Matilda is upon us! Here’s a teaser

I can’t believe it’s here. Tomorrow evening I’ll be sitting in a full dress rehearsal of the RSC’s “Matilda – a Musical”… and by Tuesday the public (including some of you) will be there too. It’s a weird feeling. Especially when my brain is also occupied by the niggling sensation of having an unfinished arena spectacular to attend to. Regardless, I am incredibly excited that we’ve (nearly!) made it. I’ve never worked so hard on a piece and I’ve never enjoyed the journey so much.

The RSC has made a video with a little teaser of one of the songs intercut with footage of the kids in rehearsals and a tired and unshaven me talking like an imbecile about my writing. The song is called “When I Grow Up” and is the first thing I wrote, back in May 2009. The audio you hear in the vid is actually the very demo that I showed Dennis (Kelly) and Matthew (Warchus) and Chris (Nightingale) that month.

Two things I feel I should say:

1. The show is generally not this “pop”. This is the pop peak, so to pop speak.

2. You should hear the kids sing it. Man, you really should.

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It can also be viewed on the Matilda A Musical website or the RSC YouTube Channel.