Seat: Gallery, K19 | Show: Thursday 10th August
First seen on Broadway in 2008, Shrek the Musical tells the story of our favourite ogre on his quest to get back his swamp, while meeting interesting characters along the way. Based on the fan favourite Dreamworks animation, the show is fun for all the family.
The grumpy ogre Shrek is content with his life of solitude, but when is swamp is invaded by the discarded outcasts of Duloc, he must find a way to get rid of them. Sent on a quest by the scheming Lord Farquaad, Shrek is joined by an annoying talking Donkey to save a beautiful princess trapped in a dragon-guarded tower. On the way, Shrek bonds with his newfound companions and slowly realises that his lonely life before is no longer what he wants.
This show is one that I was really excited about as I have a lot of nostalgia for the original Broadway production (which was filmed and distributed on DVDs), so it had a lot to live up to.
Obviously, this production has several differences to that original one, which is to be expected, but a lot of them seemed to me like they didn’t have much reason for the change. One of these changes is Lord Farquaad’s height. In this production, the actor playing Farquaad (James Gillan) is not on his knees to make the character smaller, and instead is just as tall as the rest of the cast. While this doesn’t really take anything away from the story (except for a couple of jokes), it does lose some of the charm of the character in my opinion. But I can understand that walking on knees can be difficult throughout the entire show, and that may cause issues. This change doesn’t really change much, so it’s not too big of a deal. Another change is that there is no magic mirror, but this again doesn’t change much except for a slight material change – this may be due to budget for the show.
Overall, the set is quite straightforward, only having pieces that would be necessary like Shrek’s swamp and Fiona’s tower and cave. So, a lot of the other things like walking across the bridge relies on projection, which wasn’t my favourite, but I can appreciate that it’s a much easier way of staging this. I did enjoy the costume design, done by Philip Whitcomb (who also did the set design), and I especially liked the dragon puppet (designed by Jimmy Grimes), which shows the whole dragon’s body and is puppeteered excellently by Remi Ferdinand, Jessica Lim and Georgie Buckland.
A change that wasn’t mentioned earlier is the removal of the song ‘Donkey Pot Pie’ and replacing it with a new one called ‘Forever’ - this was changed for the original touring production of the show and has remained ever since. While the Dragon (played by Cherece Richards) was incredible at singing this and got raucous cheers from the audience, I found this song lacklustre as it was very repetitive and was essentially Shrek’s version of ‘And I Am Telling You’ from Dreamgirls. Personally, I would’ve preferred ‘Donkey Pot Pie’ - that may be due to my nostalgia for the song, but I do enjoy it more. The rest of the soundtrack remains the same and is a great listen, with the music by Jeanine Tesori and the lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, who also wrote the book.
The direction was done by Nick Winston, who also did the choreography, and Samuel Holmes. Overall, I think they did fine – there was nothing that particularly stood out, but the story comes across well. Having Joanne Clifton in the cast (among an incredibly talented ensemble) means that Fiona’s song ‘Morning Person’ gets a great dance break, which it has always had, but this one is slightly improved. There could’ve potentially been more moments for Fiona to dance, but I think it is done well.
Speaking of Joanne Clifton, she does great in this cast as Fiona – she follows in Sutton Foster’s steps very well, with obviously great dancing, great singing and great acting. In the title role is Antony Lawrence, who does well as the disgruntled ogre. His version of Shrek is maybe happier from the beginning, but this makes sense as he is living what he thinks is his ideal lifestyle until he realises that he wants to be loved. Brandon Lee Sears plays the lovable Donkey and does well to match up to his predecessors as an annoying but charming, and James Gillan takes on the role of Lord Farquaad. This is the role that feels the most different from the original Broadway cast, but it isn’t so far that the same beats work well; this character feels even more camp if that is possible and is probably the biggest source of comedy in the show.
In the ensemble are Leo Abad, Scotty Armstrong, Imogen Bailey, Jabari Braham, Natasha Cayabyab, Mark D’Arcy, Jonathan David Dudley, Remi Ferdinand, Sonny Grieveson, Bethany Kate, Edward Leigh, Jessica Lim, Andilé Mabhena, Brontë MacMillan, India Thornton and Georgie Buckland, who, for me, was the standout performer as Gingy, the Elf and Bluebird.
Overall, this production is a fun one to watch but has many flaws that could’ve made it even better. A lot of my issues may come from my nostalgia for the original Broadway cast DVD, so the changes felt even more especially strange. Despite my issues, it’s still a fun watch and be sure to catch it on tour if it’s coming to a city near you.
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