Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical, with a book by Dennis Kelly and music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, is based on the Road Dahl book, Matilda. A children's novel that was published in 1988, it became notable in years thereafter for a film adaptation in 1996 that starred Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. The Royal Shakespeare Company had a desire to bring Dahl's work to the stage in 2009, so they reached out to Kelly, a writer for film and television, and Minchin, a comedian and musician, to work on the show, before beginning to assemble the creative team.