Matilda The Musical’s 15th Anniversary at Sunderland Empire
Written by Meena Green on 21st January 2026
Matilda The Musical is set to hit the Empire stage for the second time from 11 – 28 February as it celebrates 15 years on the stage.
Tim Minchin with the Young Tour Cast of Matilda the Musical, 2025 by Phil Tragen
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s beloved stage version of Roald Dahl’s children’s book, Matilda The Musical, with music and lyrics written by the brilliant Tim Minchin, will be returning to Sunderland Empire for the first time since 2018 to celebrate it’s 15th anniversary.
Matilda is an extraordinary British success story. It premiered in November 2010 in Stratford-upon-Avon, and then transferred to the West End’s Cambridge Theatre the following year. It won a record-breaking seven Olivier Awards and has played everywhere from Broadway to Australia. In 2022 it was even adapted into a Netflix movie.
The continued success of the show keeps surprising the creative team involved, Matthew Warchus, who developed and directed Matilda said: “None of us knew it would have the long life and the impact that it’s had. You could never have predicted it.”
Warchus remembers seeing the audience’s reaction to Matilda The Musical’s first performance: “I’d had a few successes as a director, but as the show ended I had the strange feeling of ‘Oh, I see, that’s what a hit is.’ There was an explosion of emotion. You looked around and saw people with tears running their cheeks and big smiles on their faces. It was like a cultural bomb going off.”
This year, the title role of Matilda will be shared by Madison Davis, Mollie Hutton, Olivia Ironmonger and Sanna Kurihara. With Richard Hurst playing Miss Trunchbull and Tessa Kadler playing Miss Honey. Mr Wormwood and Mrs Wormwood will be played by Adam Stafford and Rebecca Thornhill.
Miss Trunchbull (Richard Hurst)
Tim Minchin was passionate about honouring Dahl’s distinctive tone, he said: “One of the first things I said to Matthew was: please don’t do a cute princess version.” Minchin explains he always thinks of Quentin Blake’s illustrations in Dahl’s books “which are disturbing and grotesque.”
He added: “When I went into Matilda, I brought my childhood bathed in dark, inky drawings and Dahl’s revolting rhymes. It translated into a particular sound musically, which is quite angular.”
“Notably, the musical never talks down to its young audience. That’s very deliberate,” explains Minchin. “Matilda is obviously gifted, so we couldn’t write a show where the protagonist is anything less than a genius. If you don’t believe kids can be brilliant, you can’t really make Matilda.”
Matilda is a story many people know and love, and if we’ve seen one of the films we have a ‘best Matilda’ in our minds already, which Matilda The Musical has had to compete with. As they celebrate their 15th year, they seem to have done a good job as they stick more to the book than any movie. Instead of competing, they’ve decided to bring the book to life in a grand way as it’s developed into such a fantastical show instead of just the one-time winter show on a much smaller scale they originally intended it to be.
Make sure you don’t miss out on the magic of Matilda The Musical from 11 – 28 February, you can buy your tickets on ATG Tickets now.
