I appreciate that opinions on the appropriateness of Farquaad vary widely, however for myself, as a disabled actor who is only around 3feet tall and uses a wheelchair (and played Gingy in the Colchester production you mention in this review - thank you so much for the mention. It means a lot) I've never found the fact that Farquaad is played by an actor on his knees (playing 'short') offensive, or that the comedy directed at him is related to his height, and I honestly can't imagine what is left for him if that is removed. As others have said he exists in a fairytale land, which is completely detached from any real world context. I love this show and loved being part of an amateur production of it, and while I'm sure the changes to Farquaad's character were made in the touring production out of a misguided sense of kindness, I personally feel this is unnecessary.
I appreciate this. I’m not disabled and I’m average to tall hight. I do see some, let’s say, over correction or over offended takes on some media (SOME! Definitely not all which do deserve to be called out on). Earlier this year I saw a girl review Moulin Rouge the Musical and gave it a terrible reaction mainly due to the fact the women in the show are meant to be prostitutes. She stated how offensive it is to depict a sex worker who isn’t happy or is made to perform for an audience when she knows sex workers who are happy and make their living that way….. I was like… ok? She also mentioned Harold (the MC of the Moulin Rouge) using a cane at moments saying it’s offensive for an able actor to use a cane…. Ugh haha. Yes some things are pretty offensive and come from a genuinely ugly place. Lord Farqauaad? Yeah I never saw an issue either. And like you said, without his height, you don’t have much character haha. Anyways, this was a random small rant to go on. Hope you’re well. And always happy to talk with a fellow musical lover ❤
I thought the whole point of Farquaad (at least in the musical where they include his backstory) is that he's a hypocrite. He's a fairy tale character oppressing other fairy tale characters. While others like him find queer-coded community (i.e. Freak Flag), he's a figurehead for a system that he puts himself at the top to avoid his own discrimination, and his quest for "perfection" comes across as insecurity. Him looking and acting like an average-sized man who faces no ridicule for his appearance takes away from all that.
Such a shame they didn’t just stick to the amazing little legs on the front of the Farquaad costumes usually such a funny character but barely got a laugh the whole show :( I saw in MANC and actually quite enjoyed it, but I absolutely LOVE the score so that’s probably why. Brandon Lee Sears as Donkey was an easy standout.
There is a problem in equating fantasy ideas with real world ones. Yes irl dwarfism is a thing, but that does NOT apply to farquaad. he is not a human with an illness that causes him to be small, he is a half human, half FANTASY SPECIES. he has no illness, his looks are just the result of his parentage. if anything it can be a metaphor of being mixed race, not of irl dwarfism. the joke is never his height, it how INSECURE he is about it that he becomes a full blown dictator, which if you ever hear incel-adjacent men talking, IS an actual irl thing. short men REALLY think they are an oppressed minority
Yes!!! I’ve been saying this since I heard of the controversy with the upcoming Snow White movie. It’s far more offensive to draw those connections than acknowledge that the mythical creature is short in stature!
People with dwarfism face real life harassment because of roles within fantasy, I understand you think that’s less important than a joke in a musical but not everyone is like you. FYI, making it an analogy for being mixed race makes it worse. Also, I’ve always found the stereotype about short men being insecure about their height bizarre, I’m pretty it just exists in the heads of tall people. It’s genuinely not a good joke.
@@benharrison294 People with dwarfism actually face real life harassment, especially because of Snow White. Most people watching don’t separate fantasy dwarves from real life people with dwarfism, pretending otherwise is ignorance.
Have you ever heard of the short little guy named Napoline? also I'm a legal little person and I find not casting them and removing farads shortness to be more of an insult than doing the script as it was written. @@MsJaytee1975
For Farquaad could you just cast a middle school boy in the (4'8-5'0) who would naturally be smaller/shorter/higher voice than the grown adults around him?
I imagine the script would be so easy to adapt to a child in the role. You barely have to rewrite anything and the "joke" becomes the fact that back in the day often leaders WOULD be hilariously young, and it was a disaster
Hi Micky! Thanks so much for calling out the bipolar ‘joke’ in I know it’s today, I really like that song but that line always made me feel uncomfortable
I didn't know what to expect at all as the ticket was bought for me as a present, and I thought it was good fun for what it was! It was just such a shame to see the theatre so empty, it was a Saturday evening and the place was probably half full.
