A group of three adults, we went to the fourth preview show of 'Shrek the Musical' on 9th May 2011. On reflection, I believe we overpaid at £40 each for rear stalls (row U with dress circle overhang above) which were reduced to £15 by the time we actually went. Memo to self to check next time before trusting LastMinute to sell a good deal - with more judicious use of Theatremonkey's offers page we could have been £24 each including a 2 course dinner! It also appeared that we were largely surrounded by an audience of overly enthusiastic friends and family of the cast, probably with free or very cheap tickets, which would not be the case once the proper run commences.

So, how was the show? Well, a bit curate's egg: very good in parts, a little underwhelming in others. The high points for me were the dragon's first appearance, manoeuvred by 4 puppeteers, which was very impressive, and the dance routine by the rats. The songs were in general disappointingly unmemorable and not always very well sung. Of the performers, Nigel Harmon as Lord Farquaard was stand-out and hugely entertaining, and Amanda Holden was an OK Fiona. However, Nigel Lindsay as Shrek disappointed, not having much in the way of vocal power, and Richard Blackwood's Donkey was insufficiently brash or subversive.

The staging was impressive, especially the rope bridge and dragon scenes, but the second appearance of the dragon appeared to fall victim to a technical malfunction. The words were often difficult to make out, and Fiona's transition into an ogre was so subtle that we wouldn't have noticed had we not known the story beforehand - definitely not nearly green enough! I appreciate that rapid changes in and out of the required makeup is tricky, but it needs more colour. Hopefully theses glitches will have been ironed out before the main run.

The preponderance of friends and supporters ensured that the audience was on its feet for the final number on the night we went, but I wouldn't say that the show really deserved it. Of course, once people have stood up in front of you there's no option but to do likewise just to see the stage, so we watched the finale (I'm a Believer) with some difficulty, which was a pity as the dancing in this was lively and enjoyable. Overall, the show was passably entertaining, and parts were very amusing, so we enjoyed the evening well enough without being bowled over. Probably it is more suitable for children than adults, despite the jokey references to other musicals which would probably be missed by a young audience. I felt that it lacked the film's knowingness and in-jokes that had made the children's story highly entertaining at an adult level.

I'd like to think that it will improve when the cast have settled in to their roles and the technicals are all working seamlessly, and I will be interested to hear what later reviewers make of it.
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16th May 2011. I agree with much that the contributor above has said, I also got the impression that many in the audience were perhaps friends of the cast or had been deliberately included to boost audience reaction. Their spontaneous rapturous applause on the entry of a new character or to a joke or reference to other shows etc seemed almost stage managed. It could, though, have been because they are of a generation that adored 'Shrek' as an animated film - and loved seeing the figures come to the stage larger than life; I am sure the majority of the audience did fall into that category. Certainly there was extremely enthusiastic applause and indeed you felt obliged to stand at the end... if only to see what was going on on stage.
 
If you are a kid you will love it, especially the dragon and Lord Farquar, who is hilarious. If you loved the film when you were a kid you are likely to love the stage show too - if the enthusiasm of last night's audience is a guide to future performances. For the older generation you need to still be a kid at heart, which I am sure my coach load of Seniors in July will need to be. It will be interesting to hear their reaction after we have been. Last night, being a member of the older generation who had missed the film, I only had a vague idea of the story and didn't even realise that it is the ultimate fairy tale.
 
I did enjoy it, but like all pantomime type shows they are better enjoyed if you have children (or in my case grand-children) with you.
 
We had prime stall seats in row H (which were tight on the knees for me being 6' 1"), but did give a good view; but even being so close to the stage it was only just apparent that Princess Fiona became a green ogre at night. She was definitely not green enough and not apparently ugly either  - so sitting further back this would have escaped people even more the further back you are seated. SPOILER ALERT I also wonder if the rear seats could see the dragon flying over the stalls. That was spectacular. SPOILER ENDS.
 
Walking back to my train though, I could not remember a single tune or words of a song that had made any impression; and it could be that this will be the factor that will limit its run and have an affect on the critics comments. I usually buy the CD of a musical, but don't see any reason to buy one for 'Shrek.'
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Having seen and enjoyed the Broadway production in 2009, I was surprised by one London critic's assertion that, as the Broadway production had been an expensive flop, the show would have to be extensively revised for the West End. Perhaps it would have been more honest to say that as London audiences are not prepared to pay ticket prices set at New York levels, a less ambitious production would be staged.

Certainly the London 'Shrek' has some sets that are not unlike those of the old Palladium pantos but the money that has been spent on a leading actor, three very recognisable TV stars and a truly impressive dragon, delivers an excellent comedy musical much enjoyed by the audience on the night I was there.

Nigel Harman who plays Lord Farquhar will get great reviews and deserves them but he has a wonderful, certain audience pleaser of a role, which will be as coveted as the lion in the Wizard of Oz.

I note the point made by the earlier reviewers about the songs in Shrek are not particularly memorable but I cannot remember any of the songs from 'Billy Elliot,' can you?

