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Shrek The Musical at The Mayflower Southampton Review

Posted on
November 29, 2018

There is something about Shrek that captures the hearts of almost anyone who watches the film and I remember the DVD’s being watched constantly on repeat when my older ones were little.
Now, there is a new bunch of fans in our household, who not only love the film but also love Shrek’s Adventure in London, so when I heard that Shrek the Musical was heading back out on tour and coming to the Mayflower in Southampton I just had to get tickets.
Shrek the Musical
SHREK THE MUSICAL® is based on the story and characters from William Steig’s book Shrek! and the Oscar®-winning DreamWorks Animations feature film and starts with the characters cleverly popping their heads out of a storybook to tell their back stories.
Shrek at the Mayflower
From then on, the stage was a riot of colour, characters and the odd bit of flatulence, for good measure!
shrek-musical
The story follows that of the film, with the fairytale characters banished from the city of Duloc and forced to live in Shrek’s swamp by order of Lord Farquaad. Shrek of course, is a bit of a loner and is none to happy about it, so sets out to challenge Lord Farquaad and agrees to go and rescue Princess Fiona so that the little Lord can marry her and become King.
Farquaad
The fairytale characters sounded just like they do in the film, but the biggest laugh had to be for Lord Farquaad (Samuel Holmes) who spent the whole show acting on his knees, with his little legs seeming to have a mind of their own.
Shrek, played brilliantly by Steffan Harri, is matched perfectly by Call the Midwife star Laura Main who plays Princess Fiona. Eliza especially loved her and her fairytale puppets but it was the brilliant burping and farting competition with Shrek as they bonded that brought shrieks of laughter from my three!
marcus-ayton-as-donkey-shrek-the-musical
Marcus Ayton as Shrek’s funny, wisecracking sidekick ‘Donkey’ brings the fun (and the hooves) to the stage and we loved his romance with the massive puppet dragon, with huge yellow eyes and fluttering eyelashes.
Princess Fiona’s transformation from human to ogre and back again was very cleverly done and we loved her tap dancing routine as she taught the Pied Piper a thing or two about how to get the rats to follow him.
The show is certainly full of fun, with up-to-date jokes (a mighty steed called Brexit) and plenty of double entrende to keep the adults happy and Isaac and Eliza both sat transfixed throughout. Sebby (5), lost interest several times and I can only put it down to the lack of the familiar soundtrack that we all know and love.
Shrek Mayflower
The show ended with ‘I’m a Believer’ from the Monkey’s, which had everyone dancing in their seats, but that was the only song that made it across from the film to the musical.
All in all, it is a great musical and transfers well from screen to stage, but if you expecting a live version of the film, this isn’t it.
Shrek the Musical is at the Mayflower Theatre until Saturday 8 December 2018 – find out more at www.mayflower.org.uk and then moves to Leeds Grand Theatre from Tuesday 18 December 2018 – Sunday 6 January.

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30 Comments
  1. Reply

    Madeeha

    November 29, 2018

    Oh I absolutely love Shrek. Watching it live would be an amazing experience too.

  2. Reply

    Alexandra

    November 30, 2018

    I bet this was a lot of fun 🙂 I would love to see a stage production of Shrek, although I appreciate the heads up that it isn’t exactly the same as the film 🙂

  3. Reply

    Kate

    November 30, 2018

    What a fantastic experience. I would have loved this because I love plays. I had no idea that Shrek was adapted into a play so thanks for informing me 🙂

  4. Reply

    Mellissa Williams

    November 30, 2018

    This sounds like such a fantastic show! I’d love to see it on stage for myself, it seems a lot of fun.

  5. Reply

    Elaine

    November 30, 2018

    Lol, I love Lord Farquaad! It looks like you all had so much fun!

  6. Reply

    Monidipa Dutta

    November 30, 2018

    Wow, this looks so good. I wish I could be there. Such a lovely place. Seems you had a great time.