Odd that they would cut the magic mirror considering their reliance on projections. That would be such an easy, and actually good, use of that. A lot of really odd and bad, bad decisions were made here it seems. 😬😬
I enjoyed the original US tour (wish I'd seen it in NYC, but I do have the DVD of the pro-shoot.) The theatre magic of Princess Fiona's transformation was amazing.
This seems to be a constant problem in the entertainment industry. However, well intentioned these socially conscious decisions are, They shouldn't be running to just instantly bury any and all potentially problematic characters or moments. Explore ways to change in tweak it, offer some positive representation to help offset negative representation (without necessarily removing the latter).
I live in ayr scotland and there was a amateur production of shrek and they had the same jokes , the actor who was playing lord farquaad was on his knees and all together It was brilliant
A sincere question (this is not about how you critique but asking you opinion). Listening to your thoughts on performance, how much of that is poor performance or poor direction? Some of it was obvious performance based but much of it makes me wonder if that was how they were told to do it. I am just curious
0:01 I've So Excited For DreamWorks's Shrek The Original Classic Broadway Musical At Liverpool's Empire Theatre In Liverpool In Merseyside In England Which Is The Home Of The Beatles In The United Kingdom Next Year In February 2024. Wish Me Luck. Thanks Mate. X
I can’t comment upon the performance or show itself because I have not seen it but I did work stage crew when it came to my local theatre. Spoiler alert, the show got cancelled due to RAAC being found in the theatre during the get in. So this did mean we didn’t get to finish the set up so only got so far through. There was a 13 hour de rig then re rig set up the day before then on the day of the get in there was 13 (pure coincidence) of our stage crew and 7-10 people from the tour crew. We began set up at 7 am and had been going till like 12:20pm. Unloading 4 arctic wagons. Even with 20-23 people we only got like just past halfway through the set up. We was doing good for time and would of been fine if we continued at that pace but there is a lot more to the set than meets the eye. The set itself while albeit simplistic, has actually got a couple of intricacies to it which can adapt and impact the performance, The screens on the back are all set up individually. Each one is individually added and then connected up. Idk how many there was in total but there was 15 individual screens per row of them. Another interesting thing is that they adapt the set size to the theatre size. Cause when we was setting it up, they wasn’t going to be using the windmill or the castle gate piece ect. So that could make a big difference to the set situation. This was just my experience of the show from a technical standpoint.
The 2023 method of progress has become erasure. We all know that Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is now just Snow White, and there are seven “magical creatures” who are, aside from one, more typical-heighted, since somehow that’s better…. Honestly, I’m convinced people are just looking for reasons to be offended at this point. The condition known as dwarfism was called that after the mystical creature known as a dwarf. What next, let’s eliminate garden gnomes for being short, fat people when gnomes are not exactly human? So we need to start putting fur costumes on non-human characters so that they’ll look like anthropomorphic beings so that people will know they’re not human beings?
I’m scared for the new us non unit tour. The producers have only produced things like “peppa pig on stage”. But the director/choreo has done dear evean Hanson and fun home
I saw this on Tuesday and my god it was painful. Agree it just wasn't funny! And the projections were done so poorly with the screen wobbling around the whole time. The most painful thing for me was the fake tap number, they were doing the moves so why make it fake!!!
I do agree with a lot of these points but still enjoyed the show. I do wish they’d gone all in and just charged full whack. My ticket was one of the more expensive middle of row K stalls, and was only £37 compared to the £60-80 mark of touring west end shows. So the price I think is somewhat fair… I would just prefer to pay more and not lose some of the magic. I will say, for me, Shrek and Fiona were INCREDIBLE! Their voices were perfect, Fiona’s dancing great. Ginny was AMAZING! Dragon was top tier ❤ I was mostly impressed with the overall performance. Farquad was probably the biggest disappointment as his character is basically the centre of humour in the OG show. I don’t like what they did with his character at all. I don’t understand why we’ve lost the on the knees actor but we have a short actress playing Farquad dwarf farther, young Fiona/shrek and baby bear? Could she not have just played Farquad? I’m sad they cut a lot of the sets, the screens were not good. Some of the costumes were lack lustre, the dragon could’ve been a lot better. The effects weren’t as good as even some amateur performances. It did feel sped up too with the amount of scenes/lines cut. It felt like we had amazing actors working with a low budget.
to be fair the magic mirror is gone from most amateur productions and has been for a while. but yea this production sounds really disappointing which is sad because i love shrek the musical
I just saw the north american tour version of this show in Toronto. That version isn't much better. The directorial choices have me a headache and I had to leave at intermission.
