SWAMPSCOTT — Joshua Madruga and his two daughters Chloe Madruga and Kira Madruga, all of Swampscott, have been cast in Lowell’s Dramatically Incorrect Theater Group and Dance Company production of “Matilda The Musical.” Chloe is starring as Matilda Wormwood and Kira will play Hortensia. Joshua, however, is playing the musical’s villain.
“I’ll be playing Miss Trunchbull, the headmistress of the school who is very mean. I have to be mean to her,” Joshua said as he pointed to Chloe. “She’s described as a big, burly, excellent hammer throw champion. It’s such a good part. It’s so good.”
Acting is something he has always wanted to pursue since he was a kid, but he didn’t get into the field until later in life. Before his role as Trunchbull he played Daddy Warbucks in “Annie,” Amos Hart in “Chicago,” and Captain Hook in “Peter Pan.”
He said it is “the most amazing, best feeling in the world” to experience this with both his daughters.
“I feel like I’m the luckiest dad ever, that I get to do this,” Joshua said.
When he played Daddy Warbucks in “Annie,” Kira played Annie and he wanted to have a similar experience with Chloe as a lead. Now he will, even though it’s different because Warbucks loves Annie while Trunchbull hates Matilda.
“I get to still be on stage, and be with her and act with her and perform, singing, and all that stuff,” Joshua said. “It’s a great feeling, I can’t even describe it.”
Kira, 12, said she is hoping to wear a red beret as part of her costume, which became an iconic symbol for Hortensia after a movie adaptation of the musical was released last year. Kira is also the understudy for Matilda and the character Lavender.
For 10-year-old Chloe, what got her the part of Matilda was her ability to show the character’s sassy emotions on her face.
“It really just came down to style and the fact that every time she was singing that song, she had that attitude,” Danielle Martin, the musical’s director, said of Chloe’s audition number.
Christine Madruga, Joshua’s wife and Chloe and Kira’s mother, said she is “very proud of all of them.”
“I love going to the shows and helping out if I can,” Christine said.
In a February interview, the family and Martin joked about trying to get Christine onstage in order to say the entire family was in the musical. Since then, she has been cast as the cook who pushes the cake out on stage for one of the characters to eat.
Along with this Swampscott family, Chloe and Kira’s three cousins, who live in Lynn, have also been cast in “Matilda The Musical.”
The opening night for the musical is May 19 at Middlesex Community College.
