A Review of Shrek the Musical (Cast Swamp) - Spoilers ahead!

Written by Vera Sophie Huibregtse

Welcome to the swamp! Happily Ever After’s “Shrek the Musical” has never made me feel more happy in one. I was lucky enough to visit the show on Friday the 27th in the afternoon, performed by Cast Swamp, and there is one thing I definitely noticed: Happily Ever After has once again raised the bar!

Accompanied by some entertaining opening chatter by three funny German-accented piggies, the show starts, and we are off on a ride full of comedy and heart-warming moments. A young version of Shrek gets introduced, played by Sutton Bowers Burman, who enchants from the get-go; you instantly feel for this tiny ogre. Papa (Ivo da Silva) and Mama Ogre (Cinzia Hooijer) give us an interesting insight into how grown-up Shrek comes to be, and do this with a high comic relief. When Casey Kooyman then enters our world as our title figure, an actor with natural charisma, you can’t help to be on his side immediately, even though he is trying to present himself as hard-shelled and okay with being on his own. Casey carries the role of Shrek with a modest confidence; you can feel he is experienced and feels right at home on stage, while always being kind and giving to whomever he plays with.

When Shrek’s sacred swamp is suddenly crowded with fairytale creatures, evicted there by lands-ruler Lord Farquaad, he has to open up and let other people in, and that remains the underlying message until the end of the show. But for us, the fairytale creatures are nothing but immensely amusing! Pinocchio, portrayed by Pauline Hulsker, plays her role in a convincing and highly energetic way; no dull moment with her in your show! I am sad I didn’t get to see more of Pinocchio; I say: spin-off! The rest of the talented ensemble takes you into their world and the injustice that is done to them, and are wonderfully goofy and fúll of energy; you can’t help but to dance along to their catchy “Story Of My Life”.

Shrek goes on his quest to Duloc to get his swamp back and encounters Donkey, played by the wonderful Rodney Giano, another character who is not accepted by society and is looking for his place in the world. Actually, he is just looking for a friend, and even though he chatters like crazy and comes off as ‘a lot’, he is the best pal you could ever wish for. Rodney plays his role with warmth, a humbleness that makes you like him even more; he is never too loud and too much, he is just the sweetest, most enthusiastic donkey out there. I loved the way these characters clash but also align in a natural way. You know what they say: opposites attract!

When our protagonists finally arrive in Duloc, at Lord Farquaad’s castle, the ensemble demonstrates again that they are up for the task of changing characters in an instance: the Duloc dancers are extremely synced-up in their dancing and singing; they brought Brittany Sanders’ choreography to life with loads of hard work and dedication (I could definitely tell). And then, there he is, our larger-than-life (but smaller than expected) antagonist: Lord Farquaad, played by Dano Hawkins. When I heard this was his first on-stage role as a singer and actor, I was flabbergasted: he looks like he has been doing this for years! I would describe his Farquaad as a mix between Austin Powers (because of his delicious, smoldering British accent) and the Scream-killer (because of the scary ánd funny mouth he puts on his face from time to time). Lord Farquaad happily elects Shrek and his side-kick Donkey to go and save Princess Fiona, who is locked up in a tower, so he can marry her and can officially become king.

And then we finally get introduced to our beautiful Princess Fiona, played by Brigid Boyle, who we saw briefly in the beginning of the show (temporarily re-naming it “Fiona the Musical”). Brigid is the perfect, feisty princess: she dares to be ugly and quirky in her role, making her a welcome variation in the “kind but slightly boring” princesses we normally see. Even though Brigid caught pneumonia during the week, I didn’t notice anything of it in her voice, energy or acting. She stood there, loud and proud, and showed us the immensely talented actress she is. Laura Maurer-Stroh as teen Fiona and Sonia Jauffret as young Fiona help us get an insight in what is like for Fiona to grow up, and yes indeed, these characters actually all need therapy for sure. But what a powerful trio of voices; “I Know It’s Today” is a song that actually made me get a lump in my throat, just beautiful!

Shrek and Donkey are on their way to the princess (“Travel Song”), and here I really began to notice the beautiful projections on the big screen behind the actors; Wilbert Schuurman Hess designed the projections and really elevated the quality of this production, along with Elise van Tongeren as lighting designer and Stef Heijnen-Bakker as set designer. The projections were really detailed (we really díd see Puss-in-boots coming by in the background) and helped in the ‘moving’ motion of our two main characters. The lights, set and projections help create the Shrek world and blend together seamlessly; you see a lot of time and effort went into the design and execution.

We also see this dedication and hard work in the next scene, where more puppets come to greet us! A fierce pink dragon, who guards the princess’s castle, makes her entrance, together with the flesh-and-blood embodiment, played by an evenly fierce Carolina Bras. The song “Forever” is sung with so much passion and power, Carolina is one to watch for sure: give this dashing diva center stage, please! The dragon puppet is just stunning and excellently put together, with the ensemble operating it smoothly and making sure they are not standing out (even though they do act along too, giving kisses to Donkey at a certain point). And then, with a powerful “Who I’d Be” from our main actors, where we also see that Fiona is also an ogre at night (what?!), we are already at intermission, and what a ride it has been so far!

The second act starts and it does with one of my favorite songs: “Morning Person”. Fiona has that sense of glorious musical star-grandeur (probably because of reading too many books in her 20 years of lonesomeness) which mixes so well with her own clumsiness and a slight awkward feeling from time to time, but Brigid knows how to sell them easily.

Her and Shrek’s terrible childhoods first makes them want to kill each other, but throughout “I Think I Got You Beat” they realize they actually have a lot in common…. But of course, as a good story goes, they struggle with expressing how they feel, which results in a suave and funny “Make a Move” by Donkey and three sparkling blind mice, excellently danced and sung by Elyaan Arts, Carolina Bras and Laura Maurer Stroh. In the sensitive “When Words Fail”, Shrek shows he isn’t quite the ladies man himself (read: he doesn’t know what flirting ís); Casey sings this song with a beautiful vulnerability and depth. Through a misunderstanding and overhearing something he was not supposed to hear, he figuratively builds a wall to keep everyone out again. Donkey, who once again shows him what friendship stands for, reminds him that he ís loved, and they hurry to the castle to stop the wedding.

As this musical reaches its end, I didn’t want to forget Mike Schilder for playing the slightly slow, very much Sinterklaas-resembling bishop, Gina Prichard for embodying the funny Gingy/Sugar Plum Fairy, and Mateo Abrahami de Melverda as the cross-dressing “Big Bad Woolf”. Our three little piggies are also stealing the show, excellently done by Sebastian Nitu, Tim Warmelink and Mike Ramirez.

This show is filled with so many funny moments, beautiful, heart-warming scenes, energetic dancing and most importantly: impressive singing and acting, that you can hardly walk out of the room without a big smile on your face!

I wanted to name the band, musically directed by Elena Scherer, who of course accompany the actors and shouldn’t take center stage, but do a fantastic, professional job in elevating this production to a higher level. The make-up and hair design (there are 40 (!) wigs alone used in the show) by the fantastic Rachel Kooyman deserve a shout-out as well: when I first heard the next musical done by Happily Ever After would be Shrek, I thought, here’s a job for the make-up designer! But Rachel’s hard work and professionalism result in a coherent and stunning end result, and that for community theatre (I have to remind myself sometimes)!

I am wondering what production Happily Ever After comes with next, but I am sure it will once again be better than the last one. Don’t miss the revival of Shrek the Musical in November!

A Review of Shrek the Musical (Cast Swamp) - Spoilers ahead!

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