Taking out the small stature-based comedy but leaving in the jokes poking fun at fatness and blindness sounds like supremely lazy virtue-signaling to me
Hate is a strong word..... I hate injustice, discrimination and cruelty. Seems a bit OTT to hate a show aimed at families to give them a good night off. Not everything needs to be high art.
I agree, I feel like this is a really nit-picky review for a family show that isn't trying to be more that it's advertising - which is a corny but funny show.
@@jessieneilan4784 Of course. But should 'hatred ' energy be directed at professional shows, or something a little more important to making society a better place? That was my point regarding what I "hate".
I was waiting in this vid to hear if they changed the bipolar line since they changed Farquaad, and hearing that they didn’t, and didn’t take out all of the other ableist jokes, as well as the fatphobic ones(and from what I’ve heard from others, there are still the homophobic and transphobic ones as well), tells me all I need to know about the intentions of this show. The solution here just seems clear, bc of how little Shrek retains being Shrek if you take out unfortunately what are inherent aspects to the show(many of the problematic themes and humor, some can be taken out, but others unfortunately will just hinder it as being an adaptation), it just seems that we should just stop putting on productions of Shrek. Amateur productions are one thing, and likely won’t be stopped anytime soon. But just let Shrek stay as a relic of the 2000s and early 2010s, and stop, for Pete’s sake, putting on professional productions.
Of course set will be reduced on tour!!! Companies lost so much money during covid! This review is just so unbelievably harsh and sadly pretty entitled, we can all watch a show and make our own reviews that’s fine. Anyone can be obsessed with theatre and decide to make a RU-vid review, if anyone hasn’t seen this show you should go and see it for yourself and keep supporting theatre and not listen to one pompous review. Go and direct yourself my darling and let all of us critique your work. And as for commenting on the actors…to hear someone who has no training commenting on people that have is laughable.
@@MickeyJoTheatre I don’t, I think those that talk about vocal stamina should understand vocal training and I don’t think you do. Clifton for example, yes she is danced trained but she grew up with musical theatre and she has been doing a fair few shows now 8 shows a week. As a singing teacher myself she does have vocal stamina, it’s your opinion not a fact. If she was vocally poorly that show (because doing 8 shows a week is bloody hard work and it does take training to get your voice in the right technique) then maybe you should comment that instead of digging in on someone’s ’vocal stamina’ I would rather hear a review of someone who has had the training though they would have way more understanding and less entitlement. It’s totally fine I didn’t have to watch this video but I was just actually shocked with how rude this was. To be fair I bet Nick Winston doesn’t care at all and is laughing into his money, so it’s fine. We move on :)
@@MillieDodds-o8r I don't think a director laughing into their money while families fork out to go and see a discernably cheaper production is a good thing tbh, but I guess we disagree.
@@MickeyJoTheatrethat wasn’t what I was referencing my love and you know it’s not. I was saying the last thing he would watch would be someone who has had no training critique his shows cast members (which you did) with no background training on vocal technique. You were completely clueless on why sets were cheaper you even asked it in the video! Covid took a huge hit to touring companies and sets struggled because of that. A lot of things are now on the cheap. I just wish you had more of an understanding. Anyone can watch a million shows and claim they are a pundit and a critic.
I love the netflix version, hahaha. Its very unfortunate I haven't seen the live version. It kind of sucks that they changed so much of the charming parts of it
I would find it really interesting to learn about your critiquing processes. How do you go about it? Do you make notes during the performances? If so does this hinder your enjoyment? If not how do you remember everything? It would be good to see like a day in the life sort of thing xx
When the show performed in Tel Aviv back in 2012, screens were also used for most of the sets. The worst part of it was that the "sets" were mostly stock pictures you would find when googling "swamp" or "castle" so please tell me at least that wasn't the case
Funny how in my suggested on the side bar is to buy the pro shoot. I feel almost bad for these tours that have gone on so long that their set/budget is just dwindled to the point of high school level. It's obvious from your review the company is giving it their all & really trying to put in a wonderful performance it's just everything around them is lacking. Just because a show is an "easy sell" in some ways doesn't mean it should look like a cheap one.
what a bummer to hear what they've done to such an amazing show! I saw a regional production and it was incredible! Shrek really is one of the best movie to musical adaptations. the score is amazing and so catchy!
