Review: Shrek: The Musical

Musical: Shrek: The Musical
Venue: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London, UK
Date: 10th July 2011
Cast: Nigel Lindsay (Shrek), Richard Blackwood (Donkey), Nigel Harman (Lord Farquaad), Amanda Holden (Princess Fiona), Jonathan Stewart (Pinocchio) and Landi Oshinowo (Dragon)
Rating: **1/2


Review:
Another new West End show that I was so looking forward to and yet again, another disappointment. My girlfriend and I were on our little day trip to London and we decided to go for Shrek: The Musical since it was so highly anticipated and many of our friends were wanting to see it so we thought why not checked it out. We went to Theatre Royal Drury Lane and bought ourselves day tickets for 30 pounds each. The seats that we got were the third row all the way to the far right side. However, the view was not as bad as we thought we would get. We had the perfect view of pretty much everything on the stage. And after the show ended, we were glad that we didn't pay full price for it.


I think the main problems of Shrek lie in its songs and performers. The storyline was cheesy and predictable and being based on a popular Oscar-winning film, everyone in the audience seemed to know the story pretty well. But as I listened to the script, I found that it was quite funny, though it could have been a lot stronger, but the executions by the actors were the key problems. None of the four leading actors could live up to the talent of their Broadway counterparts. If you look at it, you have Brian D'arcy James, Sutton Foster and Christopher Sieber. If you were the London producers, you would have at least thought to hire someone with real singing ability! Nigel Lindsay as Shrek was passionless. It seemed like he was so bored playing the role and his singing was not good enough for the role.

The cast of Shrek (clockwise from left)
Amanda Holden, Nigel Lindsay, Richard Blackwood and Nigel Harman

The cast out of their costumes and makeups

Amanda Holden and Nigel Lindsay
as Princess Fiona and Shrek during "I Think I Got You Beat"

Amanda Holden of Britain's Got Talent as Princess Fiona had the harder job of filling in the shoes of Tony winner Sutton Foster. Vocally, she was a disaster. I needed to get on my iPod to listen to Sutton's version to clean my ears literally. On the bright side, I think her acting did kinda make up for it and her dance solo during "Morning Person" was quite good.

Amanda Holden as Princess Fiona in "Morning Person"

Richard Blackwood played Donkey, a role originated by Eddie Murphy, and he, too, was a really boring character. Donkey was supposed to be a character that you would laugh out loud with his lines but Richard couldn't deliver anything that would make the audience laughed. I was quite surprised to see his bio that he is a stand up comedian! However, I think his performance was better when he had to act without actually speaking.

Richard Blackwood as Donkey during "Travel Song"

Amanda Holden and Richard Blackwood

The fairy tale creatures led by Pinocchio (Jonathan Stewart) were pretty annoying and, at times, pointless. They got quite a few long songs that didn't seem to move the story forward and the high-pitched voice of many characters (Pinocchio, Gingy, etc.) were getting on my nerves.

Pinocchio, Guards and the Fairy Tale Creatures during "Story of My Life"

 The saving grace of the show was definitely Nigel Harman as Lord Farquaad. I heard a lot about him and every review seems to speak highly of him and he deserves all those compliments. He played the role so well that you couldn't stop laughing and guess what? He could sing too! Both his "What's up, Duloc?" and "The Ballad of Farquaad" were the showstoppers. I figured out that the reason why I was so bored during the first act was that the story in the first act was mainly carried by Shrek and Donkey, two of the weakest performances in the show. While the second act, Lord Farquaad had quite a lot of stage time and that was why the show became a lot better.

The hilarious Nigel Harmas as Lord Farquaad

The Ballad of Farquaad

I also needed to mention Landi Oshinowo, though I felt sad for her to have to wear the hideous Humpty Dumpty costume as an ensemble member. She had a great singing voice that commanded the stage during the Dragon scene (note: she was off-stage singing the role to the dragon puppet) but she came out in a dragon-inspired gown during the finale and she was beautiful and sounded really amazing! I also would like to mention Samantha Allison and Amy Beadel as Young Fiona and Teen Fiona who were great in their rendition of "I Know It's Today" and also to the adorable Emilia Jones as Young Shrek.

