Children left 'heartbroken' as admin error forces early closure of Matilda Jr musical

Students at a performing arts academy have been left “heartbroken” after an administration error forced the early closure of a run of shows at the SEC.

Pupils at GAMTA had been performing a run of Matilda Jr, a slimmed-down version of the hit musical based on the Roald Dahl book, at the events campus in Glasgow.

However, it emerged that GAMTA only had the rights to perform the show in venues with a capacity under 400, with the SEC’s capacity at almost 500.

As a result, the rights holders revoked the licence, meaning the rest of the run of shows were scrapped.

Angry parents have taken to the GAMTA social media page to complain about the issue, adding their children had been left “devastated” by the cancellation of the shows.

In a statement posted on social media, the performing arts academy apologised “profusely” to parents and children, and paid tribute to the young performers who had “worked so hard to produce a beautiful story”.

The statement read: “GAMTA deeply regrets that on the instruction of rights holder of Matilda Jr, the remaining performances on Saturday will no longer go ahead

“GAMTA takes full responsibility for not making itself fully aware of the license details. Consequently we have breached this agreement.

“This is a significant error which we take full responsibility for and the license holders are entirely within their jurisdiction to revoke the license for remaining performances. We fully respect their decision.

“GAMTA will learn from this significant lesson.

“Our deepest regret is the sadness our failure will inflict on our wonderful students who have worked so hard to produce a beautiful story. If the parents and children will allow, we will endeavour, over the next few weeks to make right our error and in some way curb their disappointment – if that is possible.

“As a company with integrity, we fully respect the decision taken by the rights holders and apologise profusely to the children and parents who will no longer enjoy their final shows. We very much hope to make right this wrong

“You will be contacted by your point of purchase and refunds will be issued by them.”