November 30. Day 335. A big fat drip

Tim Minchin, I'm sorry. I've been a big fat drip. In January I travelled to Sydney and saw Matilda. I expected to be blown away. I love your work. I love Roald Dahl' s work. I loved both the book and the movie Matilda and of course I'm a music theatre tragic. The stars aligned on this one. I would leave the theatre with my heart singing. But I didn't. Frankly I left going "meh". I didn't hate it by any means. Indeed I liked it but the rest of the world raved and I just didn't see it. Tonight I saw it. Tonight I felt the magic, the earth move. Now here are the possible reasons. I saw Matilda in Sydney on January 14 two weeks before the end of the Sydney season. Perhaps the energy was gone. Perhaps it was just because I had an idea in my head about what this would look like and it didn't. The show didn't live up to the pictures in my head created from a combination of the book and the movie. There may be a bit of me a little jaded because there was no flying car, witch, nanny or carpet. No helicopter appears. No chandelier falls. With fresh eyes and a better idea tonight the magic worked. This is a beautiful, quality production. It's clever, funny and heartwarming. And it is a story of justice and a little person with a strong sense of right and wrong taking on the system and winning. Matilda is a heroine in every sense of the word. And the magic I thought was missing? That X factor? Come on. There are kids swinging out over the audience, there's a little cutie being flung by pig tails, chalk writes on a blackboard by itself and glasses of water miraculously tip over. Plus a chocolate cake that pretty much eats itself. I left the theatre singing. I'm glad I give second chances.