Matilda The Musical (touring) ★★★★★

Matilda The Musical, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s genius child, is now in its fifteenth year and has arrived at Bradford’s Alhambra theatre to a huge and enthusiastic welcome – and rightly so. This brilliant musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s well-loved children’s book has all the ingredients to enchant: bright, cheeky children, ghastly parents, and a terrifying school.

Matilda is the second child born to woefully negligent parents who teeter on the brink of being fully fledged criminals. Matilda, however, has a powerful moral compass, is extremely intelligent and has an enormous thirst for learning – you’d have thought that would make her parents proud. Sadly not so.

Tom Minchin and Dennis Kelly’s masterpiece of a show features Adam Thornhill and Rebecca Stafford as Mr and Mrs Wormwood, the parents, and on this evening, Olivia Ironmonger in the eponymous role. (The role of Matilda is shared equally by Madison Davis, Mollie Hutton, Olivia Ironmonger and Sanna Kurihara, and Oisin-Luca Pegg, Carter-J Murphy, Brodie Robson and Takunda Khumalo share the role of Bruce.)

Mr Wormwood is the famously very dodgy second-hand car salesman, and in this adaptation, Mrs Wormwood, ludicrously glamorous and glitzy, spends her days salsa dancing with the alluring Rudolpho (Ryan Lay), whose gyrating hips deserved a credit of their own. These are the role models Matilda needs to escape, and it is when she is finally sent to Crunchem Hall, under the headship of the maniacal Miss Trunchbull (Richard Hurst), that the story really steps up.

Crunchem Hall has a gloriously miserable student body, clinging to the gates like inmates trying to escape the asylum. This is where the large cast comes into its own – a mass of children – some adult, others life-sized, are stunningly choreographed to dance on desks, leap over vaulting horses in the gym and, most wonderfully, seem to soar across the audience on swings. It is a joyful spectacle.

The Misses Trunchbull and Honey are excellent foils for each other – Richard Hurst’s excessively busty and brutal headteacher contrasts with Tessa Hadley’s sympathetic and kind teacher. It is a really touching moment when Miss Honey shares her home with Matilda.

And of course, it is Matilda (Olivia Ironmonger) who entirely steals the show. This young actor has a powerful presence in this great role and huge charm, a super voice, and she truly delivers on character. She is more than ably supported by Carter-J Murphy as Bruce and Pixie Pettigrew as Lavender – both relishing their every moment.

Rob Howell’s staging for this show, filled with blocks of books and letters, is fantastic and endlessly versatile, creating living rooms, classrooms, the library and even Miss Honey’s humble home.

The pace of the show is relentlessly upbeat, and the audience – many of whom were children- were all clearly utterly captivated and buzzed with excitement. Miss Trunchball may call her pupils maggots, but from the auditorium, those young theatregoers, even after a really late night, emerged as smiling, glowing butterflies.