Shrek Jr.

You put together a Donkey, a Princess, a green Ogre and a Dwarf, what do you get? Lots of Youngsters performing Shrek, the Junior version. They might have been youngsters, but they put on a monster of a show, just as good as full length adult versions I’ve seen – or better. Stamford Showstoppers youngsters have pulled out all the stops to put on a great show. This was a show of colour, not only green, many colours with song, dance, costumes and brilliant youngsters, some seasoned, some new but all determined to put on a show for friends, family and the wider public. I must point out that there were two teams of Youngsters for the nine principal roles, Team Freya and Team Imy. All my comments refer to Team Imy, but knowing director Nicola, they would have been as good as each other, so I have shown the other teams name in brackets.

Imogen Neal (Freya Bell) as Shrek had great stage presence, some great songs, these were performed with zest, she gave Shrek a great accent and the audience some wonderful songs including ‘Big Bright Beautiful World’, ‘Travel song’ with Donkey and ‘I Think I got you Beat’ with Fiona. Ryan Jennings (Millie Jackson) as Donkey made a wonderful pairing with Shrek, this was his first principal role and he really excelled with a wonderful fluidity of movement, a relaxed and naturalistic performance having great stage presence and a good clear voice. Isla Joyce (Harmony Chapman) looked great as Fiona commanding the stage, great dialogue and songs including ‘This is How a Dream comes True’, ‘Morning Person’ and with the three Fiona’s ‘I know it’s Today’. The three principals worked and sang well together, lovely duets and trios, great rapport between them. ‘I know it’s Today’ was great with the three Fiona’s, Teen Fiona Arielle Tapley (Hettie Burgess) and Young Fiona Florence Persani (Francesca McDonough) acting and singing together, matching hair and costumes. Otto Forkin (Ryan Swanborough) as Lord Farquaad strutted around the stage (on his knees) with the swaggering authority of the ‘King’, he gave us a well sung ‘What’s up Duluc?’, I would have liked to have seen Ryan’s performance. There was a well costumed and made-up Dragon (with entourage), Ellie Haines (Jess Godding) who gave a lovely duet of ’Forever’ with Donkey. I suspect that Otto enjoyed telling his sister Delphie off as Gingy, Tegan Plume didn’t have that worry, this was a nicely performed cameo as was Emily Andres-Stacey (Violet Isack) as Pinocchio.

There was a large ensemble cast, too many to mention by name, four great storytellers, creatively costumed fairytale characters, guards, Knights, dancing rats and four opening children, some lovely cameos from the Three Pigs, Mama Bear, Mama, Papa and Little Ogre, Captain of the Guard, Guard/Dwarf and a great opening of Act Two alone on stage by Jasper Pattinson’s Rooster going ‘cock a doodle doo’.

This show was full of energy, despite being the youngsters last performance they were still dancing in time, singing some great ensemble numbers, and importantly smiling. The show ran effortlessly, no hitches, sound was great and I compliment Emily on her lighting design. Having Digital back drops makes scene changes so easy but you do need set pieces to fill the stage, there was a great tower for Fiona which revolved to reveal her bedroom where Shrek finds her. Other small pieces appeared on stage as required, also with a large cast this quickly fills the stage, there were plenty of hand-held props and the costumes were amazing, colourful and so many matching (where would we be without Shein and Temu) together with busy seamstresses at work. Make-up was impressive especially for Donkey, Shrek, Dragon and Lord Farquaad.

All the youngsters should be really proud of their performances, and much credit goes to Nicola and the large backstage and behind the scenes team that brought this altogether and put it on stage. Well Done and thank you for letting me on stage to speak to you all. I look forward to your next production.

 

 

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