By now, I think we all know how much I love musical theatre and last night I went along with the Southampton Bloggers to see Shrek the Musical. We went to see it at The Mayflower Theatre, Southampton where the show will be running from 27th November- 8th December 2018.
I had already heard amazing things about this show from its unprecedented success of the first UK and Ireland tour, so when I found out it was coming to Southampton I jumped at the chance to attend the press night.
Shrek was one of my childhood films, based on the book by William Steig so luckily I already knew the story, but the musical was going to be something completely new for me! I had previously heard some of the songs that are in the show (which are different from the movie) so I was waiting for my favorite few, which did not disappoint. My favorite number was ‘Freak flag’ and the staging was so good, even with a little comedic hint to Le Miserables, which they included throughout with references to other musicals which I thought was very clever! The ones I could spot were; Wicked, Lion King, Dream Girls and Le Miserables.
The characterization of every character was spot on, especially Pinocchio- I honestly don’t know how he (or she) kept that voice up the whole night! They thought through every costume to the tiniest details, for example Pinocchio even had a fully functioning extendable nose for when he told a porky! I was laughing the whole way through and the spot on representations from the film added to the entire show. It is such a hard thing taking a cartoon and putting it on the stage but I really cannot fault the production team on this! All the costumes were incredible and so accurate to the film, from Shrek’s ears and belly, to Donkeys hooves the costume department have seriously out done themselves. The main thing I feel for a film adaptation on stage, especially with animation, is keeping the colour and larger than life look to the stage and characters. This show really held onto this and the costumes were absolutely fabulous.
My favorite character in musicals normally ends up being the funny side kick or the main character but this time it turned out to be the villain!! This was very odd for me, as normally you are guided to dislike them (hence the term ‘villain’) but this guy was hilarious and I couldn’t help but love him! Lord Farquaad, who was played by Samuel Holmes, was absolutely brilliant and you could not fault him throughout the entire show, considering he may have been a little uncomfortable! For this character his costume was bent to his knees, covered by a cape and had two little fake legs on the front. The fake/ surreal aspect of this costume had me in stitches and I couldn’t look away. It allowed him to make any movement look funny, from running with tiny little steps to basically doing the splits. The costume was enhanced by the excellent acting which did not slack at any point; the energy of everyone in fact was incredible for the entire show!
Last but not least was the use of puppets throughout the show, especially when it came to the Dragon. When done well, puppets in a show can look awesome, but when done badly it can completely tear apart a show. Luckily for us, these puppets were a great addition to the performance and made some possibly tricky characters from a cartoon transform easily to live action versions. There were little puppets through the show, from the Gingerbread Man to Puss in Boots, but the main one I want to talk about is the dragon. I really didn’t know what to expect with this, but I knew they wouldn’t be able to get rid of such a large character (no pun intended) from the film to accommodate the live performance, so they would have to be inventive. They basically had a massive puppet controlled in a very similar way to War Horse, but on a bigger scale. They had 4 or 5 people in black controlling the dragon, to ensure it moved like it should but also could move around the space fluently. Honestly I cannot express how amazing it was, it was done so well and was also spot on to the look of the cartoon character.
I had such a wonderful evening as always at The Mayflower Theatre Southampton, who manages time and time again to impress me with their amazing variety of shows. If you get the chance, make sure to head down and see this great show, it is the perfect start to a family Christmas. Plenty for any age, and I really cannot recommend this fun filled show enough!
Grace xx
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