Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical, with a book by Dennis Kelly and music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, is based on the Road Dahl book, Matilda. A children's novel that was published in 1988, it became notable in years thereafter for a film adaptation in 1996 that starred Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. The Royal Shakespeare Company had a desire to bring Dahl's work to the stage in 2009, so they reached out to Kelly, a writer for film and television, and Minchin, a comedian and musician, to work on the show, before beginning to assemble the creative team.
Matilda premiered at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, on December 9, 2010. After a limited engagement of a month-and-a-half, the musical went to the West End at the Cambridge Theatre. It was set to begin in mid-October, but heavy construction on the theatre pushed the opening back to November 24, 2011. The Stratford cast nearly uniformly transferred to the West End, although only one of the young actresses playing Matilda stayed on.
The RSC, who were responsible for the original production, made the decision to bring the show across the pond to Broadway. It opened on April 11, 2013, at the Shubert Theatre and featured only small changes to the material, despite some initial arguments to rework the show completely to make it more focused towards American audiences (the musical is set in England). Bertie Carvel and Lauren Ward moved over with the show and reprised their roles as Miss Trunchbull and Miss Honey, respectively.