Shrek The Musical

It was a pleasure to return to the Coliseum for this performance of Shrek, my first visit for many years, and I would like to thank the Colstars officials for their warm welcome.

It was lovely to see a full auditorium on the night of my visit, and following the cancellation of their Wednesday performance due to an unfortunate incident, I was delighted that the company were able to re-allocate tickets and had been very well supported.

Shrek the musical is based on the Movie which first appeared in 2001. It was turned into a musical in 2005 but surprisingly this was the first time I had seen the show. It follows the story of a hulking Green Ogre who after being mocked his entire life, retires to a swamp to live in lovely isolation.

Suddenly a gang of fairy tale creatures arrive in his swamp having been evicted from their homes by the evil Lord Farquaad.  When Shrek meets Lord Farquaad he strikes a deal with him that he will get his home back if he rescues Princess Fiona, so accompanied by an annoying Donkey who he has met along the way he proceeds to go on a rescue mission however things don't turn out as expected.

The musical has a very large cast of characters and it would not be possible to mention each one individually however there were some standout performances from some of the supporting cast.

I was really impressed with young Charlie Thould as Pinochio. He had a lovely singing voice and moved really well on stage. I have no doubt this young man has a good career in front of him.

Secondly the Dragon, it was a good addition to the show, nearly filling the stage in size and the voice of the dragon provided by Ella Edwards-Beavington was perfect for the role, it was a pleasure listening to her sing.

Shrek and Donkey were played by Gavin Nelson and Kieron Griffiths, I have named these together as both actors spent a large amount of the show on stage, they had the responsibility of moving the show at pace and interacting with the audience. They had a good working relationship with each other and managed to hold the required accents well. Both actors also had good singing voices, in fact a quality that every vocalist had on stage and congratulations to the Musical Director Joseph Colbeck-Jones on the undoubted work he had done with the cast and ensemble.

The role of Princess Fiona was taken by Ruth Hawkins and I really liked her character. The way she stood up to Shrek and hid her secret from him, I think the scene in the hut with Donkey when her true self was revealed worked really well. Congratulations to Ruth on her performance.

However the standout performance to me on the evening I attended was by Henley Cegielski who played Lord Farquaad. He may have been short in stature on stage but gave a real funny performance. I hope he had a good set of knee pads as I think he played the character to perfection.

It was a good production by Derek Williams with the ensemble clearly enjoying their time on stage.

I also enjoyed some of the dance routines set by Julie Bishop, especially Morning Person, and This is our story.

It was evident that the large audience enjoyed themselves with most of the auditorium on their feet for I’m a Believer.

It was a very colourful show, with some lovely characters, the costumes worked well and scenery changes were carried out with no fuss.

Congratulations to Derek and the team and I look forward to joining you again for your future productions.

 

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