My community college did Shrek a few years ago and the dragon prop/costume was phenomenal. It was like the dragon head from the Wicked set meets the ingenuity of the singing dragon in Starkid's Potter musical but like 100x times the size and it just looked really good. I think low/no budget can lead to some pretty innovative achievements.
Personally I think the price reflects the lower budget of the show. I paid £37 for Row K right in the middle, so one of the higher priced tickets. The same seat, in the same theatre, the same weekday for: Six is £46 and for Wicked Tour is £80.
I saw the show in august, and really enjoyed it, I can tell you they definitely made some poor choices, but overall I had a great time. Nice to see your opinion:)
I saw the previous tour a few years ago, and to say i was disappointed. It is the only musical professional and amateur, that i walked away confused. It sounds like it has gotten worse. People here are saying youre being too harsh, but honestly, if I’m paying so much for a ticket and travel, for a professional production, you expect more! Cuts are made with sets, yet i don’t see cuts on ticket prices. Unacceptable really.
If I were going to do Shrek on a budget, I would do it on one set and do it comedia del arte style. It would play up the comedy in a way that you wouldn’t miss the sets and stage craft.
Shrek is easily one of my top favorite musicals. I’ve been in it twice in 2016 as a villager, a skeleton and a moon in the Travel Song scene & in 2022 as Scarecrow in the Fairytale Creature Ensemble. ❤❤ Also I can’t wait to see your reviews from what you see in New York so I can decide what to see in the Spring.
So true, and so sad, that tours get cheaper and cheaper in subsequent productions - is that a licensing issue? Do the license holders assume that as a show ages, the audience values it less, therefore it's available at a lower price, therefore cheaper producers? (This is my big fear for the Starlight Express revival) It's sad, and telling, that the tour is running with more basic effects than many amateur productions. It sounds like the lack of budget has hurt everything here, including time to workshop the changes to the script and jokes. Seems like some well intentioned changes just didn't have time to get thought through!
Honestly, i *like* Shrek The Musical. I like the costumes, it’s funny, great songs, but it goes against the entire point of the Shrek movies. They were literally made to mock the Disney musical movies that were dominating at the time, but the musical makes Shrek into the very thing the very existence of the franchise was rebelling against.
I am not physical disabled( I am Autistic among others things) so i don't know i can speak pruply about this. But it feels a bit unnecessary to remove the short jokes in the show because the producers think actual little people might be offend. I understand the issues but you really leave Lord Farquaad without anything making him stand out from other similar villains in fantasy stories. Are they going to not have Nessarose in a wheelchair in future productions of Wicked ?
I saw the original Broadway show. It wasn't a strong show, BUT it was funny and delightful to watch. So, this tour has removed the humor and the scenery...ummm, those are the strength of this show. And, why the heck would they remove Pinocchio's nose? An easy effect that was used to hilarious effect.
i found the same thing with the screens-for-sets with the wizard of oz at the palladium before it went on tour, just makes it obvious that they’re cutting budgets with sets
Tours in the US often do the same thing with downgrades with each new tour or revival. Even some shows that are technically the same tour will downgrade after a couple of years if its still runming. I went and saw a recent tour of Beauty and the Beast and, honestly, my high school production jad more impressive sets and costumes. It was tragic and so disappointing. A person working at merch said they took it from a 20 truck show down to 5 and it really, REALLY showed. It was especially sad when the souvenir playbill theu were selling still had all of the old production photos, which made it all feel even cheaper. Oh, and the tickets were still as expensive as they had been nefore. So, youre paying the same for a much vheaper and smaller production. At least the performers were good. 🤷🏼♂️
I did Shrek the Musical in high school on a budget of basically nothing. While the audiences consisted mainly of friends and family of the cast members, it was still a great time and we received heaps of positive feedback for it. It is incredibly disappointing to hear that a professional touring production of the same show omits so much of what gives the show its heart. With a professional creative team and a much higher budget than a high school production, you wouldn’t expect so much of the material to be altered and even cut out entirely. Even little things such as Pinocchio’s extending nose or the exploding blue bird in Morning Person add so much life into the show and we were able to do that as a small little school and they’re not able to do it on a larger scale. Very sad to hear about this.
I saw the show in Dublin back in August and although I enjoyed it, it didn't reach my expectations......probably unhelped by the fact there were sound issues at the start of the second act and there was a 20/30min stop while they fixed it and I was stressed about missing my train, but to be fair the cast handled it great! Glad I saw it but wouldn't be going again.
