Nottingham Theatre Royal – until Sunday 24 March 2024
Reviewed by Amy V Gathercole
3***
Fun for all the family (no matter their age), as the classic alternative fairytale from DreamWorks iis brought to the stage with all the beloved favourites from Donkey (a very charismatic Brandon Lee Sears), Princess Fiona (Joanne Clifton) and of course Gingy the gingerbread man (voiced by Georgie Auckland).
For those who don’t know the film Shrek, it’s a fairytale with a fair few differences that has lots of messaging about acceptance and family. Shrek is a Scottish ogre who is very happy with life, living by himself in his swamp. One day he wakes up to find he’s been invaded by a whole host of fairytale favourites (a very talented ensemble cast featuring favourites like Pinocchio and Big Bad Wolf among many more recognisable characters) as the local Lord Farquaad (James Gillan) has evicted them all from his lovely Duloc.
In order to get rid of these unwanted guests, Shrek embarks on a hero’s quest, alongside the very chatty Donkey to rescue Princess Fiona from a tower. The stage adaptation remains true to the film’s spirit and humour, just with added theatrical flair. Which is at its best in the scenes rescuing Princess Fiona, as we meet Dragon – my favourite costume in the show and the best vocal in the show too, belonging to Cherece Richards.
I’m a huge fan of the film, Donkey being my favourite and that’s the same here. Brandon Lee Sears as Donkey was great; he really kept the energy up throughout the show and that, coupled with the dedication that Antony Lawrence as Shrek goes through each night he performs – it takes over 2 hours for him to get all of the makeup and face cast etc. on!
Interestingly, the musical is 2 hours and the 2001 film is only 90 minutes, so the show has had the opportunity to flesh out some of the characters, add in some new plotlines and in some cases this works really well. For instance, Joanne Clifton is well known as a professional dancer (she previously won Strictly Come Dancing), so Princess Fiona is given her own elongated dance number alongside the ensemble. Where it doesn’t work so well is with adding more time to Lord Farquaad, I was never quite sure how to take his character; he’s less evil than in the film but that almost takes away his agency and you don’t quite believe he’s the villain.
The show thankfully features lots of the best and most memorable lines from the film. Sadly, as is the case when a lot of films are re-created for the stage, the music doesn’t get to come along with it, so don’t expect to find Smash Mouth’s famous ‘All Star‘ in the infamous swamp scene. But there is a bit of a party at the end of the show for the audience to join in with an equally well-known song.
The set is truly modern in the sense that it’s a combination of physical set pieces and digital projection throughout our journey into this storybook fantasy world.The costumes were fun and detailed and really catered to each and every character in every colour you can imagine too.
The style of the show is a little bit panto, and the production may not consistently convey the polished feel of a professional show at all times, but it certainly has its moments where the quality and dedication shine through.
I did love that making the songs original allowed the opportunity for some more modern takes to be created, such as ‘Freak Flag’ – an ensemble number where all the fairytale characters unite and share their feelings about their unique qualities and diversity. It stood out as an anthem of acceptance, which is a great message for younger audience members especially.
“Fun for all the family (no matter their age)!”