Matilda - not for me at all; a children's pantomime, full of shrieking kids and caricatures.
Very well staged but not one decent tune in the half of the show I saw (I left in the interval).
And very much in the traditional style; over acting, charming (?) children, clever dancing and wicked villains - but stuck firmly in 1950.

That was what I tried to change with Me Me Me. A musical film that looked totally different from other musicals and other films.
And I felt, some good tunes.
Now I'm sure Tim Minchin felt there were good songs in Matilda - but, for me, after the Cabaret one came the Little Shop one and the Oliver one etc. Lots of pastiches of past successes.

Like Hairspray, which I also left during the interval, multiple photocopy songs. Men in drag. Women with silly wigs. Men with silly wigs.
Good set (particularly excellent arrival of desks on stage) if rather reminiscent of a TV set used on a logo.
I must say, the theatre was full of families and everyone seemed to love it.
Perhaps originality isn't wanted by most paying customers (and at £77 for my seat, the recession clearly hasn't bitten yet).

I shall go my own idiosyncratic way and make my own rather oddball films and encourage more imaginative students to stage my musicals in a different way. And I'm sure Matilda - a great success already - will continue to do very well all over the world.

My only previous foray into theatre - The Rocky Horror Show - I backed and recorded because, although I felt the music was the weakest area, I thought the show was different, fun, exciting, creative and full of wit and sparkle. I could forgive the lack of hits - with the possible one exception - The Time Warp.

My old friend Lionel Bart wrote a super musical in Oliver. With - I thought - and still feel, dozens of hit tunes.
I notice most theatres are packed with successful shows mainly using existing hits - from Queen, Rod Stewart and others.
Mamma Mia is full of great tunes.

A musical without tunes is like a fish without a bicycle.