is nine-year-old Myalle Roffey, who debuted in Junie B. Jones: The Musical in November.
“I like that there’s this little girl, Matilda, that doesn’t know she has superpowers until like halfway through kindergarten,” Roffey said.
“And it’s just like a magical story of this little girl and how she influences many of her classmates and all of these adults and amazes them,” said Weir.
Roffey and Vienna Bacalso take turns playing Matilda. Likewise, of the 30-some-person cast, there are two actors playing Matilda’s dad (Ronin Durey is Decorby’s counterpart), lovely teacher Miss Honey (Elizabeth Booker and Jayda Cameron), and the tyrannical principal Ms. Trunchbull (Alexandra Baird and Meika Sonntag).
Weir will play Mrs. Wormwood in each of the productions. She loves the “over-the-top” role, which includes a lot of ballroom dancing.
“I’ve done some roles like that, where I’m a bit mean or whatever, but Mrs. Wormwood is just the extreme of crazy funny, like ridiculous, and that’s so fun,” said Weir.
Story aside, the actors agree the songs are “fantastic.”
Roffey’s favourite is Loud.
“It’s Mrs. Wormwood trying to show Miss Honey to be like her,” she explained.
The lyrics to that song include, “You have got to be loud / Girl you’ve got to learn to stand out and stick out from the crowd.”
Decorby said he “really can’t pick a favourite (song) because they’re all just that good.”
Matilda: The Musical, directed by Rob Ursan, is being presented at the University of Regina Riddell Centre University Theatre, March 12-14, 7 p.m. (plus at noon on Thursday and Friday). For tickets, visit diwc.eventbrite.com.