"Shrek The Musical" by The Melton Musical Theatre Company.

Melton Theatre, Melton Mowbray.

This is a new theatre group for me as well as a new theatre for me. Very easy to locate for someone who has never visited Melton before with a large public car park right next to the theatre. Once inside you find a  very well equipped and modern theatre seating around 340 customers, complete with an equally large cafe area as you go through the foyer of the theatre.

For those who may never have seen the stage musical of "Shrek" previously, where have you been? Living in a swamp?, Well, here's a very quick resume of the show....

Shrek is a green ogre who lives in a swamp just outside the kingdom of Duloc. He finds out that the kingdom is becoming corrupt and that Lord Farquaad has plans to become the next King, but he needs to marry a Princess to be able to do this. Shrek makes a deal with Lord Farquaad to save the swamp but he has to first do something for Farquaad. Along with his loyal steed Donkey, Shrek sets off on a quest to rescue the beautiful Princess Fiona from her tower, guarded by a fire-breathing, love-sick dragon.  Add a gang of fairy-tale misfits, and a biscuit with attitude and you’ve got an irresistible mix of adventure, laughter and romance!

The majority of the actors involved are new to me, but what an impact they made with this big, bright, beautiful, fun musical.

Shrek is played by Charlie Harris, who obviously has an ear for accents - and you all know just how much I love a good accent, and this week, I've been spoilt for accents. The constant Scottish brogue was strong and constant, just like Charlie's singing. It's also obvious that Charlie enjoys comedy, shown wonderfully in the section where Shrek and Fiona duet on "I Got You Beat", a scene that the kids in the audience loved due to all the competitive farts and burps.

Princess Fiona is played by Steph Lovegrove. Lovely strong voice and, like Charlie, obviously enjoys the comedy side of this spirited role. In this role, Steph makes her debut for Melton Musical Theatre Company.

Playing the young Princess Fiona were Delilah, who has been sharing the role with Bow, who I saw on Thursday night. Delilah and Bow also double up roles as Goldilocks. 

Teen Fiona is role shared by Flossie and Connie, again on Thursday night I saw Connie. Flossie and Connie also share the role of Tweedle Dum.

Bow and Connie blended well with the three stages of Fiona in the song "I Know It's Today".

Donkey is played by Dan Atkinson. The make up for both Shrek and Donkey completely transform both actors beyond recognition - I would not recognise either Charlie or Dan if I passed them in the street after seeing them in this show. Donkey is a fabulous role for an actor who has funny bones, and when you look back at the actors who have played this role professionally, and local theatre productions, getting just the right comedy actor who can talk at breakneck speed is vital. Dan certainly fits that model of actor. Great fun to watch and a great soulful voice to match.

One role that is sure to bring an actor, quite literally to their knees, is that of Lord Farquaad and this part is played by Ross Woods. I've seen quite a few Shrek productions, again locally and professionally - the only one that I didn't quite enjoy was also a professional production. Ross delivered everything and more of what I love about this character, Farquaad was, as I had expected, was a massive hit with the audience, and with me. The speed that Ross travels on that stage was incredibly impressive, as was the faux French slant on many of the phrases and words used by the character. Farquaad may be short of stature but was massive on entertainment value.

Kate Felts plays Gingy, the opinionated Ginger Biscuit, as well as a Duloc Doll. Another very strong voice which shines even through Gingy's high pitched voice for the character.

The Dragon is played by Vikki Taylor, who also doubles up as Red Riding Hood and Rat. What a voice this lady has, reminding me slightly of Jennifer Hudson's "Dreamgirls" vocals on "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" - there's even a nod towards the song in the Dragon's big song "Forever". We don't get to see Vikki properly until the final bows, but she is as lovely to see as she is lovely to listen to. Looking through the very informative programme, I can see that Vikki's strong voice has been put to good use with previous roles that she has played.

Jak Beasley plays Pinocchio and doubles as a Duloc Doll. Jak also brings a specialised voice to the stage with this character, in fact it reminded me of the original Disney voice for the character. Lovely comic role, in fact practically every character in this musical is a comic character, which is why this musical is such a joyful piece of theatre. Jak's vocals show that he sustains high notes well, which is not a talent that comes so easy to vocalists either in musical theatre.

This is a very big cast, so here's the rest of the characters that you can see onstage.......

Pete Etherington (Papa Ogre/Thelonius/Greeter).

Lisa Mills (Mama Ogre/Mad Hatter).

Amy Beale (Queen Lillian/White Rabbit).

John Stewart (King Harold/Bishop).

Thomas (Baby Bear/Young Shrek).

Sam Carter (Straw Piggy/Guard).

