Candice Pipkin, who is directing her first production at Village Square Theatre, feels no added pressure, only opportunity, in the fact that “Matilda Jr.” lands in Lexington about two months after a new musical film version of the famed Roald Dahl tale dropped on Netflix.

“A lot of people have been watching that,” she said. “It’s perfect timing for us, actually. I just think it’s a cool story because a lot of people say this is such a weird musical. And on one hand, it is. But on the other hand, it’s about children’s imaginations. She’s living through her imagination in her real life."

Pipkin said she was interested in the musical — which is summarized by the theater as telling the story of a young girl who “despite facing adversity and being mistreated by her parents and the headmistress of her school [leads] her classmates and teacher Miss Honey [to] REVOLT and stand up for what is right” — because of the way it continues to resonate.

The director said she was particularly drawn to the way Matilda copes by using her imagination to augment her reality.

“There are people out there in bad situations and kids in bad situations, but this little girl, she's learned to live with it and live the best way she can by using her imagination to tell her story,” Pipkin said. “So the acrobat and escapologist scenes, I think people that say it's weird just aren't realizing that that's what she was doing. She was escaping her reality by telling that story."

One point of emphasis for Pipkin, who has choreographed for years at Village Square in addition to teaching musical theater, was the music. While most junior productions at the theater use pre-recorded backing tracks, she opted for a live band.

“I’m big on live music. I sing with a band myself,” she said. “Anytime there’s live music I just think it’s better.”

In addition to costing more money than using backing tracks, performing with a band asks a little more from the young performers in that they have to stay in sync with music that isn’t going to be exactly the same every time.

“It’s more time-consuming. You have to rehearse with the band,” Pipkin said. “But I also think the benefits outweigh the challenges because with live music, it can be followed. As a performer, you’re singing, the tempos are going to follow your tempos. And we have all the different sound effects, but they’re live — they can do the door knocks, different things like that. And I think it’s more entertaining for the audience to be able to watch the kids interacting with the musicians on stage.”

The director is excited about the quality of those actors. She said she was originally adamant that she only wanted to do one cast but ended up going for two rotating casts based on the talent she saw in auditions.

“There were just kids with some excellent voices that I had to have a role to sing,” she said.