I spotted you at the theatre and I was really disappointed by the show so I’ve been looking forward to watching your review . Agree with everything you’ve said. It felt both cheap and unimaginative, and the out-of-focus projection screen really disturbed me and distracted me at every point. If you’re going to have the majority of scenes rely on projection, it at least needs to work properly. As you mentioned, the main redemption dor the show was the beautiful vocals by Cheree (the dragon), but I ended up just feeling bad for as she felt too good for this particular production!
Hello I’m currently in the show and I’m very sorry you didn’t enjoy it, however it goes to mention how full out and hard working our cast is and I found this review very upsetting to watch! I agree with some of your comments and there’s lots of reasons behind the choices made! X I’ve always been a huge fan of the musical so I understand some people don’t like change! We have had some 5 star reviews so people absolutely love it but I get it’s not everyone’s cup of tea x
I saw you all today and as someone who was nervous going into this (as I have also seen the London production) I have to say I thought the whole cast was amazing. I have my own opinions about the production side of things but I walked out and the first thing I said to the person I was with was how the cast blew me away. The show is a show which gives each ensemble member lots of individual moments and I really think the cast was the best thing about it all-I felt with what was given everybody was really strong celebrity or not which is something you can’t say about every show. This is of coarse just one opinion but as you commented I wanted to pass over my thanks for a wonderful afternoon at the theatre that you all created 💜💚
Sorry you found the review upsetting :( I think Mickey did a fantastic job being measured and constructive in his criticism, give praise and credit where it was due while also providing a critical creative eye, which is something that is so desperately needed to help this industry grow in the right direction. He made it clear that while decisions were made for a reason, many of those reasons, in his opinion, didn’t come across to the audience. He did not criticize anyone’s ability or work ethic, and kept his critique purely about creative choices, as a great reviewer should. If every show that had a hard working cast and made calculated decisions was deemed deserving of a 5 star review, there would be no professional industry for actors to work in! Critics are an essential element to the artistic world in order to keep everything from being solely finance driven, and we should celebrate critics like Mickey who are kind, fair, and constructive in their reviews.
@@cristinamarie5725 just to mention we’ve had LOTS of 5 star reviews and I understand it’s one persons opinion can I ask if you’ve seen the show yet? ….
I just wanted to say that this whole video, I completely agree with! I was to scared to really say much as every time I did say something to someone who has seen the show on tour, they said it was amazing and that I’m being a tad dramatic over a production. I was held back at first for lord farquad not being canonically the same in the movie and or other musical versions (being someone with dwarfism) and ima be honest I didn’t worry about it for long but I thought that replacing that character design with someone who may be considered queer coded was funny and clear in a way to replace the original character, but it fell flat in so many ways. I won’t be speaking about the whole issue about him not being the original character as I’d literally be repeating what you’ve said in your video. I thought that shrek was rather good but some jokes just fell extremely flat which if I’m being honest weren’t necessarily their fault as the script was heavily changed. Donkey was the same and so was Fiona. The dragon was my favourite, I thought that they went a bit deeper into her story and who she is and how she feels as the musical version is the only way and time we hear and see how the dragon feels and or what the dragon wants. The costumes for the dragon were fantastic as well but the puppet did get on my nerves with the mouth being open as well. I’m rather sad they cut ‘I think I got you beat’ to a shorter version as the point of the song is to show them having a conflict over their past trauma and past experiences to the point where they talk over each other and land with the same lyric showing the realisation that they aren’t so different after all. I’m also incredibly happy they removed the slur from the song ‘story of my life’ as someone who is trans and loves shrek the musical I wasn’t necessarily bothered by the lyric being there I’m the first place but did make me wonder “why would someone write that” at the same time. As someone has a disabled family member, we had to sit on the side sections in Wimbledon and the issue I had was a majority of the scenes were ethier set centre stage or upstage which meant we couldn’t see a Majority of it including the brilliant set used at the beginning for ‘big bright beautiful world’. I also had a talk with my parents after the show about the fact that the show was trying to be so inclusive and aware (which keep in mind is good) but still kept in fat jokes at every possible moment. Thank you for the review ❤
Mickey, I live in. Seattle where the show started its life before NYC and London, the show was longer, and was great and better than what they did on Broadway or London, and the fact that they keep changing songs and working it out in every tour means that they don't have either respect for what was done on broadway or Seattle at the 5th Avenue ands London, cause the songs they cut from the Seattle preview I saw were perfect and those I thought were Shrektacable, they tied little princess Fiona to meeting little young Shrek and she is told not to go near him during the song big bright beautiful world when the show starts. And it foreshadows the fact that she is told not to go near Ogers and yet she's a little over like Shrek just under a witches spell. things lie that I feel they should never have removed cause it fleshes out the characters and ties them into one another for the rest of the show.
