Why we think Matilda at Sunderland Empire is a terrific watch

Roald Dahl’s Matilda, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and a script by Dennis Kelly, brings to the Empire a large-scale slick production propelled by a cast with a backbone of terrific very young actors.

Not even an early sound problem which caused a short halt to proceedings could unnerve those on stage.

Immense credit here has to go to Sanna Kurihara in the title role.

Following the unscheduled break, the curtain rose with just this very young actor on stage looking out at a packed and expectant auditorium.

Phased? Not a bit of it. Kurihara was in almost every scene of this two and a half hour show and had a phenomenal number of routines and lines to handle – some of them in Russian.

She performed with a stage presence and confidence befitting the many great names who have starred in the leading roles of classic drama that are the stock in trade of the Royal Shakespeare Company who are behind this slick production.

The roles of Matilda and Bruce – played excellently by Takunda Khumalo in the performance I saw – are shared equally by a team of young talent, so you might see Madison Davis, Mollie Hutton or  Olivia Ironmonger as Matilda and possibly Oisin-Luca Pegg, Brodie Robson or Carter-J Murphy in the role of Bruce.

The adult cast also include some outstanding performers, especially Richard Hurst as Miss Trunchbull – a really nasty piece of work and one of the baddest baddies ever to strut the Empire stage.

Hurst was demonic and vindictive, but with enough funny moments to make the audience laugh at him as well as hate him!

Rebecca Thornhill and Adam Stafford as Matilda’s selfish and uncaring parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood, couldn’t fail but bring some light relief to some of the show’s darkness, while a special word should go to Ryan Lay as Rudolpho, Mrs Wormwood’s dancing partner.

His one dimensional shallowness matched that of the Wormwoods and Mrs Trunchbull who treated Matilda so appallingly that it raises real questions about the child abuse that sadly so many youngsters still suffer.

Light in the darkness comes from the teacher Mrs Phelps and librarian Miss Honey, strongly played by Esther Niles and Tessa Kadler.

With over 100 awards to its name, almost a quarter of them for Best Musical, this is a major large scale production awash with many trademark Royal Shakespeare Company flourishes.

No company knows how to milk a curtain call quite like the RSC. The standing ovation that came with it illustrated that the adults in the audience had enjoyed Matilda as much as the youngsters.

Matilda is at the Sunderland Empire until Saturday 28 February 2026. Tickets on sale at ATGTickets.com/ Sunderland