Show: Shrek The Musical
Format: Musical
Genre: Comedy
Date: June 13 2018
Location: Empire Theatre, Liverpool
Having previously played to Liverpool’s Empire Theatre in 2015 (which you can read a review of by clicking here), Shrek The Musical has returned to provide a truly magical theatre experience.
Shrek The Musical
Description Of Shrek The Musical
If you’re familiar with the story of Shrek from the original 2001 movie, then you’ll find it easy to understand the tale being told here. Shrek (Steffan Harri) is an ogre abandoned at a young age and forced to make his own way through life, but a bunch of fairytale characters end up taking unwanted ownership of his swamp.
Shrek goes to visit Lord Farquaad (Samuel Holmes) about the situation, encountering an annoying yet good-hearted Donkey (Marcus Ayton) along the way, but when he meets Farquaad, the pint-sized Lord insists that for Shrek to achieve what he wants, he has to save Princess Fiona (Laura Main) from a castle tower.
Tower
Farquaad hears about Fiona via the Gingerbread Man, and vows to marry her upon her release from the tower. Shrek and Donkey go through a battle with a huge dragon, but they do ultimately rescue Fiona, and she becomes friendly with Shrek, to the point where Donkey jokes that Shrek has developed feelings for her. Unbeknownst to anyone, though, Fiona becomes an ogre herself by night, due to a spell cast on her by a wicked witch many years ago.
Only by kissing her true love will Fiona become “normal”. But with a potential wedding with Farquaad on the horizon and the increasing bond between her and Shrek, the situation is not easy. There are a number of twists and turns, which complicate the dilemmas facing multiple characters. It all comes to a head with the big wedding, which delivers several surprises and wraps everything up nicely.
Analysis Of Shrek The Musical
This really is a fairytale come to life, not only due to the plot but due to the appearance and casting of popular characters. Steffan Harri is believable as Shrek, portraying an enormous figure who can be moody and loud one minute, but sympathetic and well-intentioned the next. Laura Main and Marcus Ayton play their roles as Princess Fiona and Donkey very well, and they along with Steffan as Shrek have strong chemistry on the stage.
When I previously attended the show, the stand-out character was Lord Farquaad, and that proved to be the case again here with Samuel Holmes doing an excellent job in the spot. Helped by a comical appearance that sees his puny legs moving in deliberately ludicrous directions, and a sharp wit which occasionally pokes fun at the daftness of it all, his scenes garnered the biggest laughs from an audience who were well into the show from the opening moments.
Movie
There are nice touches that are faithful to the movie. Plus, there are subtle jokes which can add a lot despite only having a minor role in proceedings. This includes Pinnochio’s nose unintentionally growing as he spouts off his opinions. (This of course references the original tale of the wooden boy who wants to become a real person. There’s also the revelation of who Farquaad’s real father is. Considering his size, the fact that someone calls his dad “grumpy” leaves things to your imagination. And this leads to a humorous altercation towards the end.
I loved the massive dragon, held up by several crew members. Not to mention the colourful settings that brought all of these locations to life. The use of lighting was eye-catching, especially during scenes when Fiona transforms from human to ogre. And the production occasionally used screens as backdrops to further capture the environments. This happened in other scenes too. For instance, a huge book showed the opening moments about Shrek’s early days. This even included pop-through holes for the heads of the characters.
Summary Of Shrek The Musical
I enjoyed Shrek more this time than in 2015, despite the story being the same. Everything was bigger and more colourful on this occasion. And the crowd was on Shrek’s side from the beginning, while acknowledging the hilarity of Farquaad’s mannerisms and one-liners. It’s a huge, big-budget presentation courtesy of DreamWorks. And it’s one that I highly urge people of all ages, especially those with young children, to go and see. Don’t wait until it’s too late to see Shrek The Musical, and its run in Liverpool is ogre! Sorry, over!