Jim McMillan
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Saw "Shrek" on the 11th June 2011, the last preview before the official opening night. I paid £15 quid for front row of the balcony, seats A 23 and 24. First of all, the seats are 'what you pay for,' so you can't really complain. You really do have to lean forward, although with the show not been too long it doesn't cause major back pain problems.

The show itself did not live up to my expectations. After seeing clips of the Broadway production and really hoping it would come to London I was soooo excited about seeing it. The set has been scaled down from the Broadway show, and seemed in some way sort of 'pantomime' like; also, they seem to of gone 'cheap gags' that would of been used in a panto. I think this would maybe work well with matinee audiences with families, but not for general theatre goers.

I also think a reason for not been 'blown away' by the show was due to my seats, so I think I'll take another trip, with better seats, and see what I think of the production then. Amanda Holden I was very impressed with - she was a delight to watch, and made Fiona her own character - and her vocals where stronger than I expected them to be. I also thought that the way in which the dragon was done was fab.

Luke
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May 2011, Dress Circle row A 17 and 18. First off, the show itself is spectacular, I had quite a few reservations about it before going, but loved every minute of it. Nigel Harman (who I had previously never heard of) stole the show completely. An award winning performance! The costumes are out of this world, and the songs are so well written I downloaded the album on my phone on the walk from the Theatre to Waterloo afterwards!

Paid £45 each for preview tickets and the view was unrivalled. Purposely chose Dress Circle over stalls seats as I presumed there would be large elaborate sets and dance routines, which there is! :) These seats offer an amazing view of the entire stage, and the central location is brilliant for seeing everything! The lack of a safety bar means you don't miss a thing and at 6ft 2, the leg room is more than ample (there is even a small ledge just below knee height you can rest your feet up on!).
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I saw this show on Wednesday 22nd June 2011 at 19.30hrs.
Seat: Balcony row F seat 25.

Thanks to Cameron (not Mackintosh haha) for freezing my pay, stopping my increments, increasing my pension contributions, and generally blaming (and making our working lives a living nightmare) us NHS/public sector workers for their incompetence and not the greedy fat bankers who caused this deficit, I had to cut back and go for a much cheaper seat than usual! I have not sat in a balcony seat for years but I checked with my West End guru (Theatremonkey website and book – if you haven’t got a copy – BUY ONE now as it’s superb!) and this seat was in the green so went for it! I paid £25 from Seetickets as there were no discounts anywhere to be found on stalls seats.

It is high up but I held like grim death to the rail and was OK! Once seated I was pleasantly surprised at the view. I could see more or less the whole stage and everything really well. 'A result,' I thought! THEN the tallest woman in Britain arrived with hair to match. Cheryl King Cole’s (or whatever her name is) recent hair do had nothing on this. The ozone layer must have been damaged with the amount of spray holding it up. So, throughout the show she ALSO kept leaning forward, a phenomenon I’ve heard of but never experienced before, thus almost blocking my view. Fortunately (not for her!) the lady to my right was getting vertigo and we held on to her as she escaped to stand at the back! I could then move my head around to the side to avoid the ‘hair’. I was conscious however, not to lean forward or move around too much due to those behind being blocked. I’m 6ft 3” myself so a smaller person wouldn’t have stood a cat in hell’s chance of seeing much with giant wig woman in front!

Then to top it all, after the interval she came back with the obligatory Shrek ears attached to the top of her head resting on the very top of the hair, that’s how stiff it must have been (I did not indulge in a pair myself!) Now, at this point I was getting ‘bad thoughts’. I consider myself to be a compassionate/kind/loving/friendly/peaceful, Baptist Church attending Christian who would do anything for anyone BUT, I was having fantasies of getting a giant pair of garden shears and firstly shredding the Shrek ears into a million pieces, then moving onto the hair!!! Following this psychotic fantasy I went onto thinking how I could stop all this EXTREMELY selfish leaning forward behaviour, what about a SEVERE electric shock if someone’s back leaves the back of the chair I thought ;) Anyway onto the show…..

I almost didn’t choose to see this as I hate 'kid’s stuff,' but I waited for the Theatremonkey review (as over the years their reviews and likes and dislikes more match mine than any other site - so 'well trusted by me' for this one) and it was favourable... so I decided to go. Thankfully I was saved from 'The Wizard of Oz' by firstly reading the review and then buying the cast CD, what a drag that is!

I am SO SO glad I went. I am smiling actually writing this when thinking about the show! As I said, my view was blocked quite a lot, but I saw most things in a contorted sort of way! Thank goodness I have a long neck! The sound was fantastic up there. I always buy the cast CD first so am familiar with the songs etc and couldn’t stop playing it (similar in music and lyrics to 'Rent' I thought, with a touch of 'Sister Act' thrown in too!), much to the disdain of colleagues and friends who got in my car recently and saw “Shrek the Musical” on the CD screen, the usual comments were,' what the F***lipping heck are you listening to'... but do I care, like heck I do! I love my musical theatre with a passion and am out and proud of that.

