Alton School’s Senior School pupils performed the Matilda Jr. Musical over 3 nights last week to a packed house of excited friends and family. The performance was full of fun, comedy, singing and dancing, with pupils from Years 5 and 6 featuring in some of the scenes.

The musical premiered in the West End in 2010 and is based on Roald Dahl’s best-selling novel of the same name. It features songs such as “Revolting Children” and “When I Grow Up.” With the recent release of Matilda the Musical in cinemas the pupils were thrilled to take on the roles of Matilda, Miss Trunchbull, Miss Honey and more. They were supported by an amazing cast and crew who worked very hard to put on a show which wowed the audience with their musical numbers, enthusiasm and energy.

“It was so heart warming to see our young people enjoy themselves and bringing so much joy to their audience. A huge congratulations to all those involved” – Karl Guest, Headmaster.

Everybody came together to produce a production worth celebrating, from the cast who brought famous characters to our own Drama Studio, to the work behind to scenes on set design and promoting the show. Hector, Year 10, worked behind the scenes to capture photographs of rehearsals (see some of his images below). While Bea, Year 10, was learning how to be a stage manager and also doing the lights on each performance.

“Thank you to all our families and friends who came along to support the cast and crew – we hope you enjoyed the show! A special thanks also to all those who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make it all happen.” – Anna Regan, Head of Drama.

Following the success of Alton School’s Matilda Jr. production, we invited Year 5 pupils from Greatham Junior School, St Peters, Binsted Primary School and Hook Junior School to join Alton School pupils for an afternoon of fun Matilda based activities.

They started with warm up games to get to know each other. With the help from our Senior School cast members, they learnt the scene and song ‘Chokey Chant’ from the production and performed it to their parents. They thrilled their audience with their acting and singing skills.

Meanwhile, at the Matilda themed taster day for Year 3, pupils enjoyed being a little bit ‘Naughty’ by exploding elephant’s toothpaste and setting teachers on fire in the science labs, creating clay characters outdoors, recreating Matilda moments in music and drama and using any energy left in sport games. See a video on our instagram and facebook pages.

Our staff and cast were so excited to welcome so many children to share the Matilda experience.

Watch out for our upcoming talent show on the 22 March 2023. We know that Alton is full to the brim with talent, but who has got the winning edge? We want to celebrate the talents of all our pupils from Year 6-11 with the winner getting their name on an ‘Alton’s got Talent’ plaque.