  7. Reply

    Chad

    November 30, 2018

    Shrek the musical! That is so awesome, i love Shrek! The musical seems so much fun! Thanks for sharing.
    Chad
    http://www.mosaicslab.com

  8. Reply

    Sarah Bailey

    November 30, 2018

    This sounds like such an amazing show, I mean who doesn’t love Shrek. I would love to see it come to light on stage for sure!

  9. Reply

    Shar

    November 30, 2018

    Oh my kids love watching shark the musical on Netflix or YouTube! They think it is absolutely hilarious 🙂

  10. Reply

    WhatLauraLoves

    November 30, 2018

    I saw Shrek a number of years ago and loved how fun it was! we sat miles away so it would be good to be in the stalls next time! xxx

  11. Reply

    Tracey Kifford

    November 30, 2018

    Ah you can’t have a musical without some flatulence!! This looks really good

  12. Reply

    Kumamonjeng

    December 1, 2018

    I have seen few episodes of movie shrek and would love to see the musical too. The characters In show look so attractive. Very colorful performance .

  13. Reply

    Melanie williams

    December 1, 2018

    We have seen this one, a while back now, up in Edinburgh – great show xx

  14. Reply

    fashionandstylepolice

    December 1, 2018

    What a lovely review. Looks like it was a great show.

  15. Reply

    Laura Dove

    December 1, 2018

    Oh we LOVED this, so much we saw it twice!!

  16. Reply

    Our Seaside Baby

    December 1, 2018

    Shrek The Musical looks amazing! My 5 year old son would love this!

  17. Reply

    Nikki Thomas

    December 1, 2018

    It looks like a really fun show.

  18. Reply

    Jenni

    December 2, 2018

    This looks so much fun! I love going to the theatre at this time of year

  19. Reply

    hadassah

    December 2, 2018

    Haha! the costumes are too cute and it looks like the children would def had a blast. Shrek is ine of my favorite cartoon movies and i would go there for myself!

  20. Reply

    Sincerely Miss J

    December 2, 2018

    I have never heard of the production “Shrek” but it seems like it was a good time for you and your family. Thank you for sharing.

  21. Reply

    Elizabeth allcock

    December 2, 2018

    I’ve seen this in Birmingham such a great show!

  22. Reply

    brittnienicole

    December 2, 2018

    What a fun experience for your kids! The costumes look great and it seems like yall had a good time.

  23. Reply

    Terri Steffes

    December 3, 2018

    I adored the movie so I am sure I would like this too! I wish I had some kids to take with me though. Things are always better in their eyes!

  24. Reply

    Tanya

    December 3, 2018

    Sounds like a great show but a shame it’s not quite the live version of the show that you’d expect. The costumes and set looks incredible though

  25. Reply

    Bella at Dear Mummy Blog

    December 3, 2018

    We would have loved to have seen this at the Mayflower and it’s one of our favourite theatres locally. It’s looks amazing and would be great for kids this year!

  26. Reply

    Karminity Blog

    December 3, 2018

    My little brother loves shrek. He’s also homeschooled so this would definitely be a play to let him go see. Thank for sharing

  27. Reply

    Kiwi

    December 4, 2018

    Very cute review on Shrek the Musical. I had no idea they had a musical but I bet it is so fun to watch.

  28. Reply

    Norafiqin

    December 4, 2018

    ooh I’ve watched the first two or three shrek movies but never the musical. Definitely would love to catch it if I ever can!

  29. Reply

    Suzanne

    December 5, 2018

    This looks like a really fun musical to see! I love the movie so I bet this one is great as well.

  30. Reply

    Becca Talbot

    December 31, 2018

    I think my friend’s little girls would have loved this, it looks like fun for all the family!! Shame it’s not travelling over to Ireland 🙁 x

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KARA GUPPY
Bournemouth

Are we nearly there yet? is a new online blog run by me, Kara Guppy, and is named as such thanks to my daughter Eliza who always asks that very question when we are less than 5 minutes up the road heading off on our adventures. You may know me from my other family blog chelseamamma.co.uk