Now, I wasn’t a fan, to say the least, of Amanda Holden as I can’t stand ‘celebrity’ for ‘celebrity’ sake and we’re saturated with it here in the UK and USA, BUT I have now completely changed my opinion. She has an amazing voice, a very strong stage presence and superb acting skills. On Googling her I didn’t realise she’s been drama school trained and by goodness does it show. Absolutely brilliant performance. I also don’t do ‘contrived’ humour. No stand up comedian makes me laugh, but this did, right from start to finish. At one point I could barely see as the tears were rolling down my eyes. On listening to the cast CD there is a track where there is a ‘passing wind’ scene. On listening I skipped it as thought it un-necessary but when seeing how Amanda played the scene it was nothing less than hilarious, her facial expression and the way she portrays it, well you have to see for yourself!

Of course the rest of the cast were excellent too. The ex-EastEnders guy was also hilarious and just thinking about his character makes me laugh. It must be THE most uncomfortable part to play on the West End at the moment (oh, apart from the back end of the horse in 'War Horse' of course!) and I hope he has a good physio on hand - as once your knees go you’ve had it! Richard Blackwood was a confident and entertaining donkey.

The guy that played Shrek was fairly weak vocally (which usually annoys me as there are thousands of out of work actors with amazing voices desperate for a break – and EVERY musical theatre show actor should have first class voices as well as acting skills for what we pay to see them - I won’t go on about Graham Norton in 'La Cage' or Anna Maxwell Martin in 'Cabaret!') but this was forgiven with his warm portrayal of the character.

There are a lot of parodies in this which add to the entertainment. The ‘Wicked’ send up near the beginning was a corker! (Ah, haaaaa, ah, haaaaa – at the end of ‘Defying Gravity’!) Every character just made me laugh, the Gingerbread Man, Pinocchio, the ‘cheap cheap’ bird exploding, just hilarious. Superb orchestra too.

I could go on and on but won’t! Just go and see this, you will love it. Ok, it’s not Shakespeare or 'Les Mis' but in a time when making a living is so hard (and it’s so much hassle to get good accommodation and travel etc to attend the West End) and there’s so much suffering around, what a relief to go to something like this, it is SO worth all the effort and expense to get there. It should be on prescription! I am amazed it didn’t run for long on Broadway, I sincerely hope it does here, as want to see it many times yet. I HIGHLY recommend to all, kids may enjoy it too!
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A13 and 14 (Upper Circle) - 8th June 2011 - Evening.
When we got to the theatre, We were completely amazed with our view. We got these seats for £15 on the 'facebook fridays offer' (expired, editor) they had in action during the previews. The view from our seats was faultless and we could see absolutely everything without fail. Plus, being so high we were able to hear everything in the theatre and the sound was good! I would definitely recommend these seats and I wouldn't hesitate paying £45 for these seats had they not been in the offer.

The show was very good and we had the whole cast as this was the Gala Evening and Prince Charles and Jack Black were in attendance. The only thing I would say is, If you've seen this on Broadway, the show itself isn't very different at all, But the set and the way everything was set out is very different.

Overall I would give it a 7/10!
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Strange mix for us and proves how critic opinions can vary. My dear wife loved it all, but after the storybook opening I found Act 1 a little dull. Act 2 did the trick for me with the opening numbers much more lively. The tap dance with Princess Fiona and The Rats very entertaining. Of course (let's be polite here) the "Trumping and Burping" number with Shrek and the Princess trying do out do each other, very, very funny for adults and children alike. A nice touch for us in row C was the overhead dragon which came very close. Attention to detail and the time and effort to produce this short piece of theatre, excellent.

As this was a matinee, Alice Fearn was Princess Fiona, and as we have not seen Amanda Holden (save BGT) making judgement is difficult, therefore we felt Alice did an excellent job. The real star though was Nigel Harman as Lord Farquaad, always funny and hats of to him for constantly shuffling around stage on his knees. Not easy, but well done.

We had seats C 20 and 21 in the stalls. I would like to say they were excellent viewing as we could see the stage floor from here with offset seats and close to the action on stage, but on this occasion, my view was constantly blocked by the gent to my right who was swaying left and right. No doubt I was causing the same problem for the person behind me as a swayed in unison in order to see as best I could. When someone's head is blocking a character as large as Shrek, then I believe it's a problem.

Michael.
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Where to start! The evening started well for us as we had booked tickets in the balcony but it was closed that evening (Friday 14th October 2011) so we were upgraded to the Upper Circle, Row G29 and 30. Nothing wrong with these seats at all, a very good view of the stage. Not masses of leg room but I didn't hear any complaints from my partner who is 6'4" so it can't have been that bad!

We loved this show from beginning to end and cannot fault anyone's performance. It has little tricks and jokes which keep you thoroughly entertained - there is something for everyone - a few slightly risqué comments for the adults and lots to keep the children entertained. Nigel Harman as Lord Farquar is BRILLIANT, he just kept the audience in stitches all evening. My favourite fairy tale characters were Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man - pure genius. Not to forget the beautiful dragon of course - I was a bit disappointed at first that the puppeteers were so visible but I stopped seeing them after a while and viewed the dragon as a real being in her own right!

To anyone who may be wondering whether to see this because they think it may be geared to children - do not worry - we thought we would be the only couple there without children but we weren't and this show is almost too good for children!
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