How Matilda: The Musical Compares to the Original Book
8 Differences Between "Matilda: The Musical" and the Original Roald Dahl Book
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In any version, Matilda's parents extremely selfish and not very bright, which gets them into trouble. In the book, Mr. Wormwood has been selling stolen cars and eventually has to flee to Spain to avoid the police, who have caught on. In the movie musical, he gets in over his head by conning a bunch of customers into buying old, run-down cars, only to discover those customers are actually the Russian mafia. They're none too pleased with his fraud, again forcing the family to flee the country.