The school theater program brought the classic story ‘Matilda’ to life with Matilda the Musical, with four performances on March 19, 20, and 21, as well as student preview performances on Monday and Tuesday for both LJHS and Muirlands Middle students. The musical is based on Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’, following an extraordinary girl named Matilda Wormwood who, through her journey, discovers a connection and finds courage with her fellow students and teacher Miss Honey.

The high school production began auditions in November, and both actors and behind-the-scenes crew have been working under Ms. Nora Weisz, the LJHS theater teacher and musical director. When asked about the crew’s biggest challenges, Ms. Weisz remarked that one big setback was “Scheduling, because the strike was originally gonna happen, but then the strike didn’t happen, so we had to move around a lot of rehearsals and cancel a couple of rehearsals. And then with spring sports starting in the middle, I would say scheduling was kind of crazy…”

With the assistance of costume designer Mrs. Diana, choreographer Ms. Nina, and school staff like Mr. EK and band director Mr. Legretti, they are able to have a live band during the production. Ms. Weisz also mentioned that her favorite part of the whole 5-month process was that “In the past week, when the set and production all start coming together, coming together, all the pieces of the puzzle, and getting to see the vision that we’ve all been working towards…” and remarked how it was satisfying to see everything coming together.