Matilda hits all the right notes at Lyric

Matilda is a magical show about a magical little girl that should be required viewing for all parents.

Bella Thomas shines as Matilda last night in Sydney.

Matilda is a magical show about a magical little girl that should be required viewing for all parents. They must be warned, though, that authority figures do not come out of this at all well.

Matilda’s neglectful dad is spivvy and shifty, her vulgar ballroom-dancing mother’s mantra is “looks not books” and as for headmistress Miss Trunchbull, there is not a more malevolent, nightmarish figure in all musical theatre. This silken-voiced despot makes Inspector Javert from Les Mis look like Maria von Trapp.

But Matilda’s spirit will not be crushed. With the gifts of courage, imagination and language at her disposal — this five-year-old teaches herself Russian all the better to savour Dostoyevesky — the tiny rebel is unstoppable. She will drive her own destiny and teach the adults a thing or two along the way.

Dennis Kelly adapts Roald Dahl’s story to the stage with brilliant new details, and Tim Minchin has loads of room for songs with bold, springy rhythms and razor-sharp lyrics that make you want to punch the air with delight. It’s a stylistically supple score, with exhilarating colour and ­energy matched by ­moments of deeply affecting tenderness. Above all, it’s instant earworm music: Naughty, When I Grow Up and My House stick particularly tenaciously. Throw in director Matthew Warchus’s pitch-perfect (and sometimes black as pitch) production and Peter Darling’s strongly accented choreography that has youngsters thundering like pint-sized stormtroopers and you’ve got a show.

Rob Howells’s original set has been cunningly adapted for ­Sydney’s large Lyric stage to give an impression of greater intimacy. Within it, the Australian cast, meticulously chosen from top to bottom, hits the mark.

Striding above all is James Millar as the Amazonian hammer-throwing champion Miss Trunchbull, vast of bosom and giving occasional ghastly glimpses of a roguish streak. The gentle yin to Trunchbull’s yang is Elise McCann’s creamy-voiced teacher Miss Honey.

Ultimately, of course, it’s ­Matilda’s show — a big weight on pre-teen shoulders, not that it seems the slightest problem. The role is shared between four girls and last night’s opening honours went to Bella Thomas, who is just 11. She shines with intelligence and she’s tough. You can see the damage done but she rises above it; the wisest, funniest, bravest girl ever to be seen on any stage.