Matilda the Musical celebrates 5th Birthday in London's West End

The multi-Olivier Award-winning Matilda the Musical today celebrates its 5th Birthday in London's West End where it continues to run at the Cambridge Theatre.

The show began previews in London on 25 October 2011, with an official opening night on 24 November 2011 and have chosen the day, 2 November, to officially celebrate the show's fifth birthday.

Based on the children's novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, the musical is adapted by Dennis Kelly with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. The show originally ran at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Stratford Upon Avon home for a 12 week try-out period over Christmas 2010.

Directed by Matthew Warchus, Matilda features choreography by Peter Darling, musical supervision and orchestrations by Chris Nightingale, set design by Rob Howell and illusions by Paul Kieve.

In the five years since opening Matilda the Musical has been seen by over 5 million people worldwide, including over 2000 performances in London's West End. Four worldwide productions have been mounted, in the USA, Australia and Canada, taking in an incredible 72 cities all over the world. A total of 66 young actresses have starred as the eponymous heroine in all productions - the original London Matilda's went on to share the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. To date the show has collected 72 major awards from around the world, as well as breaking the record for the most Olivier Awards ever won by a musical production.

According to statistics released by the show, in the five years since opening in the West End the production has used 41,600 balloons, along with over 500 tubs of chocolate spread for the Bogtrotter Cakes used in every production. Each production uses 28,000 bits of confetti, totalling almost 60 million pieces since opening!

The lead cast of Matilda currently features Craige Els (Miss Trunchbull), Rebecca Thornhill (Mrs Wormwood), Michael Begley (Mr Wormwood), Joshua Wyatt (Michael Wormwood), Lisa Davina Phillip (Mrs Phelps) and Miria Parvin (Miss Honey).

Matilda the Musical is currently booking to 15 October 2017. Happy birthday Matilda!