SHREK - THE MUSICAL Director: Ian Bennett Musical Director: Paul Firth Choreographer Jane Wood Mossley A.O. & D.S. Due to the covid pandemic this production has been 3 years in the making. After several cancellations the audience waited patiently. Opening night finally arrived and the “House Full” sign had to go up for the entire run. This big, big musical has to mirror the muchloved 2001 animated film which has to be quite a challenge for the creative team. The stage musical follows the narrative of the film but with a little more back story. The characterisation of the Ogre, Donkey, Farquaad and Fiona must not disappoint the audience. Every single member of the audience will no doubt have their favourite character. Shrek, the Musical does not stand on performance alone. The success is shared equally between character presentation, the costumes, make-up, scenery and the technical departments. This group has been so lucky over the years to have the creativity of John Buckley to design their imaginative sets. The scenery, with its Farquaad towers complete with insets to allow the story to unfold, enhanced the story telling. The lighting and sound captured the essence of Shrek’s world. Everybody on stage was recognisable. Charades’ costumes can only be described as excellent. There has to be a special mention for Chris Anderson of No Eyed Theatre. His company supplied specialist costumes, puppets and the dragon, all were wonderful. Chris also devised the prosthetic make-up for the actor playing Shrek. Chris has such a talent! It was the difficult job of the production team to bring a strong and believable cast to make everything work. The director kept the pace tight keeping the action moving, at the same time extracting everything out
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