Matilda takes to stage: IMT's $360,000-plus assignment
The season of Matilda the Musical will run from July 12 through to July 26 and with it comes a cost in excess of $360,000 to put on.
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Everyone should take a moment to digest some numbers and fully appreciate the assignment the Invercargill Musical Theatre organisation has taken on.
IMT’s large-scale 2025 production will begin on Saturday with opening night of Matilda the Musical at the Civic Theatre.
The season will run from July 12 through to July 26 and with it comes a cost in excess of $360,000.
Covering that expense for an organisation run by volunteers is daunting.
It has been a 12-month process getting Matilda to the Civic Theatre stage, and they are left crossing their fingers and hoping the Southland public plays its part by turning up to cover that $360,000-plus price tag.
IMT needs to sell about 8000 tickets to break even, and days out from opening night they are tracking at about 80% of that target.
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are already sold out, but seats do remain available for the remainder of the Matilda season.
Overall ticket sales are ahead of where they were at the same last year when IMT put on Mamma Mia!
IMT president Bernadette Gourley is encouraged by the level of interest in the lead up to opening night.
“We are really grateful that the public has supported us to where we are at the moment, because you never really know when you decide on a show how well it is going to do,” Gourley told The Tribune.
“We need public support to get us over the line to be able to carry on, which is obviously what we really want to do, because I believe we are doing something in the community that is good for the community.”
That $360,000-plus requirement to deliver such a high-level production would climb further if it wasn’t for the significant volunteer input.
“There are creative and technical expertise that we pay, and they are just a handful of people, everyone else are volunteers.
“None of the stage crew, props team, wardrobe team, these people are volunteers, as well as the cast are volunteering.
“If it wasn’t for volunteers we wouldn’t be doing it.”
Putting on Matilda has been a massive logistical undertaking given they have cast three different Matildas for the season, as well as two separate casts of other children in the show.
That has been done to ensure they are not asking too much of the kids throughout the season.
“It’s the logistics of having so many children, because as well as our on-stage children we also have eight children backing vocalists each night, there are two sets of them,” Gourley said.
The children in the show have been preparing for close to six months, and the adult cast members a little less than that.
They are now in full dress rehearsal mode at the Civic Theatre in the lead up to Saturday night.
Gourley pointed out that while the Matilda show was filled with a lot of children, it was very much still an adult show.
“It is a big scale production, really big scale production. It is an adult show with an adult story to it, but it is a show that also has children in it… Adults coming along will not feel like they are at a children’s show at all.”
“I think people will be blown away. It is quite an amazing show.”
Tickets for Matilda can be purchased online at Ticketek.