New casting announced for RSC’s Matilda the Musical

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical has announced new casting with Hayden Tee playing Miss Trunchbull alongside Rob Compton and Holly Dale Spencer as Mr and Mrs Wormwood. Gina Beck will continue to play Miss Honey, having joined the company in September 2017. Isobel Hubble and Francesca McKeown will join Sarah Munday and Olivia Wells in sharing the title role of Matilda. The multi-award-winning production is currently playing its seventh year in the West End and is booking until 20 October 2019.

To mark the arrival of the new adult and child cast members, the RSC has created a brand new video which sees the four Matildas run away and join Giffords Circus for the day where they were taught special skills including acrobatics, clowning and juggling.

The full adult cast includes Alex Louize Bird, Gina Beck, Rob Compton, Holly Dale Spencer, Jaye Elster, Glen Facey, Alex Hammond, Peter Houston, Jessica Joslin, Bethany Kate, Sammy Kelly, Ben Kerr, Bryan Mottram, Malinda Parris, James Revell, Gemma Scholes, Simon Shorten, Hayden Tee, Callum Train and Robert Tregoning.

The other young performers announced today join the London company in the three teams who play the roles of Bruce, Lavender, Amanda and the rest of the pupils at Crunchem Hall and are as follows: Lois Abercrombie, Tom Brown, Emilia Bosi, Toby Brandon, Quincy Miller-Cole, Lottie Cook, Imogen Darwen, Jimmy Fordham Reed, Clara Freeman Alves, Stella Haden, Jobe Hart, Noah Leggott, Archie Lewis, Henry Littell, Austen Phelan, Marley Quinlan-Gardner, Daisy Statham, Cherry Vaughn-White and Rochelle Wyatt.

Jacob Bland, Mia Byers, Sadie Victoria Lim, Asher Ezequiel, Darmani Eboji and Sam Winser will continue in the roles of Bruce, Lavender, Amanda and the pupils at Crunchem Hall.

Gina Beck (Miss Honey) is renowned for leading roles in musical theatre. Previous roles have included Glinda in Wicked (Apollo Victoria Theatre & US Tour), Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre), Magnolia Hawks in Daniel Evan’s production of Show Boat (New London Theatre) and Cosette in Les Misérables (Queen’s Theatre). A graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, her other theatre credits include Far From the Madding Crowd (The Watermill Theatre) and The Belle’s Stratagem (Southwark Playhouse) both directed by Jessica Swale, I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change (Arts Theatre Upstairs), Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Charing Cross Theatre), The Sound of Music (Kuala Lumpur), Peter Pan (Birmingham Rep), The Kissing Dance (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Imagine This (Plymouth Theatre Royal). Her television credits include the BBC’s Doctors and Sherlock Holmes and The Case of the Silk Stocking. Opera credits include Madame Butterfly and L’elisir d’amore (Opera Holland Park). She was a soloist in the 21st and 25th-anniversary celebrations of Les Misérables as well as in the recent blockbuster film version. She made her BBC Proms debut in 2016 as a soloist in the BBC’s Bernstein prom.

Rob Compton (Mr Wormwood) known for his work across stage, television and film. His theatre credits include Wonder.land (Manchester Palace, Manchester International Festival, and National Theatre), Bat Boy (Southwark Playhouse), Mother Courage and her Children (The Lowry, Manchester), A Chorus of Disapproval (Harold Pinter Theatre), All the Fun of the Fair (UK Tour), Merlin and the Woods of Time and As You Like It (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre), Great Expectations (English Touring Theatre & Watford Palace) and A Christmas Carol (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Film and television credits include American Assassin, Rellik, Babs, Ripper Street, Silent Witness, EastEnders, and Endeavour.