Andrew Hall (Sticks Piggy/Guard).

Ryan Green (Bricks Piggy/Duloc Doll).

Katherine Vernon, Jasmine Peveritt and Lauren Cressey (The Three Blind Mice).

Charlotte Broomfield (Mama Bear/Bluebird/Knight).

Josh Gallagher (Papa Bear).

Paul Mills (The Big Bad Wolf/Duloc Doll).

Tash Bailey (Witch/Rat).

Georgie Bladon (Elf/Knight).

Victoria Adams (Sugar Plum Fairy/Rat).

Hannah Castledine (Humpty Dumpty/Rat).

Jo Welch (Fairy Godmother/Duloc Doll).

Macey Pick (Gretel/Duloc Doll).

Stacey Priestley (Tweedle Dee/Knight).

Karen Peters (Cruella de Vil/Knight).

Elizabeth Johnson (Sleeping Beauty/Duloc Doll).

Nina Morrison (Ugly Duckling/Duloc Doll).

Rowan Meynell (Peter Pan/Pied Piper/Duloc Doll).

Nick Watts (Guard/Choir/Happy Villager/Dish and Spoon).

Zoe Pole (Guard/Choir/Happy Villager/Cow/Little Bunny).

Emma Weston (Guard/Choir/Happy Villager/Rat/Antelope).

Well, I did say that it was a BIG cast!

Directed and choreographed by Bernice Rowan. When the cast is as HUGE as the one for "Shrek The Musical", you would think that either directing or choreographing this musical was a massive task, but to take on both roles! Again, looking at the information in the programme I see that Bernice seems to relish shows of this size, having previously directed AND choreographing both "Rent" and "The Addams Family". This woman obviously is crazy about theatre, or maybe just crazy. Whatever, the results are brilliant as both Director and Choreographer.

Musical Director is Rachael Wilson and a brilliant fun soundtrack Rachael has to work with as well. "Freak Flag", "Make A Move", "Big, Bright Beautiful World", "Story Of My Life", "I Know It's Today", "Who I'd Be", "When Words Fail" and of course the final belter "I'm A Believer".

Sound design is by Neil Westley. What I was very much impressed with was the acoustics of this theatre, which makes the sound design extremely clear and easy to relax into. A couple of missed mic cues, but anyone who knows me, knows that I always listen out for these. That said, I've always said that, and especially with such a massive cast as this, you need to have the arms of a couple of octopusses ( or is that Ocupii ) to get all those sliders in the right place at the right time. In my opinion, one of the hardest jobs behind the scenes of any theatre production. 

 

Lighting design is by Bernice Rowan and Sheritan Swan. Sometimes I did think that the set appeared in need of just a little bit more in the way of illumination, but everyone's a critic nowadays aren't they; just a personal preference, but I could see that this may have been to reflect the darkness and gloom of the swamp scenes. Apart from that teeny observation, the rest of the show was, as in the name of the song, big, bright and beautifully lit. the lighting operation was by Sheritan.

Costumes were hired in from Utopia Costumes and looked amazing, and when you look through just how many costumes are needed for a production like this, you can imagine just how costly this area of a production is. All the more reason for supporting local theatre so that they can continue to stage excellent productions such as this one. Wardrobe Mistress is Charlotte Broomfield.

The prosthetics were provided by Becs does Shrek with Shrek's prosthetics being managed by Ellen Given, and boy, did they look great!

I mentioned earlier about the make up for the actors and that, outside the theatre, I certainly wouldn't recognise them outside of make up and that credit for the make up and face paint goes to another artist, Nick Watts.

I also commented on the informative programme, and that was designed by Georgie Bladon.

Set design and supply is thanks to UK Productions.

I also like to credit another area, and a vital area of any stage production, and that's the stage management. Trevor Adams with James Pritchard and their crew of Richard Hand, Suzie Hand, Ian Cliffe, Digger McConnell, Stefan Kotarba, Stuart Bartrum, Owen McConnell, Dan Hand and Izzy Hand made sure that the show was managed smoothly and timely.

Making sure that all the props - and let's face it, there were a great many of these, were managed just as smoothly by Jude McNulty-Green, Haydn Green and Jane Cunliffe.

I always like to mention these teams and people who normally don't get credited and are unseen by the audience in order to show that without the large team of people who do go unseen, the shows that they see would not go ahead with the smoothness that they are used to witnessing. It also shows that it's not just actors that local theatre groups want to attract, but people with various talents like those mentioned above. 

This was, as I started off by saying, was my virgin voyage into the Melton theatre scene; I sincerely hope that it won't be my last.

"Shrek the Musical" is at Melton Theatre until Saturday 12 April.

Photography thanks to Gina Mees.