Shrek the Musical

A cast of 68, ranging from age 14 to 79 years, took to the stage to bring this joyous musical about acceptance, friendship and love to a full house audience. On a colourful set built by the in house team of Jan, Sandy and Ron Duncan representing a library of fairytale books and with digital artwork by Brodie Young cleverly visualising the various settings, the story of the growing love between ogre Shrek and Princess Fiona and their friendship with Donkey unfolded at a fast pace. The singing by the principals and ensemble was excellent from the opening “Big Bright Beautiful World” to the rousing “I’m A Believer” finale, perfectly supported by the 14 piece orchestra under the baton of Angus Lawson. Callum McLeod was outstanding in the title role of Shrek handling both the bluster and grumpiness of the ogre at the start of the piece to the softer, loving side at the end with equal ease. His magnificent voice was shown to it’s best for me in the more reflective “When Words Fail”. He also showed he could handle comedy well in his interactions with Gregor Lawson’s talkative Donkey who made the audience laugh at his every appearance and utterance. Gregor handled the physicality of the Donkey character as to the manner born and his duet with Shrek “Travel Song” and his rendition of “Don’t Let Me Go” were hilarious. Jessica Stuart’s feisty Princess Fiona was an equal match to the bravado shown by Shrek and Donkey with excellent acting and a delightful singing voice as shown in her rendition of “Morning Person” and in the trio “I Know It’s Today” with Young Fiona (Andie Stewart) and Teen Fiona (Daisy Wiles). My admiration, and sympathies, go out to Brodie Young as the baddie of the piece diminutive Lord Farquaad. He sang, acted and danced the whole show whilst on his knees and never flinched and even managed to get the audience on his side – for a short while – with his rendition of “The Ballad of Farquaad”. Hannah McGinlay made an impressive Dragon and her powerful voice soared in her rendition of “Forever”. The Fairytale ensemble made a colourful sight in their character appropriate costumes and special mention must be made of Bev Chapman’s Pinocchio and Claudia Spencer’s Gingy the Gingerbread Man in the way they delivered their solo lines in “Story of My Life” and “Freak Flag” numbers. Dancing throughout was step perfect and the Rat Tap dancers were particularly impressive. A special mention must be made of the make up team of Sarah Stewart and Jan Duncan for their work in making the characters features so believable. Congratulations to everyone involved in the production on delivering a top class show.

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