Shrek The Musical

Three years ago I was the National President of NODA and saw on my nationwide journey no less than eighteen performances of Shrek; each group adding their own unique style to a bright fun show. Tonight, in the presence of the current NODA President and the Regional Councillor, we were privileged to see Crash Bang Wallop put their own stamp and interpretation onto the roles and the production.

CBW are a group based in North Yorkshire who have been nurturing the raw talent of the youth in the area for twenty years, moulding them to the polished article, and have produced such classics as ‘Les Miserables’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘Legally Blonde’ as well as ‘future classics’ such as ‘In the Heights’.
‘Shrek the Musical’ was up there in that esteemed circle.

In a full Forum Theatre the audience, adults as well as youth, were enthralled from the prologue introducing the seven year olds ‘Fiona’ (Felicity Barnfather) and ‘Shrek’ (Jillson Adams) and their backstories until the final notes of “I’m a Believer” raised the roof and the audience to their feet at the end.

Whenever you are performing in a production based on a film with such iconic cast members as Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and John Lithgow you have to be confident in your own talents to compete. The main characters in CBW’s production achieved that iconic status in their own right.

Playing the fat smelly green ogre with the antenna ears ‘Shrek’ was 17 year old Alfie Gibson; Alfie succeeded in portraying to the audience his keen dogged determination to fulfil his objective and developed his character (though his undoubted acting skills) along the way as he unexpectedly fell in love with ‘Fiona’ and befriended ‘Donkey’. Alfie kept up his authentic sounding Scottish accent throughout (even in his singing voice) and particularly impressed in the emotion he managed to engender in two of his numbers (‘When Words Fail’ and ‘Who I’d Be’).

Shrek’s love interest was the beautiful, feisty and in her own words ‘a bit bipolar’ ‘Fiona’ played by Grace Crawford. Grace showed her acting, singing and dancing skills throughout but in particular in the Act 2 opening dance and song number ‘Morning Person’ whilst she tap danced the number with ‘recalcitrant rats’. You could see that Alfie and Grace were thoroughly enjoying themselves in the ‘comparison’ of their lives (‘I think I got you Beat’) through various belching and flatulence actions and sounds – thank goodness the effects didn’t extend to ‘smell’!!!

It was during this number that ‘Donkey’ proved his own histrionic skills through his facial expressions throughout even though the focus wasn’t on himself. When the focus was on Donkey (played magnificently by 14 year old Noah Gence) his eccentricity and loyalty to friends was paramount and undoubted. There were lots of nice moments by Noah but I particularly loved the ‘Barry White’ style singing alongside the three blind mice as Fiona and Shrek were developing their burgeoning love story over a campfire.

Villain of the production was the large character, but small stature, of ‘Lord Farquaad’ (14 year old Amos Lane). Amos had the audience (especially this audience member) in stiches of laughter throughout with his stilted (sorry about the pun) walking on his knees (and indeed ‘dancing’ on his knees) during his ‘What’s Up Duloc’ number supported by a brilliant troupe of Dulocian guards. Lord Farquaad showed his contempt for everyone not ‘normal’ (i.e. not like himself) and it was a pleasure to see the character of Lord Farquaad get his comeuppance at the end.

One main principal that sometimes doesn’t get the respect and kudos they deserve is ‘Dragon’ – often because of the multitude of ways they’re interpreted. This Dragon was interpreted not only as an animated puppetry entity superbly controlled by at least five cast members, but by not one but two on stage people in bright red costumes and singing the role. Holly Hilton and Georgie Goldsborough sang superbly in what is a difficult ‘Donkey Pot Pie’ number showing emotion and fine vocals. Well done to both.

Shrek is a production that is a vehicle that allows virtually every cast members to have a named part and create their own individuality – all the ‘freaks’ (Farquaad’s description not mine) embraced their place in the kingdom no more so than in accepting and emphasizing their diversity in the catchy and bright choral number ‘Freak Flag’ – there were two named characters that deserve special mention to and that is ‘Pinocchio’ (15 year old Emily Thorpe) and ‘Gingy/Sugar Plum Fairy’ (14 year old Cerys Hughes). Both excelled in their small but vital roles from Emily’s squeaky dialogue and belligerent nature to Cerys’ feisty nature and powerful singing voice (Cerys’ bio says she was excited to take on a comedic role – well you nailed it girl!!!)

My all time favourite number in the show can fail if not performed properly – there was no chance this would fail in CBW’s production – “I know it’s today” relates the story of three periods in Fiona’s life in the tower before rescue with young Fiona (11 year old Elana McAuley) complementing her ‘adult self’ alongside teen Fiona (16 year old Maddie Dodds) all three girls were pitch perfect, harmonised well, and showed the character of Fiona early on.

Sound and lighting, costumes and set were up to the high standards I’d expect from this group – reading the programme list of back of house helpers was an eye opener for anyone not into theatre – they say it takes a ‘village’ to raise a child – similarly it takes a hard working veritable army to put on a production to this standard.

THANK YOU to all at CBW for giving the infrastructure and platform to allow the youth to shine – and boy did they shine !!!

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