Shrek the Musical at Milton Keynes theatre

Shrek the Musical is currently at Milton Keynes theatre, in their nationwide tour – the swamp is really back in town! I love MK Theatre, it’s really close and such a grand building. It wows me every time I visit. This musical has so much energy on stage – it was truly incredible. Such fun surprises throughout and if you loved the movie, you will most definitely love this musical.

As soon as the show started, Isla and I were completely captivated. There’s a good mix of technology and traditional theatre which was nice. The opening scene is super clever, I don’t know how they all keep in time and do it so perfectly. The songs were so catchy, we sang along to the ones we recognised and danced to the upbeat ones. There were a few scenes that came from the movie, but on the whole it followed the story but was in it’s own right. If that makes sense.

When can we see Shrek the Musical?

You can see Shrek the Musical at MK theatre from Wednesday 25 July – Sunday 5 August 2018, they are doing a couple of shows a day on some days too: Wed – Sat 7.30pm, Thu & Sat mat 2.30pm, Sun 1pm & 5pm. Tickets cost from £17.50.

The main characters

The cast were fantastic. Steffan Harri who plays Shrek looked huge and ogre like on stage and he sounded exactly like I would expect to hear Shrek. It was funny as I was expecting Laura Main (who plays Fiona) to be Scottish and she had an American accent. She was fabulous. I am used to seeing her play a very reserved and mature character in Call the Midwife and here she was being all “Fiona”. She was silly, loud, funny and played Fiona perfectly. Isla especially loved the song where they both blow off at each other. She was giggling a lot at that part.

Donkey is played by Marcus Ayton, what a character. He plays Donkey so well. He had the whole Eddie Murphy thing going on to perfection. Sassy, silly, funny, Donkey-like. It was incredible. We laughed at Donkey so very much. I love Donkey and Shrek’s friendship, it really makes me laugh in the movie and the musical was no exception.

Then that leaves Lord Farquaad, absolutely hilarious! Samuel Holmes, who plays him, came out on stage on his knees with puppet legs to represent Lord Farquaad’s height. It was brilliant. Everything was perfect, he played the character very well.

The rest of the cast were equally as fabulous, the fairy tale characters were fun and performed great songs. The most amazing thing for me was the dragon. You can see the puppeteers underneath her, moving her eyes, mouth and body around – they do it with such co-ordination. It was memorising to watch. Isla had no idea it was pretend, she loved it. You can see a photo of her below.

You can see a brief clip of the main characters in the video below, you will see what I mean about Lord Farquaad and the energy on stage. It’s electric.

This video was sent to me from the theatre, it gives you a really quick insight into what to expect. I love it! Reminds me of the fabulous production and great memories of our evening.

Below are some of my favourite photos from our evening and the show, I was lucky enough to get some really good shots of the show in action.