LONDON — Is Broadway big enough for two little girls?
A juicy rivalry is shaping up this season between “Annie,” which begins previews next month at The Palace, and “Matilda,” a West End hit that opens in the spring at The Shubert.
Though they won’t be competing for the top prize of Best Musical — “Annie” is, of course, a revival — they will clash on other battlefields.
First, the box office.
Both shows are aimed at the family audience, specifically “little girls,” as the evil Miss Hannigan calls them in “Annie.” Broadway is dominated by family shows — “Mary Poppins,” “The Lion King,” “Wicked,” “Bring It On,” “Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark.” Even “The Book of Mormon” is hugely popular with teenagers.
The best, like “Mormon” and “Wicked,” are, in fact, cannily put together adult shows that also appeal to kids. Fun, in other words, for the whole family.
As I pointed out last week, “Annie” is certainly such a show. Millions of little girls around the world have been singing “The sun’ll come out, tomorrow!” for years — but the score, by composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Martin Charnin, also boasts sophisticated show tunes like the bluesy “NYC,” the saloon-y “Easy Street” and the wittily political “We’d Like To Thank You Herbert Hoover.” Mike Nichols had a hand in shaping the original production, and Mike Nichols doesn’t do kid shows.
Having just seen “Matilda” in London, I can report that it, too, is an adult musical — and a very enjoyable one.
Based on Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book, it’s the story of a brilliant little girl whose self-centered parents despise her. They pack her off to the Crunchem Hall Academy, which is run by the vicious Miss Trunchbull, a former hammer-throwing world champion who tortures her pupils by throwing them.
Like all Dahl’s works, the novel is as entertaining as it is terrifying, and the musical, expertly staged by Tony winner Matthew Warchus (“God of Carnage”), preserves its grotesqueness.
(I love the scene when Trunchbull hurls a girl into the air — by her pigtails.)
Tim Minchin’s score bustles with lyrical complexity — W.S. Gilbert, Minchin told me, is his idol — and Dennis Kelly’s book doesn’t pull punches in making Matilda’s parents, the Wormwoods, a hateful pair.
Nevertheless, given the huge costs of producing Broadway musicals, “Annie” and “Matilda” are going to have to draw the family crowd to survive: “Annie,” which in 1977 was budgeted at $350,000, now costs nearly $10 million. Sources say “Matilda” could cost as much as $15 million.
Both shows “will be aimed directly at the family audience,” says a veteran producer. “That audience is very large, but is it large enough to support two new family shows, especially since there are plenty already?”
The producers of “Annie,” I’m told, are happy to have the field to themselves in the fall, but they’d better be prepared for a “Matilda” onslaught come spring.
On another front, the Tony Awards will be fun, with two little girls duking it out for Best Actress. Lilla Crawford has been cast as Annie, while Matilda is still up for grabs. (The girl I saw here, Lucy-Mae Beacock, was excellent.)
And let’s not forget the battle of the villains for the loudest boos each night.
Both shows have doozies — Miss Hannigan (“Some night I’ll step on their freckles, some night I’ll straighten their curls”) and Miss Trunchbull (“They’re all mistakes, children”).
Katie Finneran, who stole “Promises, Promises” right out from under Kristin Chenoweth’s nose, will wring every sneer out of Hannigan, though the memory of the great Dorothy Loudon looms large (and can be refreshed on YouTube with clips from the ’77 Tonys).
Trunchbull, played by a man in drag, hasn’t been cast yet. But as I enjoyed “Matilda” here, I kept thinking of one Broadway star who could ham this part right up to a Tony Award.
Ever thought about doing a musical, Frank Langella?