Shrek The Musical - Review

Eventim Apollo, London

***

Music by Jeanine Tesori
Lyrics and book by David Lindsay-Abaire
Co-directed by Samuel Holmes and choreographer Nick Winston

Antony Lawrence

Packed with adoring children Hammersmith Apollo hosts Shrek The Musical for a brief Summer residence.

Adapted from the Dreamworks movie, Antony Lawrence plays the eponymous ogre with Joanne Clifton as Princess Fiona, the love of his life. Their acting is lovely in this modern fairytale with the strangest of endings. The rest of the company are also a class act. Todrick Hall is an impressive Donkey with more than a hint of Eddie Murphy in his flair and James Gillan is an appropriately villainous Lord Farquaad. A shout-out too for Cherece Richards whose singing as the Dragon was fabulous.

Nick Winston’s choreography is a delight with some impressive company numbers, not least in the routines of tap-dancing rats and three well-drilled blind mice.

Ben Cracknell’s lighting and Ben Atkinson’s music arrangements are slick - but elsewhere production values are creaky with an over reliance on unimpressive projections and poor sound balancing, with too many lyrics lost in the Apollo’s cavernously poor acoustics. Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire’s songs do not match the wit of the movie’s original scriptwriting quartet and there are moments when the musical lacks pace.

Kids will love and remember this show as a fun trip to the theatre.

Runs until 31st August

Wild About You - Review

Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London

**

Music & lyrics by Chilina Kennedy

Book by Eric Holmes

Directed by Nick Winston

Rarely have such a platinum-plated cast delivered a tale of such unfathomable mediocrity.

All of the actors Eric McCormack, Rachel Tucker, Oliver Tompsett, Tori Allen-Martin, Jamie Muscato and Todrick Hall are vocally magnificent, representing the cream of British (McCormack excluded) musical theatre talent. Nick Barstow’s 10-piece band are fabulous too.

It is just that Eric Holmes’ book and Chilina Kennedy’s lyrics are the shallowest cliche-fest to have made a West End stage in many a year.  Olivia (Tucker) wakes up in a hospital ward as the curtain rises, with her memory wiped. The show then begins an exploration of her piecing together the reconstruction of her life. Frankly, it may well have been a better story if she’d stayed asleep.

The second act is a shameless steal from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, albeit without that pair’s creative genius. The actors are left with little to do other than (beautifully) sing songs that it is impossible to care about.

Thankfully only on for 2 nights, Wild About You is over now.