Christopher Sieber brings the Broadway musical's villainess to life with a fat suit and unsettling, raccoon-rimmed eyes.

Broadway's Matilda the Musical opens with schoolchildren proudly singing about what special, heaven-sent, delightful, and wonderful creations they are. “Ever since the day doc chopped the umbilical cord,” they sing, “it’s been clear there’s no peer for a miracle like me.”

But that is a spirited diversion from the story about Matilda Wormwood that unfolds at the Shubert Theatre: a tough-minded and wildly imaginative five-year-old genius who must battle her dunderheaded parents and her school’s tyrannical headmistress.

It is a macabre, empowering, and riveting musical that was adapted by Dennis Kelly from the children’s book by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), who imbued it with one of his trademark themes: Adults are the natural enemies of children.

Matilda’s distracted mother (Lesli Margherita), for instance, would rather be ballroom dancing with Rudolpho (Phillip Spaeth), while her smarmy used-car dealer father (Matt Harrington) calls her “boy” and is perpetually miffed his kid would rather read Dostoyevsky and Dickens than veg out in front of “the telly.” Still, odious as her parents are, they pale in comparison to Miss Agatha Trunchbull, headmistress of Matilda’s school. A fascistic ogre who coined the school motto, “Bambinatum est maggitum” (Children Are Maggots), Trunchbull is beefy wickedness personified.

All photos: Joan Marcus

“To get paid to scare children is the best thing in the world,” says Christopher Sieber, who brings the villainess to life in a lightweight fat suit, severe brown dress, tassled knee socks, and unsettling, raccoon-rimmed eyes.

No stranger to evil fairy-tale characters — he created the role of pint-sized meanie Lord Farquaad in Shrek on Broadway, played Gaston in Beauty and the Beast and was the Wolf in Into the Woods — Sieber’s current gig has him following in the sensible, orthopedic footsteps of Bertie Carvel, who originated the role in both London and New York.

“I had seen the show in the West End and said, ‘That’s right up my alley: a baddie in a dress.’ Bertie was absolutely brilliant, but a little more feminine. I’m more ambiguously man than woman,” Sieber notes, citing Trunchbull’s claim to fame as a champion hammer-thrower. “I keep in the back of my mind that Agatha’s an Olympian and everything she does and says is a competition.”

Sieber as Trunchbull is wickedness personified...

As an outsized character, Trunchbull has an interesting effect on most young theatregoers. Rather than blowtorch the socks off their little feet, she mesmerizes them with her infernal nastiness and physical bullying.

“Dahl said that kids get the darkness and they really do,” Sieber says. “When I do something really horrible to a child onstage I can hear some little five-year-old cackling. Dahl was right: they are scared but they love it — and it’s thrilling.” 

Watching the show, it is evident that Matilda is comprised of countless thrilling elements — from Kelly’s Tony-winning book to the inventive songs by Tim Minchin, to Rob Howell’s scenic backdrop of stylized Scrabble tiles (another Tony), and the in-your-face-insubordination choreographic moves from Peter Darling.

As for the show’s band of 12 or so junior actors, Sieber is impressed by all of them — and he clearly enjoys the energy and diversity brought to the show by the four girls who alternate as Matilda (Gabriella Pizzolo, Paige Brady, Ripley Sobo, and Ava Ulloa). “You have a rapport and chemistry with each one individually,” he said. “They have their own takes on Matilda and you get to know that.”

In one (literally) show-stopping scene involving a boy, a giant chocolate cake, and an all-world belch, the action onstage freezes for nine seconds, during which Sieber locks eyes with Matilda. “I play a cross-eyed game with two of them, another just winks at me, and the other one doesn’t play the game at all.”

Sieber’s final assessment?  “These kids are crazy good.”

Matilda is playing at the Shubert Theatre, 225 W. 44th St. For tickets, call 212-239-6200 or visit us.matildathemusical.com.