Matilda reunites father and daughter to sing the praises of music

Matilda the musical opened at the Civic in Auckland this week. It's a family reunion for Lucy Maunder, who plays Miss Honey, and day Stuart, NZ opera boss. NZ Herald photo: Michael Craig

As a child, Lucy Maunder travelled with her parents to a small village in the mountains near Nice, France where her father, Stuart, directed summer operas.

She recalls staying in an apartment with shutters on the windows, opened during balmy nights, and falling asleep to the Jacques Offenbach operettas sung in the nearby town square. When the family wasn't in France, they lived in London with West End theatres on their doorstep.

With a childhood like that, Maunder was destined to follow in the footsteps of her father, Stuart, New Zealand Opera's general director, and mother, Anne-Maree McDonald, a singer. Now, she's repaying them for the countless hours they spent taking her to shows and extracurricular activities: ballet and jazz dancing, singing lessons and choir practices, theatre rehearsals and ice-skating.

Lucy plays the sweet-natured and inspirational school teacher, Miss Honey, in Matilda - The Musical, which started this week at Auckland's Civic Theatre and runs until October. Being in Auckland is a reunion for father and daughter made even more special because Lucy is now a mum. She's thrilled Stuart can get to know his first grandchild, Edie.

Lucy joined the cast of Matilda - The Musical in Perth earlier this year, just five and a half weeks after giving birth to her daughter. The musical was adapated from the Roald Dahl story about a young girl whose thirst for knowledge and love of literature helps her change the world.

"I just couldn't say no to the role because it's such a privilege to be in a show like Matilda and it isn't very often roles like this come along," says Lucy, whose notable stage appearances include Rizzo in Grease, Cinderella in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods and Heather Chandler in Heathers: The Musical. "Because I knew I was going to do the role, I mentally prepared myself for it."

With help from fellow cast members, Anne-Maree and her partner, Lucy got through those first few weeks and she says being a new mum added extra poignancy to her portrayal of Miss Honey. As Lucy did, Edie is likely to spend a good deal of time in theatres and concert halls.

Stuart says Lucy started pursuing singing more seriously in her teens, after an ice-skating accident ended her early hopes of being a competitive skater. He wasn't surprised when she enrolled at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and says he never tried to talk her out of a career in the arts.

"It was clear that that was what she wanted to do and she had a quality that was very special," he says. "Given that, you wouldn't dissuade anybody anyway. Look, my background. My parents were farmers but they couldn't have been more supportive because it's about following your star."

The first time Stuart saw Lucy as Miss Honey, during the Perth season, he cried more than he's done in a theatre for a long time saying he was overcome with pride. He also felt heartened to see the number of children at the performance.

Lucy says it's a treat to look out across a theatre and see children looking wide-eyed up at the stage just completely enthralled: "It's an experience that will shape their childhoods. It's very special remembering back to that first show that you see."

Acknowledging not everyone can live near London's West End or has parents working in the arts, father and daughter say there are other ways for families to become involved.

"Get involved with whatever is there in a community sense," says Stuart. "The amateur circuit, certainly in New Zealand, is a huge training ground. Then there are things like what we, at NZ Opera, for example, are doing in collaborating with the APO doing Little Singer workshops where kids will come in and it doesn't cost anybody anything save for their parents' time."

He also points to the range of school-based programmes as well as free events like Auckland Live's Pick & Mix which offer free and family-friendly weekend performances and workshops.

"If it does nothing else [it shows] that the arts and, in my case, opera, in particular, are not a dirty word."