One of the first in Southern California, ACT San Diego brings the hilarious "Shrek, the Musical" to stage at Carlsbad Cultural Arts Center. Based on the 2001 Dreamworks film, the musical opened on Broadway in 2008 and was nominated for 8 Tony awards including Best Musical, and won the award for best costume design.

The fun of ACT's “Shrek The Musical” begins after an Ogre’s solitary life is interrupted when an assortment of fairy-tale characters living in the near-perfect society of Duloc are expelled by the evil Lord Farquaad and seek refuge in Shrek’s own swamp. Shrek must travel to Duloc with the hope that the Lord will let the castaway fairy-tale characters return to their homes, away from Shrek’s swamp. Although not wanting to be involved, Shrek aids the evil Farquaad in finding his beloved princess, with the promise that Farquaad will return sole ownership of the swamp to Shrek. Accompanied by the nonstop-talking Donkey, Shrek sets out to find the princess kept captive in a high tower, beset by a curse and guarded by a jealous dragon. 

True to form, ACT pleases the audience with a nice array of well-thought-out sets and drops, and creative costumes including a huge, dramatic, and beautifully constructed "Lion King- like" dragon. 

Funny, and a strong performer, is William Corkery as Shrek. Nicely matched for the role, William does a fine job as the righteous, moral yet a bit clueless ogre. Accompanying Shrek on his journey is Donkey, portrayed by the comical and quite obnoxious Elliot Rappaport who brings down the house with his sharp wit and comedic timing.

The object of the ogre’s affection is Fiona, a princess who has been locked up in a tower for more than 20 years. Yael Eden delivers a great portrayal as the highly charismatic fair maiden, and showed her versatile singing voice in her sassy duet with Shrek in "I Think I've Got You Beat" and a beautifully done (yet playfully amusing) solo "Morning Person". Another standout piece ended the first act with Yael, Elliot and William’s excellent harmonies in "Who I'd Be". Lily McNeely as "Teen Fiona" and Meg Larson as "Young Fiona" were very solid in their parts and showed off some great voices in the charming "I Know It’s Today". Jonathan Edzant delivers a comical, likeably oily performance as Lord Farquaad, and did a good job portraying the guy you love to hate. 

Leading the way for this impressive ensemble are the "expelled" fairyland characters, including a comically charged and slightly neurotic performance by David Ahmadian as "Pinocchio", and fun showings from Lindsey Grant as Mama Ogre and Peter Hoban as Papa Ogre. Alyson Tharp, (the voice of the Dragon) showed awe-inspiring vocals in the soulful "Forever" and "This is how a Dream Comes True".

ACT's Shrek put together a strong combination of great voices directed by Tim McKnight, nicely cast performers, and tight choreography from Lia Peros. Chris Wollman did a nice job directing this large cast for a very entertaining overall performance.

~ Cast ~ 

Farquaad: