If you’ve seen the Shrek series of films, or are even just aware of them, then you will undoubtedly already know how successful this franchise has become. It seems like a lifetime ago that this seemingly monstrous, yet actually relatively laid-back ogre first had his swamp overrun by a community of fairy-tale creatures and vowed to go on a quest to find Princess Fiona in order to gain back his home and, in that time, goodness knows how many people have sung along to ‘What’s up Duloc’ or attempted Donkey impressions. One thing’s for sure, the series was a success back then and is an even bigger success now.
Shrek The Musical opened on Broadway in December 2008 and was nominated for 8 Tony awards, winning one for Best Costume Design. It was a big success at the box office immediately, due to the success of the film, and its obvious potential for theatricality. The music and lyrics were clever and it was well put together for a family audience with vibrant staging and performances from the actors. The costumes were very well designed and I was impressed with Lord Farquaad's in particular, seeing as it was specially designed to make him look peculiarly short. This also meant that the actor had to dance on his knees, which was extremely impressive to watch.
Just in case you have missed out on seeing the films and are wondering what all the hype is about, the story of this musical follows that of the first film as well as the original book on which it is based. This begins with the character of Shrek, an ogre, who lives alone in his swamp and hates being disturbed. When a group of fairy-tale creatures invade his swamp he learns that Lord Farquaad, the ruler of Duloc, has banished them there. He sets off to speak to Lord Farquaad about removing them and on his way meets Donkey, whose name speaks for itself, and with little choice in the matter, accepts that the insistent Donkey will from then on be travelling with him. Once he meets Farquaad he is told that the creatures will be moved if he agrees to take on the quest of saving Princess Fiona from a tower guarded by a ruthless dragon and bring her back so that she can marry Farquaad. He agrees and they set off on their quest. Upon reaching the tower and successfully rescuing the princess she realises that Shrek is an ogre and rescuing her for someone else, and so immediately becomes angry with him. However over the course of their return journey the two realise that they have more in common than they had thought and begin to get along. When Donkey stumbles across Fiona in the night he finds out that she becomes an ogre after sunset each night due to a curse upon her and only true love’s kiss can reverse this. She loves Shrek, but does not feel he could ever love her in return, and so needs to kiss Farquaad if she wishes to lift the curse. Due to misunderstandings between the two, Shrek and Fiona are both convinced that the other finds them ugly and disgusting because of their ogre forms. Shrek must come to his senses and convince Fiona of his love before it is too late and she marries Lord Farquaad.
The show does a good job of telling the story of the film in a slightly different way. In this production, we see more of the backstory behind each character than we do in the films and can get slightly more insight into what drives their actions throughout. The way that the story is based upon so many sources from classic literature, such as fairy tales as well as other films and books, is incredibly interesting for the audience since as you watch the piece there are always new elements that you are noticing which have been cleverly dropped in, such as in the song ‘Story of My Life’ which looks at the pasts of the fairy-tale characters and references cleverly back to many of the original fairy-tales.
The show will I’m sure be a family favourite and though it is not currently being performed in the West End, or on Broadway, a UK tour is underway at the moment that is set to be continuing up until January 2016 and a recording of the original Broadway show is also available on DVD for any big fans of the franchise who just can’t wait to give it a watch.
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