The musical is based on the first Shrek movie. They are three weeks into rehearsal with two directors - Jason Moore has just done first 3 weeks and Rob Ashford is due in on Monday.
Nigel Lindsay has only done one musical before playing Nathan Detroit in Guys & Dolls with Nigel Harman (Lord Farquaad) as Sky Masterson. And he is certainly taking a lot on with this role as the part of Shrek involves him spending 1 ½ hours in prosthetics every night, plus he has to wear massive fat suit which has caused guy who is doing US tour to lose three stone!
Nigel Harman (whose character Lord Farquaad is described as dim-witted and vertically challenged) has to do the whole show on his knees (including dance numbers), so I hope he has some good protectors!
Richard Blackwood (who sounds incredibly like Eddie Murphy) never done a musical before and says he is currently in complete awe of ensemble because they are so good. I think he is selling himself short as his natural off the wall personality sounds perfect for donkey to me.
Because of its complexities the show has a 2 ½ week technical with the huge dragon operated in same way as the War Horse with guys from ensemble who manoeuvre it being taught by people from that show.
Nigel Lindsay and Richard Blackwood came across as a strong double act on Michael Ball’s show sparking off one another all the time. This is good as the show relies a lot on the chemistry/relationship between Donkey and Shrek.
I have to say I’m not the biggest fan of the Shrek movies but am really looking forward to seeing this.
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