Well given that Amanda Holden was the original Fiona, I don’t think Joanne had too much to live up to in terms of vocals. atrocious!! I saw her ma Dave was awful. I saw Nikki Bentley as Fiona on the tour and she was absolutely fantastic!
Interestingly, when Amanda did it they made the end of Morning Person an ensemble vocal rather than a solo coming out of the dance break. Alice Fearn was the understudy at Drury Lane!
@@MickeyJoTheatre I remember online that people were booking to see Alice when Amanda was off on Tuesdays: I came over from Dublin especially to see Nigel Harman. I thought Amanda was awful. The first tour had Faye Brooke’s with Nikki as her understudy. I saw the tour in Dublin. We were at a matinee. I saw the last tour too with Amelia Lily as Fiona. She was also very good, great voice. Amanda in drury lane was stunt casting at its finest although why anyone would want to come and see her is beyond me!
Obviously a very different kind of production, but last year Richard III had a disabled actor in the title role and I remember an interview with the director where he said some of the insults aimed at Richard hit very differently because there was a disabled person in the role. I don’t have dwarfism, but I’m short enough that they checked, and I’ve never understood why people think short jokes are funny, I never understood what the joke was with Lord Farquad being played by an actor on his knees (although that might be down to me being autistic). I also never found those jokes offensive either. Maybe this change has come from disabled people but it doesn’t feel like it, it feels like non-disabled people who didn’t want to be criticised but didn’t want to put much effort into it either. There have been a few disabled performers breaking through in the west end and Broadway, and most of them in productions where the character wasn’t envisioned as disabled, it just takes a little bit of imagination.
The joke is not that he is short, the joke is that he is desperate to be seen as important to the point where he is a ruthless dictator and wants to kidnap a girl to marry, all because he is compensating over his insecurities. His insecure manchild behavior is the joke, not his height
Totally agree. I saw the original west end version three times and I adored it so much and I was super excited to drag my partner to this revival and everything you said is spot on. I’d told them “ooh there is a les mis reference here and Farquard performs on his knees etc it’s amazing” and whilst watching this revival I was like oh…. it’s really different and really not as good. Reference wise there was one Wicked reference that I spotted? I also did find the dragon puppet onstage while Cherece Richards was singing was a bit jarring because donkey would like sing to the puppet then to Cherece then to the puppet again 😅 But I 1000% agree Cherece is the STAR of that show, immensely talented! Hinting on the accent thing, I also found Pinocchio’s accent odd and also hard to understand. There were also multiple moments where people lost their accents, particularly mamma ogre who started Big Bright Beautiful World Scottish and ended American. I was super relieved the slur had been removed but they also cut some of the songs like in ‘I think I got you beat’ they just cut the section that leads to them both saying “my dad and mum sent me away!” so when they “bond” over their parents sending them away, the impact was lessened. Also yeah Fiona was a bit mean overall. The singing was great all around and I generally had a nice time but it’s no where near as good as the previous productions. If you have kids yeah go but don’t bother if you’re holding out hope of reliving the previous productions.
