{"id":45538,"date":"2020-01-09T12:51:15","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T02:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/?p=45538"},"modified":"2020-01-09T12:51:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T02:51:16","slug":"shrek-musical-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/shrek-musical-review\/","title":{"rendered":"We review Shrek the Musical"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney<\/a> loves a musical and the Harbour City is lucky enough to be starting the 2020 season on a high, playing host to the Australian premiere\u00a0of Shrek the Musical<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Brian Geach<\/p><\/div>\n

The Broadway smash-hit show is based on the Oscar-winning Dreamworks film which, can you believe, came out nearly 20 years ago in 2001? \ud83d\ude32<\/p>\n

Which I suppose makes those Smash Mouth songs (\ud83c\udfb5 Hey now, you’re an all-star, get your game on, go play. Hey now, you’re a rock star, get the show on, get paid. And all that glitters is gold\u2026<\/em> \ud83c\udfb6) at least that old too. Don\u2019t pretend you don\u2019t still know all the words to that song \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

To refresh your memory, the story of everyone\u2019s favourite green ogre is a fairytale but with a twist. Shrek is living happily alone in his swamp until it\u2019s invaded by misfit storybook characters banished from the faraway kingdom of Dulac by the evil Lord Farquaad, a bad guy with a very SHORT temper.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Brian Geach<\/p><\/div>\n

Shrek and his new pal Donkey make a deal with Farquaad to regain ownership of Shrek\u2019s beloved swamp. They have to rescue a feisty princess named Fiona, who\u2019s been imprisoned in a castle for years by a fierce dragon, so that Farquaad can marry her and become king. Sounds simple, right? Let\u2019s just say the path to true love doesn\u2019t run as smoothly as that! But we wouldn\u2019t have this story any other way.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Brian Geach<\/p><\/div>\n

A beloved animated tale like this one needs a whole lot of energy to do it justice on stage and thankfully the show is in very good hands, with some of the best in the business.<\/p>\n

Todd McKenney \u2013 one of Australia\u2019s most versatile entertainers, perhaps best known for his critically acclaimed role as Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz<\/em> – almost steals the show as the vertically challenged Lord Farquaad. His stage presence, humour and delivery are second to none and he earns many of the big laughs of the evening.<\/p>\n

Nat Jobe\u2019s Donkey also gets his fair share of giggles and his bounding energy does the beloved Eddie Murphy-voiced character more than justice \u2013 no easy feat!<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Brian Geach<\/p><\/div>\n

Musical royalty Lucy Durack plays Fiona \u2013 and with her resume, she\u2019s a solid pick for a fairytale production (most notably, she played Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked<\/em> and Elle Woods in Legally Blonde<\/em>). But even with these high expectations, she manages to surprise and delight with her exquisite comical timing and that incredible voice.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Brian Geach<\/p><\/div>\n

And, of course, there\u2019s Shrek himself, Ben Mingay, who brings everything to this role, not least of all physically, with his impressive transformation to lovable ogre taking hours in the make-up chair. He delivers an impressive Scottish accent without ever missing a beat and he belts out the big notes effortlessly, conveying Shrek\u2019s grumpiness, vulnerability, charm and lovability to a tee.<\/p>\n

Marcia Hines, another mainstay of the theatre scene, brings her killer voice to the role of Dragon. Her show-stopping finale performance of The Monkees\u2019 and Smash Mouth hit song \u2018I\u2019m a Believer\u2019 gets the whole crowd on their feet.<\/p>\n

The true measure of a show like this, though, is the reaction of the children in the crowd. They\u2019re really the intended audience \u2013 although the show has just enough adults-only jokes to go over their little heads and keep the grown-ups happy too. If the non-stop delighted, infectious giggles of the little girl next to me are anything to go by, Shrek the Musical<\/em> is a five-star winner.<\/p>\n

Yep, I\u2019m a believer!<\/p>\n

You better be quick, Sydneysiders. Shrek the Musical<\/em> is now playing at the Lyric Theatre for a limited run until 9 February 2020. If you miss it there, catch its later seasons in Melbourne<\/a> and Brisbane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nic was a guest of Shrek The Musical but all opinions remain her own.<\/em><\/p>\n

Plan your Sydney getaway<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney loves a musical and the Harbour City is lucky enough to be starting the 2020 season on a high,..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":45546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,94],"tags":[4860,4859,4858],"acf":{"api_active":false,"api_title":"","api_exerpt":"","api_featured_image":false,"api_lob":"","credits":false,"enable_review_score":false},"posts_api_cpm_point":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45538"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45553,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45538\/revisions\/45553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}