This production had dual casts in principal roles. In the interest of fairness we reviewed both casts. Allison Thomas reviewed the Once Upon A Time cast and Brian Godfrey reviewed the Happily Ever After cast.

Once Upon A Time Cast

The audience reaction to Adelaide Youth Theatre’s production of Shrek The Musical Jr was a deafening cheering, clapping, shouting and yelling. That was before any of the actors even came on the stage! They were just so excited. There must have been about six different schools represented in the audience. One of the school groups had each made little Shrek headbands and ears, green ears, and they dressed in green, which was very clever. 

In the Once Upon a Time cast that I saw, the singing and the dancing was very high standard, especially from the younger members of the cast. They all performed confidently. 

Of course, Donkey stole the show often, whenever he was on stage. Noah Magourilos was an over-excited Donkey. He and Josh Curtis, who played Shrek, bounced off each other creatively and caused lots of laughs.

Diane Kilpatrick was the wardrobe coordinator and the many creative sewers and designers of the wardrobe team created colourful costumes. One of the best costumes was red glittery sequined Dragon. Khushi Choudhari was a formidable dragon lady. All of the fairy tale characters also has lovely costumes. We loved the three bears, the three blind mice and the three little pigs who were all represented there, along with Pinocchio and lots of other storybook characters. 

Jordan Tyler’s choreography was fantastic, and they performed all the dances very well, considering at any one time there were at least 20 dancers on the stage.  

Set Design and Construction by Adrian and Amanda Joy and Tuan Tran was minimal but effective, made more creative by the lighting design by Joshua Maxwell. Director Ethan Joy pulled the team together with aplomb. 

Everyone knows the story of Shrek, which proves that an ugly ogre can be a charming hero and find his true love in the face of judgement and rejection. Shrek teaches us that we should accept people for who they are rather than judge them by their appearance. That was the main message of this play. Also it was about diversity, and the most unlikely couples and teams can get together to create a lot of change in the world. 

Cleverly, about half way through, Shrek breaks the fourth wall by saying, “that sounds like a setup for a flashback”. Donkey replies, ‘Who are you talking to?”  

Also interesting that in this version there were three Fiona’s and only two Shreks. Alessandro Di Costanzo was a cute baby Shrek, Josh Curtis did a wonderful job of the grown up Shrek. Then there was young Fiona Zoey Ilioio; Teen Fiona Maree Fong, who all morphed beautifully into the grown up Fiona played by Zoe Van Pamelen, who had a lovely voice and beautiful stage presence. 

One aspect of set magic was when Shrek and the Donkey were going on their long journey, and the background changed from forest trees to sunflowers to the night sky and moon very cleverly and seamlessly. 

Riley Mobbs, Kyle Mobbs and Ethan Anderson were wonderful tap dancing guards. The only thing that I was disappointed in was the programme. A nice addition would be to add people’s names to their faces. 

Lord Farquaad was played by Elliott Purdie, a very small part, but very important. The other children in the cast of over 50, too many to mention. At times, they all seemed to be on the stage at once, singing and acting very happily together. 

“What makes us special makes us strong.” And this can apply to the Direction by Ethan Joy; and the Musical Director, Ewan Pugh, as well as all the characters in the cast. So as Shrek says, “Carry your freak flag high” and enjoy the differences because teamwork makes things happen. 

The whole audience enjoyed this performance of Shrek, as did the very few adults that were in the audience. 

Happily Ever After Cast

The audience and this reviewer certainly did feel happy after witnessing the Happily Ever After cast performing this fun and rather difficult show. Difficult in that so many people know the animated film version and rely on hearing Mike Myers’ Scottish accent as Shrek and the unique way of speaking that Eddie Murphy gave to Donkey. Fans will not be disappointed and newcomers will be impressed.

The Mobbs boys carry their roles wonderfully. Riley Mobbs IS Shrek from his green ogre body all the way to his very ‘och aye’ authentic Scottish accent. He also manages to show great expression even though most of his head and face is covered in green latex. He gains applause on his first entrance – only something usually managed by well known professionals. It truly seems that Mike Myers is still inhabiting the role. A great performance!

As the audience favourite, Donkey, Kyle Mobbs is fabulous. His ability for comedy is enviable and his physicality superb. He truly is a dancer the way he manages to stand ‘on point’ throughout the whole show. The only niggle from this reviewer was that his accent was so perfect that some dialogue was lost sometimes due to the speed it was delivered. But overall, this was a bravura performance.

Keira Wubbolts was a delightful Fiona mixing the perfect blend of humour with sensitivity. Her vocals brought the house down every time, especially when she had to crescendo.

Reminding this reviewer of a short Woody Allen and a very, very short Peter Sellers (from his role in “What’s New, Pussycat?”) Thomas White reached the heights of hilarity with his very funny portrayal of the villain Lord Farquaad. His tantrums were contained at just the right level, never going overboard but staying at the perfect pitch of funniness. His musical number was a huge showstopper and an absolute delight. John Lithgow eat your heart out!

With a cast whose numbers seem to match that of a footy Grand Final it is impossible to name everyone. Suffice to say everyone up on stage added significantly to the high standard of this production. Special mention should be given to Olivia Emmett as the Dragon (what a voice!), Elyas Khairul as Baby Shrek (cuteness plus!), Ethan Anderson as the Captain of the Guard (good feel for comedy!) and Elliott Purdie as the Big Bad Wolf (who somehow made the character lovable and tough at the same time – perfect!).

As I said at the beginning of this casts’ review, these talented young people made the audience extremely happy and were energetic and excited to do it.