Child Casting Announced For The UK and Ireland Tour Of MATILDA

Today, the Royal Shakespeare Company announces the child casting for the first five venues of the Matilda The Musical 2018/19 UK and Ireland Tour. The title role will be shared by Annalise Bradbury, Lara Cohen, Poppy Jones and Nicola Turner. The West End production will continue to play at the Cambridge Theatre, where it is now in its seventh year and is booking until 10 February 2019.

Winner of over 85 international awards, including 16 for Best Musical, Matilda The Musical will open at Leicester Curve (5 - 24 March) and will also visit Dublin Bord Gáis Energy Theatre (4 - 28 April), Sunderland Empire (8 May - 2 June), Milton Keynes Theatre (5 June - 30 June), Birmingham Hippodrome (3 July - 8 September), Manchester Palace (18 September - 24 November) and Cardiff Wales Millennium Centre (4 December - 12 January 2019). Further dates and venues are to be announced in due course.

The previously announced adult cast for the UK and Ireland Tour will see Craige Els reprise the role of Miss Trunchbull, having played her in the West End for three years between 2014 and 2017. He will be joined by Carly Thoms as Miss Honey, and Sebastien Torkia and Rebecca Thornhill as Mr and Mrs Wormwood.

The other young performers announced today join the UK and Ireland Tour 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: Louella Asante-Owusu, Isobelle Chalmers, Shaquahn Crowe, Kiana Dumbuya, Madeline Gilby, Sheldon Golding, Jobe Hart, Raphael Higgins-Humes, Dylan Hughes, Sam Lovelock, Tayah Marshall Brewster, Jaden Meek, Alfie Murray, Nicholas Seal, Daisy Sequerra, Elliot Stiff, Lyla Toplass, George Varley, Scarlett Weegram, Maisy-May Woods-Smeeth, Harrison Wilding, and Sophie Young.

The full adult cast includes Joe Atkinson, Nina Bell, Peter Bindloss, Oliver Bingham, Emily Bull, Matthew Caputo, Samara Casteallo, Craige Els, Matt Gillett, Michelle Chantelle Hopewell, Sam Lathwood, Steffan Lloyd-Evans, Charlie Martin, Anu Ogunmefun, Carly Thoms, Rebecca Thornhill, Sebastien Torkia, Taylor Walker, Adam Vaughan, and Dawn Williams.

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

The production will be accompanied by Change My Story, a new education programme inspired by Matilda The Musical which will engage young people in towns and cities across the UK and Ireland. With a travelling library of stories led by the musical's librarian Mrs Phelps and whole school takeovers, the RSC aims to reach over 15,000 children, in collaboration with touring Theatre Partners. Further details can be found at http://uk.matildathemusical.com/tour/schools/matilda-school-resources/.

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 The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon 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 has now been seen by more than 7.7 million people worldwide. Having swept the board at the 2012 Olivier Awards, with a record-breaking seven awards, and winning four Tony Awards and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater for the four girls sharing the title role on Broadway, Matilda The Musical has now played in over 60 cities and has played more than 5500 performances worldwide.

After winning a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Musical in 2015, the Australian and New Zealand tour has now played sold-out seasons in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Auckland. In July 2016, Matilda The Musical broke further records by winning all 13 Helpmann Awards for which it was nominated. The show will have its first non-English language production at the LG Arts Centre in Seoul, South Korea from September 2018 until February 2019.

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 Royal Shakespeare Company creates theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world. We produce an inspirational artistic programme each year, setting Shakespeare in context, alongside the work of his contemporaries and today's writers.

Everyone at the RSC - from actors to armourers, musicians to technicians - plays a part in creating the world you see on stage. All our productions begin life at our Stratford workshops and theatres and we bring them to the widest possible audience through our touring, residencies, live broadcasts and online activity. So wherever you experience the RSC, you experience work made in Shakespeare's home town.

We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. We encourage everyone to enjoy a lifelong relationship with Shakespeare and live theatre. We reach 530,000 children and young people annually through our education work, transforming their experiences in the classroom, in performance and online. Registered charity no. 212481 www.rsc.org.uk.

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG and many more of the world's best-loved children's stories. He remains one of the World's greatest storytellers.

His first children's story, James and the Giant Peach published in 1961, was a hit and every subsequent book became a best-seller.

Today, his stories are available in 58 languages and, by a conservative estimate, he has sold more than 250 million books. Many of these stories have also been adapted for stage and screen, including the 1971 film classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wes Anderson's acclaimed Fantastic Mr Fox, and the Royal Shakespeare Company's multi-award winning production of Matilda The Musical. The latest Roald Dahl story to hit the big screen was Steven Spielberg's #1 box office blockbuster The BFG in 2016.