Combining hilarity and heart in the most endearingly entertaining of holiday-season treats, Matilda The Musical makes it three smash hits in a row for Actors’ Repertory Theatre Of Simi.

A captivating Coree Serena Kotula stars as Matilda Wormwood, born to parents who don’t deserve a child as brilliant as the one they’ve been blessed with.

Her peroxide-blonde mother (Mary Zastrow) is such a dolt that even nine months pregnant she’s convinced she’s just “fat” and her green-haired hubby (Scott Gilbert) is no less of a nitwit, blissfully clueless that his second-born is a girl.

Fortunately for our plucky young heroine, a love for books not shared by her telly-obsessed family (completed by Oliver Skye Earley Anderson’s simpleton older brother Michael) helps make Matilda’s away-from-home life bearable, as do an eclectic band of classmates, a helpful librarian from the far-away West Indies (Sara Owinyo as Mrs. Phelps), and above all World’s Best Teacher Miss Jennifer Honey (Samantha Winters).

Considerably less agreeable is the ever looming presence of discipline-loving, child-abhorring headmistress Miss Agatha Trunchbull (Ryan Gesell), bent on making her pint-sized charges’ lives a living hell.

Book writer Dennis Kelly’s adept adaptation of Dahl’s children’s classic adds a couple of plot innovations of his own, the first involving a gang of madcap Russian mafiosi, the second an original fairy tale that gives Matilda The Musical as powerfully emotional coda as any adult or child could wish for.

Composer-lyricist Tim Minchin, meanwhile, has written one catchy, melodic song after another to accompany Matilda on her journey towards self-discovery and self-reliance (with a dash of telekinesis along the way).

Bigger bucks may have given previously reviewed Matildas a more spectacular framework than the one now on view in southeast Ventura County, but ARTS’ latest demonstrates in no uncertain terms that a more limited budget need not mean a loss in entertainment value.

Indeed the intimacy afforded by the 175-seat Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center helps make this production refreshingly easy to follow, and never more so than when Matilda enthralls Mrs. Phelps with the magical, tragical tale of an Escapologist (David Hatfield) and an Acrobat (Liviera Lim) in love.

As he did in A Christmas Story: The Musical and A Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder, Will Shupe not only proves himself the most masterful of directors but the most ingenious of scenic designers as well. (Unlike the two regional Matildas I’ve seen, Shupe and lighting design master Seth Kamenow have figured out how not to sacrifice the cleverness built into lyrics like “You will soon C there’s no escaping trage-D” in Minchin’s ever so smart “School Song.”)

Choreographer Becky Castells brings out the very best in Matilda’s multi-talented tween and teen school kids in energetic, athletic production numbers like “When I Grow Up” and “Revolting Children,” while giving Mrs. Wormwood and her salsa partner Rodolpho (a hilariously dance-possessed Mathew San Jose) their own infectious moves.

Leading lady Kotula is waiflike perfection, combining heartache and heart while showing off a soprano that can belt (“Naughty”) as stunningly as it can go legit (“Quiet”).

Gesell’s murderously funny Miss Trunchbull steals every scene (s)he’s in, which is saying quite a lot given that Gilbert’s wild and crazy Mr. Wormwood and Zastrow’s wilder and crazier Mrs. Wormwood give the monstrous schoolmistress some pretty stiff competition in the scene-stealing department.

Winters’ nurturing honey of a Miss Honey and Owinyo’s piquant charmer of a Mrs. Phelps are everything a misunderstood Miss could wish for in support and guidance, Anderson makes for a deliciously dim Michael, and Hartfield and Lim break hearts as the most star-crossed of lovers. (Hartfield scores bonus points as Mrs. Wormwood’s rock-star OB-GYN.)

Scenie-winning Lucas Panczel’s adorably chocolate-loving Bruce and Olivia Parish’s pert and perky Lavender head the most gifted preteen ensemble in town alongside Cecilia Diamond’s Hotencia, Aiden Gofnung’s Nigel, Dean Gofnung’s Eric, Selah Myers’ Amanda Thripp, Shayna Proctor’s Alice, and Jenna Lauren Romo’s Tommy, and the Big Kids (Anderson, Brooke Bradley, Audrey Fischer, Calista Loter, and Aurelia Myers) are just as triple-threat-astic as their juniors.

Daffy Russian mobster Natasha (Emma Krishaswami), her goofy Henchmen (Annie Claire Hudson and Jon Hughes), and Tango Dancers Anderson, Fischer, Hartfield, and Kerstin Myers merit their own cheers.

Gary Poirot conducts one of the best-sounding live orchestras I’ve heard at SCVAC as the Matilda cast harmonize under Matt Park’s expert vocal direction, with sound designer Kevin Kahm ensuring a just-right mix of amped voices and instrumentals (and making sure that this reviewer could at long last understand the Escapologist and the Acrobat’s tragic tale).

Amy Shupe earns high marks for her colorful, fanciful costumes as do Luis Ramirez for his wacky wig-and-hair designs and Kevin Ellis for his imaginative props, and Krishaswami scores dialect coaching points for some impressive UK accents.

Matilda The Musical is produced by Jan Glasband. Dean Foster is assistant director/stage manager. Fischer is dance captain. Kotula alternates weekends with fellow Matilda Delilah Shafer.

Once again proving that you don’t need a six-figure budget (let alone Broadway millions) to make musical theater magic, Actors’ Repertory Theatre Of Simi’s Matilda The Musical held me its captivated captive from its engaging start to its heartwarming, stand-up-and-cheer finish.

Actors Repertory Theatre Of Simi, Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley.
www.actorsrepofsimi.org

–Steven Stanley
November 29, 2019
Photos: Charisse Proctor

Tags: Actors Repertory Theatre Of Simi, Dennis Kelly, Roald Dahl, Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, Tim Minchin, Ventura County Theater Review