Landi Oshinowo during the telecast of Britian's Got Talent

Another horrible aspect of the show that I mentioned was the music. I have listened to the Broadway Cast Recording so I was quite familiar with most of the songs. I admit that some songs were quite nice and I really liked them (Who I'd Be, What's up, Duloc?, Morning Person) though the performance here was way below the standard of the Broadway cast. Some actually were nicer hearing them live (e.g. Make a Move, The Ballad of Farquaad). Some were nice songs that got butchered by horrible performance (I Know It's Today, I'm a Believer). And some were just plain horrible and boring (Story of My Life, Freak Flag, Travel Song). Many of the changes made from the Broadway version were, in my opinion, a bad call. I didn't like how they changed the opening scene at all. It really slowed the story down, ruined Shrek and Fiona's openings and it didn't pump you up for the show that you were about to see. The new song for the Dragon, "Forever", was as bad as the old one (I think it was called "Donkey Pot Pie".) "I Think I Got You Beat" was horribly performed but actually got quite funny when it got to the farting and burping.

During "Travel Song", bad song but quite clever stage effects

"Make a Move" by Donkey, a surprisingly entertaining song

Still, there are good parts of the show that I enjoyed. The production design were very impressive. I really like all the scenic designs and the stage effects in the show. The Dragon puppets were definitely the highlights of the show. I think the costume design for the characters were quite nice especially for the fairy tale creatures though I hope that Princess Fiona's ogre makeup could have been done more nicely. I know it's a quick makeup but c'mon you can do better than that.

Donkey and Dragon

The dancing in the show were also very impressive. The mice tap dancing number during "Morning Person" were top notch. The Duloc dancers were pretty hilarious. I also enjoyed the references to other musicals in the storyline, e.g. Wicked, Lion King and Les Miserables.

"What's up, Duloc?"

"Freak Flag" with the Les Mis reference

So overall, I didn't quite enjoy Shrek as I thought I would have. I wouldn't really recommend this show if you could only choose one or two. If you have a spare time and wanna check out what it's like, please suit yourself but trust me, it's not worth the full price, so you could either come to the theatre to get the day tickets or wait for it to go on sale at TKTS which I'm sure it won't be long and lower your expectation A LOT Still, my girlfriend and I left the theatre with a colorful souvenir programme and a Shrek headban.. Ah, the power of marketing! :)

The questioning of Gingy

The wedding of Fiona and Lord Farquaad

The Finale: I'm a Believer

MUSICAL NUMBERS
ACT ONE
Big Bright Beautiful World... Shrek, Fiona, Mama Ogre, Papa Ogre, King Harold, Queen Lillian and Ensemble
Story of My Life... Pinocchio, Fairy Tale Creatures and Guards
The Goodbye Song... Shrek and Fairy Tale Creatures
Welcome to Duloc/What's Up, Duloc?... Lord Farquaad and Ensemble
I Know It's Today... Fiona and Young Fionas
Travel Song... Donkey and Shrek
Forever... Dragon, Donkey and Knights
This Is How a Dream Comes True... Fiona, Shrek, Donkey and Dragon
Who I'd Be... Shrek, Fiona and Donkey


ACT TWO
Morning Person... Fiona, Pied Piper and Ensemble
I Think I Got You Beat... Shrek and Fiona
The Ballad of Farquaad... Lord Farquaad and Ensemble
Make a Move... Donkey, Three Blind Mice
When Words Fail... Shrek
Morning Person (Reprise)... Fiona
Freak Flag... Pinocchio and Fairy Tale Creatures
Big Bright Beautiful World (Reprise)... Shrek
This Is Our Story... Fiona, Shrek and Ensemble
I'm a Believer... Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Dragon and Ensemble