New Children's Cast and Online Lottery Announced For The Royal Shakespeare Company's MATILDA THE MUSICAL

The Royal Shakespeare Company's West End production of Matilda the Musical has announced that Sara Munday and Olivia Wells will join Lily-Mae Evans and Savannah Read in the title role of Matilda from 13 March 2018. Seen by over 7.7 million people across more than 60 cities worldwide, the multi award-winning production is now playing its seventh year in London, booking at the Cambridge Theatre until 10 February 2019.

Also announced today is Matilda the Musical's first ever online ticket lottery which will begin on Monday 5 March. The online rolling lottery offers the chance to purchase two Band A seats at £25 each for every performance. The lottery can be entered at any time for all performances in a two-week period and lucky winners will be notified 3 to 5 days in advance of being given a 24 hour window to book their tickets online. In addition to the new ticket lottery, there will continue to be sixteen £5 tickets held for 16-25 year olds at every performance which are available to purchase in person from 10am on the day of each performance at the Cambridge Theatre Box Office.

Winner of 86 major international awards, including 16 for Best Musical, the hit show is now the longest running production to play at the Cambridge Theatre and is one of the top twenty longest running musicals in the West End having now welcomed over 3 million audiences members.

The RSC's Matilda the Musical UK and Ireland tour will have its first performance on Monday 5 March at Leicester Curve, where it will play until 24 March before touring to Dublin Bord Gáis Energy Theatre (4 - 28 April 2018), Sunderland Empire (8 May - 2 June 2018), Milton Keynes Theatre (5 - 30 June 2018), Birmingham Hippodrome (3 July - 8 September 2018), Manchester Palace (18 September - 24 November 2018) and Cardiff Wales Millennium Centre (4 December - 12 January 2019).

The other young performers announced today join the London company 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: Isabella Aleppo, Bobby Beynon, Jacob Bland, Mia Byers, Imogen Darwen, Darmani Eboji, Asher Ezequiel, Daniel Etim Finnemore, Ashirah Foster Notice, Ruben Garcia, Mikey Impiazzi, Taziva-Faye Katsande, Jackson Laing, Sadie Victoria Lim, Madison Locks, Colby Mulgrew, Jack Riley and Sam Winser.

Omar Cain-Francis, Lucy Cheesman, Liberty Greig, Lauren Henson, Vaidile Jonikas, Mia McLoughlin and Martin Soosaipillai will continue in the roles of Bruce, Lavender, Amanda and the pupils at Crunchem Hall.

The show's forthcoming child cast change will see Lily-Mae, Sara, Savannah and Olivia join the current adult cast which includes David Shannon as Miss Trunchbull, Gina Beck as Miss Honey, and Tom Edden and Marianne Benedict as Mr and Mrs Wormwood. The full adult cast includes Keisha Amponsa Banson, Richard Astbury, Gina Beck, Marianne Benedict, David Birch, Tom Edden, Maria Graciano, Karina Hind, Peter Houston, Katie Lee, Vicki Lee Taylor, Kris Manuel, Bryan Mottram, Tom Muggeridge, Emma Robotham-Hunt, David Shannon, Simon Shorten, Biancha Szynal, Callum Train and Robert Tregoning.

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.

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 Stratford-upon-Avon home 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 played in over 60 cities with more than 5500 performances in the West End, on Broadway, across North America and in Australia and New Zealand.

Matilda The Musical swept the board at the 2012 Olivier Awards, with a record-breaking seven awards, and won four Tony Awards and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater for the four girls sharing the title role on Broadway. The Australian and New Zealand production won a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Musical in 2015, and played sold-out seasons in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Auckland. The show broke further records in July 2016 by winning all 13 Helpmann Awards for which it was nominated. Matilda the Musical 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.

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 59 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.

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