Shrek the Musical review – animated classic returns to London

In its over 15-year existence, Shrek the Musical has gone through several iterations but, on this latest evidence, may be due some time in swampy exile.

This version comes from a new creative team, led by director and choreographer Nick Winston, which should mean an injection of fresh energy and ideas. But mostly it feels like a cost-cutting exercise (notably removing the child actors, and replacing physical elements with projections), while one character change ends up backfiring spectacularly – or Shrektacularly, as the marketing material might have it.

This is the decision to no longer have the actor playing Lord Farquaad perform on his knees. The sensitivities around the change are naturally understandable, but the production’s solution leaves James Gillan to mine as many laughs as he can from the notion that the antagonist is in the closet. In this way, the script has largely supplanted innuendos about height with innuendos about homosexuality, which hardly seems a giant leap forward, while the physical comedy now leans heavily on his tendency to swish his hair around, which can only go so far.

In a show that still has jokes about weight, transvestism and mental health (Donkey even has a new line mocking Martha from Baby Reindeer) it seems strange to excise an aspect that was so pantomimic to start with – stemming from the fact Farquaad’s father is one of Snow White’s companions. And, crucially, it means a production that relies so much on laughs just simply isn’t as funny anymore.

It still looks good, with set and costume designer Philip Witcombe offering up a range of suitably cartoonish environments, from Shrek’s humble home to the castles of Duloc. And even if video projection does too much of the heavy lifting (including the climactic appearance by the Dragon, who is otherwise in puppet form), it’s at least slickly delivered. The reverberant sound in the cavernous Eventim Apollo is more of a sticking point – you’ll be doing well if you can make out even half of David Lindsay-Abaire’s lyrics.

Among the cast, Antony Lawrence is a fine Shrek who shows the tortured soul beneath his green exterior (it helps that his angry solo “Build A Wall” has been reinstated), and Joanne Clifton is a likable Fiona with clear triple threat credentials. There are also some impressive vocals on show from newcomer Cherece Richards as the love-starved Dragon. But the headline act at the Apollo is a little underwhelming in the form of Todrick Hall, whose Donkey seems surprisingly toned down. He sings and moves well, but lacks a little of the pizzazz we’ve seen in the role before.

There are still going to be plenty of parents, myself included, who will be keen to introduce their children to this much-loved title this summer. But if this shrinkflation approach to production continues, Shrek The Musical will start testing the resolve of even the most ardent believer.