The only musical i genuinely cannot stand is shrek. The whole point in the movies was to be a rebellion against the disney formula, which is why they use pop music and score rather than custom written character sung songs. And what did the musical do? Just completely miss the entire point and wrote disney style songs 🙃
My friend and I saw you on Tuesday night and didn’t get the chance to say hi. We didn’t have the best of times as we were meant to be in row bb but they didn’t exist due to the orchestra pit. It caused a lot of faff in the way the venue handled the situation
I was lucky to enjoy both the Broadway and West End productions. Also, the Spanish version. The fact that I could copy-paste your UK tour review to describe the last one makes me sad. There aren’t many things in life where you can actually apply the “every crisis is a chance” mantra thing SO clearly open for that… but musicals, specially this one… well it is! But it seems that the amateur looks goes with the check list some lawyers made up to “go sure, take the screens, velcro not magnets, forget the artists, transports by RyanAir so loose weight”. Arts, specially the scenics + music combo, are the most suitable playroom to let your freak flag fly. But for some people that means they gotta pay someone to solve something they “can do in a blink”. I believe that sometimes-some-people prefer to spend the money on the stingy manager instead of invest it in creative solutions made for the artists/engineers/those who have the knowledge to deal with the range of issues related with the job. So… they spend even more when they find some other discordant people (those who buy or could buy the product, those who pay to make it, those who you pay and have to deal with the first and the second group, those who actually care for the product and the essence of it). It happens everywhere, every day, since every time we face a new crisis we have to adjust and make the work made before by our “not up to date”, not “pro-active” ex co-workers… plus our actual tasks (same salary, of course). And there you have… we were living the uberization times even before the drivers and riders -now “free to work when they want”-, but someone name it “reinvention” while also lowered the bar. No complaints accepted. Refresh yourself. The standard is now this one… If so, there’s an AI chat thing prepared to calm us. It’s ironic… because the real amateur productions usually balance the lack of cash flow with real treasures: passion, commitment and the willing to achieve the goals (with the benefits attached to the learning process).
I was so disappointed with this production, many amazing actors cast in it, previously in newsies, Book of Mormon etc who are amazing at what they do. Absolutely nothing to do with them and their talents as a cast, I just think the the direction and choices they were given by the creative team were so strange and did them a massive injustice. I played Pinocchio in a production of Shrek in Chester, absolutely love the character, however I was instantly taken out of the immersion of the show when he started to speak European. I know the origins of Pinocchio is Italy, and understand the link and nod to this. But for the stage production I feel the films adaptation/ Johns original adaptation of the character is much more authentic to what we all know and love. Lord Faquaad was my biggest gripe, no depth to the character, having him just play camp every scene wasn't funny and I actually found it quite irritating. This can work when having other character traits, for example, it lands so well in The Book of Mormon as they appear camp in the right moments which is hilarious, if it was consistent for the whole show in every line and scene, the humour would be lost and wouldn't be funny. The portrayal of Farquad came across lazy and thoughtless in this production, not saying its James fault, I just believe the direction hasn't helped them at all.
I recommended this show to a friend the other day for her son's first theatre trip as I usually really enjoy the musical but hadn't seen this latest production, after watching your video I messaged and told her to maybe reconsider. Such a shame as it has some great songs.
She should still go if she's able too, you shouldn't let one person's opinion stop you from seeing something - your friend might have a completely different experience and love it!!! 😊
I recommend you guys watch the dvd of the original musical production which is also on streaming, that’s worth more your time than now’s production which is so halfassed. Why watch something little to no effort went into?
Will it be possible for you to review the Shrek National Tour in the US? That looks even worse (waaaaayyyy worse) than the UK tour. Shrek wears a headband and no bald cap, Donkey wears a hoodie, the dragon looks like a moth 🤦 It's coming to my city soon and I really wanted to watch it, but now I'm not so sure 😢
Hi comment section bit random but I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to sell their once programme from the palladium with Carrie hope fletcher and Jamie Muscato have a great day!?!?
I find it interesting that you rate this version so lowly, but you've rated other theatre productions with even less quality of set/imagination higher (like Dirty Dancing or We Will Rock You). Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I just find this review to be excessive in finding faults. I live in Manchester and go to the theatre nearly every week to see touring productions, and this new version of Shrek has been a standout in the past year of some very disappointing shows. Sure, it's not high end and revolutionary in production value, but I don't think it ever tried to be - it's Shrek, it's supposed to be goofy, corny and mocking. I did find the screens a little disappointing, but in all honesty, it's becoming the norm to include them in new productions, so I wasn't surprised to see them nor did I think they massively impacted the show - I've seen far worse use of digital screens in the past few years in productions. The cast, physical pieces of set and energy more than made up for it and aided in creating a fun filled, light-hearted 3 hours - enough so that I saw it 3 times while it was in Manchester. As a certified 'fattie' too, I enjoyed the fat jokes, because that's all they are. Along with the jokes about Farquad's height or Fiona's bipolar tendencies, they're just there so we can joke about ourselves as the British do so well - why do we have to make it into something bigger and 'offensive'? I think it's boggling that we live in such a privileged society now that a fat joke can cause such offence.
Don't let the opinion of one person prevent you from seeing it, you should see the show if you can and formulate your own opinion. You might have a completely different experience as the arts are subjective 😊
