Book and lyrics by
David Lindsay-Abaire
Music by Jeanine
Tesori
Director: Ylaria Rogers
Free-Rain Theatre
Company
Q Theatre, Queanbeyan
to 14 October
Reviewed by Len Power
29 September 2018
‘Shrek the Musical’ was designed to meet the expectations of
an audience familiar with the story from the earlier film version. It doesn’t try to be anything else and on that
level it succeeds very well. It’s a fun
show for adults as well as children.
Based originally on the popular 2001 film ‘Shrek’ and
William Steig's 1990 book ‘Shrek!’, the musical tells the story of a lonely
ogre and a talkative donkey who are charged by the evil Lord Farquaad to rescue
unexpectedly street-wise Princess Fiona from a castle and dragon so that he can
marry her. In return, Shrek will receive
the deed to his swamp. Of course,
nothing goes exactly as planned in this fairy tale with a modern cynical edge but
it all ends happily.
Director, Ylaria Rogers, has given the show a fast-moving production
with strong characterisations. Max Gambale
plays and sings the title character endearingly and Joel Hutchings is great fun
as the donkey who talks too much.
Laura Murphy gives a terrific acting and singing performance
as Princess Fiona, capturing every nuance of this bright character who is all
conventional fairy-tale one minute and hard-bitten cynic the next.
Martin Searles is very funny as the evil Lord Farquaad,
mining every moment of comedy from his role and Tegan Braithwaite, who plays
multiple roles, is a strong singer who is outstanding as the voice of the
dragon singing, ‘Forever’.
It’s impossible to mention every individual in the cast but
everyone down to the smallest role has produced a nicely in-depth character. There is fine singing by the members of the
large ensemble. The period costumes by Fiona
Leach and her team are colourful but the set by Martin Searles, while practical
for the multitude of scenes, needed more colour and detail overall.
Musical direction by Katrina Tang and Ian McLean was excellent
with a strong and appealing performance by the orchestra. Unfortunately, the sound design had the voices
over-amplified causing a shrillness and distortion that made the lyrics hard to
catch at times.
This isn’t a show you’ll remember for its music score but it has very entertaining and humorous performances from a winning cast which will delight
everyone from young to old.
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast in his ‘On Stage’ performing arts radio program on Mondays
and Wednesdays from 3.30pm on Artsound FM 92.7.