Holly Dale Spencer (Mrs Wormwood) is best known for previous stage roles such as Grace Farrell in Annie (Piccadilly Theatre and UK Tour), Nicky in Sweet Charity (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Judy Haynes in White Christmas (Leeds Playhouse) and Sabrina in American Psycho (Almeida Theatre). Other theatre credits include Holly Golightly and Words and Music (Sadler’s Wells), Kiss Me Kate (Chichester Festival Theatre and The Old Vic), Oliver! (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), The Grapes of Wrath (Chichester Festival Theatre and UK Tour), Crazy For You (Novello Theatre), Betty Blue Eyes (Novello Theatre) and Children Will Listen (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane). Previous roles in film include the 2012 film adaption of Les Miserables.

Hayden Tee (Miss Trunchbull) is an award-winning musical theatre actor from New Zealand. Previous roles have included Javert in Les Miserables (Broadway, West End and International Tour), Joe Cable in South Pacific (Adelaide Festival Centre and Australian National Tour), Prof Bhaer in Little Women (Australian National Music Theatre), and Thomas Andrews in Titanic (Theatre Royal, Sydney). Having trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Australia, his other theatre credits include Three Winters Green (Stables Theatre, New South Wales), Kiwi Fruits 2 (The Court Theatre, Christchurch), Only Heaven Knows (The Hayes Theatre), Songs for a New World (Australian National Music Theatre), I Love you, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Australian National Music Theatre), My Fair Lady (Opera Australia), Cats (International Tour), Jekyll and Hyde (South Korea, Taiwan), Into the Woods (Alliance Theatre, Atlanta), and Camelot (Pittsburgh Public Theatre). He is the recipient of the Gluggs Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the Gluggs Theatre Award for Best Cabaret Performance of the Year. Hayden’s debut solo cabaret show Me to a Tee was performed to great acclaim in Sydney, Auckland and New York. Other cabaret shows include Quarterlife Crisis (Sydney), Hayden Tee (Sydney, Melbourne and New York) and Muftee which was a nightly cabaret and chat show which opened at the Stables Theatre, Sydney, in 2003 and ran for a record breaking seven months. His show The Gin is Cold…But the Piano Is Hot, which focused on the music of Kander and Ebb, also toured Australia.

Matilda The Musical is written by Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, and direction by Matthew Warchus.

Matilda The Musical has now been seen by 8 million people worldwide, having toured to over 65 cities and played more than 6000 performances in the West End, on Broadway and on tour across North America, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Matilda The Musical will have its first non-English language production at the LG Arts Centre in Seoul, South Korea from September 2018.

Winner of over 85 international awards, including 16 for Best Musical, Matilda The Musical is also now touring the UK and Ireland. The tour began performances in March at Leicester Curve and is currently playing at Birmingham Hippodrome until 8 September. Running until 17 August 2019, the tour will play Manchester Palace Theatre, Cardiff Wales Millennium Centre, Theatre Royal Plymouth, the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, Edinburgh Playhouse, The Bristol Hippodrome, Mayflower Theatre, Southampton and Norwich Theatre Royal.

Inspired by the incomparable Roald Dahl’s beloved book, Matilda The Musical was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and premiered at the RSC’s Stratford-upon-Avon home in November 2010, before transferring to London’s West End in October 2011, where it opened to rave reviews. The New York production of Matilda The Musical opened in April 2013 at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre and was celebrated on 10 “Top Ten” lists for 2013, including TIME Magazine’s #1 Show of the Year.

Matilda The Musical swept the board at the 2012 Olivier Awards, with a record-breaking seven awards, and won four Tony Awards and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater for the four girls sharing the title role on Broadway.

The North America production toured 52 cities. The Australian and New Zealand production won a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Musical in 2015, and played sold-out seasons in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Auckland. The show broke further records in July 2016 by winning all 13 Helpmann Awards for which it was nominated.

Matilda The Musical is produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company with André Ptaszynski and Denise Wood as Executive Producers. The production was developed with the support of Jeanie O’Hare and the RSC Literary Department.

The production is designed by Rob Howell, with choreography by Peter Darling, orchestrations, additional music and musical supervision by Christopher Nightingale, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker and the special effects and illusions are by Paul Kieve.

LISTINGS INFORMATION
MATILDA THE MUSICAL
Cambridge Theatre
Earlham Street
London WC2H 9HU

Book Matilda the Musical Tickets for Cambridge Theatre, London.