A fun musical for the younger members of the family, but with outstanding vocals and great energy for the rest.
The Shrek films are well-known to most of the population, and the musical adaptation is essentially the same plot as the first film. It follows Shrek on his mission to rescue princess Fiona for Lord Farquaad to marry, in return for getting his swamp and peace back.
However, the musical, unlike the film, had the addition of both Shrek and Fiona’s backstories. I loved this as it helped the audience feel more connected to the characters. The scene showing Fiona growing up locked in the tower was one of my favourites, with her at three ages wishing her prince to come.
The vocals in this production were outstanding. I have to particularly commend the casting of Brandon Lee Sears and Cherece Richards who played Donkey and Dragon. Their voices were incredible and matched each other fantastically during their duets. I also thought Brandon Lee Sears’ acting was brilliantly entertaining as the larger-than-life Donkey. Joanne Clifton, who played Princess Fiona, also brought the house down with her voice, and through her acting showed a more fiery side to Fiona than in the film. Overall, the whole cast were superb singers though, and you could really feel the power of their voices when they sang together. Often in a musical like this, the writing of the numbers is quite weak, but while some of them were slightly too long, I thought the songs were generally good.
Lord Farquaad, played by James Gillan, was a wonderfully camp villain. He fitted perfectly with it being a show aimed at children because there was nothing scary about him – he just brought a lot of humour and fun to the stage.
One thing I loved about the show was how the ensemble all had their own parts and were able to showcase their abilities, with each member playing multiple roles. The gymnastics was a great addition, but the dance numbers in general were lots of fun and intricately choreographed. I loved the tap-dancing rats scene; it was quite mesmerising to watch, which I’m sure the pied piper would be pleased to hear! Each dance number seemed to bring out a whole selection of new costumes which were fabulous. They were cleverly designed, using padding to create the shapes of the creatures: Pinocchio look like he had wooden joints in this way was genius. Having said that, I did think some of the costumes missed the mark a little. Donkey seemed to be a very strange shape which was distracting for me, and I was confused by the double whammy of both human and puppet dragon, which were not connected to each other, nor did they have the same blocking the whole time.
Additionally, I felt that some sections of the show could have been shorter. Another criticism I have was that Shrek’s Scottish accent needed some work.
The set was not the most intricate but it was good, and I liked the depth created and use of lights to create the fairytale-like scene. There were quite a lot of screens as projections used to set the scene, which worked for this, giving somewhat the feeling of the film.
At the end of the show, the cast got the audience up on their feet to sing and dance to the well-known classic ‘I’m a Believer’ which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
This show was probably more aimed at children, but I thought it was a well-done with good energy and most importantly, left the audience feeling joyful.