The Shrek movies starring the larger the life ogre and his motley crew of mates grossed millions at the box office so it was hardly a massive shock that the stage version was such a hit in the West End.

Now the year-long UK tour is coming to an end for Shrek, Princess Fiona, Donkey and all the fairy tale character at Leeds Grand Theatre from Tuesday 18th December. Call the Midwife star Laura Main has fitted filming the smash hit BBC show around playing the feisty green princess.

“Shrek the Musical is very faithful to the first film and we are not seeing life beyond all the kids and the marriage, so just up to the happily ever after,” notes Laura,

“There are clever little nods to the other movies, so we have a song called The Travel Song where lots of puppets go by at the back of the stage, and at one point Donkey says ‘oh, look. It’s a cat wearing boots.’”

The cartoon antics of Shrek’s crew battling the evil Lord Farquaad and his minions naturally lends itself to the stage, with no expense spared to create some totally over the top costumes and sets. Laura also has to contend with changing colour too.

“It’s very clever how they do the transformation especially because I have to go back and forth, unlike Shrek who spends the whole show as this green ogre. Steffan Harri who plays him has to get to work an hour and a quarter before the rest of us because he has all the make up to get on.

“For me I have to go from regular Fiona Princess to an ogre and then flip back. At the very end when I fully transform as a green ogre it is unbelievable how they do that because it is done in under one minute.

“I rush off stage and it’s like a pit stop with seven people around me. You have to be really calm, and it is very well choreographed with people from make-up, wigs, costume and sound then I’m back on as an ogre.”

As well as being an experienced musical theatre performer Laura is also a regular on the BBC period Drama Call the Midwife playing former nun Sister Bernadette who swapped her wimple for family life. Her filming commitments on Call the Midwife meant Laura dipped in and out of this mammoth tour as it criss-crossed the country.

“After season seven I went straight into rehearsals, did five months touring and then I started series eight,” says Laura who is looking forward to entertaining audiences in Leeds as the tour finally comes to an end.

“I did a bit of back and forth and sometimes came back into the tour for a venue or two. For Call the Midwife we do six months filming, and get two weeks holiday in the middle, but I was in Milton Keynes doing Shrek. I thought it would be quite scary having all that time away from the show but I’d done enough time onstage so it actually felt great.”

Predicting what will make a TV hit is a lottery and no-one could have foreseen a period drama about a group of midwives and nuns in London’s rundown East End would secure record audiences for BBC1. It might have a stellar cast packed with some of our nation’s greatest female actors, but Laura was unprepared for how quickly it won a place in the nation’s hearts.

“You could never have hoped or wished that it would have taken off in the way it has, and to get those huge viewing figures. Series nine is commissioned and even very, very experienced actors like Jenny Agutter, Pam Ferris and Judy Parfitt said you just never know. They say enjoy this girls because you can’t tell if something is going be something really special, and we all appreciate that.”

Shrek The Musical is at Leeds Grand Theatre from Tuesday 18th December to Sunday 6th January. To book www.leedsgrandtheatre.com or 0844 8482700

http://northwestend.co.uk/index.php/homepage/interviews/3732-shrek-and-princess-fiona-are-back-at-leeds-grand-theatre

THIS is the magical moment a Hampshire schoolgirl battling cancer got the surprise of her life – when she came face to face with a princess.

Edith Coombes, aged five, who is being treated for leukaemia, thought she was visiting Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre to collect box office tickets to see the hit musical Shrek the Musical.

Edith, a pupil at Berrywood School in Hedge End, compared dresses and talked tiaras and sparkly shoes with the princess – played by Call The Midwife actress Laura Main – and was also presented with a special Star Award from Cancer Research UK Kids and Teens in partnership with TK Maxx.

The youngster, who has been chosen to launch this year’s Hampshire campaign which honours the courage of all children battling cancer, was joined by big sister Eleanor and their parents Kathryn and Lewis for the surprise and were presented with VIP tickets for the show.

Princess Fiona told Edith: “It’s lovely to meet you. I’ve heard all about you and what a brave, brave girl you have been. I believe your sister Eleanor has been a great help too. I really hope you enjoy the show.”

Edith was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in March, not long after starting in Year R at school and repeatedly coming down with what was initially thought to be a virus.

A bone marrow biopsy eventually confirmed it was cancer and Edith was admitted to hospital and began intensive chemotherapy.

Since then she has lost her long blonde hair and has had to have her head shaved twice. She’s also had repeated stays in hospital, undergoes regular lumbar punctures which require being put to sleep and will continue to receive treatment until May 2020.

She is also one of more than 2,600 children with ALL who are taking part in a clinical trial to see if it is possible to reduce side effects of current treatment and reduce the chance of relapse.

Mum Kathryn, 35, a teacher, said: “The treatment made her quite poorly to start with, but thankfully we have come through the harshest phase and Edith was keen to get back to school as soon as she was well enough.”

Dad Lewis added: “We are so proud of her, especially when we stop and think what she has been through and what is still to come. As parents you just have to get on with it. You see how brave Edith is and it makes you be brave too.”

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/17270955.princess-surprise-for-battling-five-year-old-edith/?ref=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The theatre show with a big heart and a big green ogre is one for kids to enjoy but also for the kid in every theatre-goer

Shrek The Musical, Sunderland Empire, until February 11

You know the story and have probably seen the 2001 DreamWorks Animation movie so many times that the catchphrases have become a part of ordinary speech.

But you may (like me) have not shared your love with Shrek The Musical before and I am pleased to report that this stage version is a stand-alone success.

Shrek The Musical is a top-class touring production of a show originally produced on Broadway, and subsequently in London’s West End, by Dreamworks Theatricals.

Lyrics are clever yet simple and one memorable line from Who I’d Be has Shrek wishing to be a poet: “The moon would help with spelling, and the night would dot the ‘I’s.”

Musical numbers come thick and fast, 20 in total, but sadly there are no Lion King-calibre songs to hum on the way back.

Visually and technically, the production is flashily impressive – the set and costumes by Tim Hatley are amazing and I particularly enjoyed the use of puppets. The overly-friendly dragon with its four puppeteers is a great achievement and its movements wonderfully believable.

The entire dragon scene with its Monty Python-esque captured knights dancing in the stocks with their sequined jazz hands is very funny, and the humour throughout is maverick rather than cheesy.

On stage it’s officially a four-hander: Shrek (Steffan Harri) nails the Scottish accent given to Shrek by Mike Myers; Donkey (Marcus Ayton) has the best quips and Lord Farquaad (Samuel Holmes) is more Bertie Wooster than Ming the Merciless.

But the show stealer is Laura Main as Princess Fiona, who has appeared in all six series of BBC’s Call the Midwife.

She plays the tormented ogre-princess with verve and gusto and her tap dancing rats number, Morning Person, is a joy.

Besides the music, this production includes most of the important lines from the film – the onion, the Muffin Man, the short man gags – and so on.

And the show ends, as the film does, with The Monkees’ I’m a Believer. So I guess the only thing aficionados will miss is The Proclaimers’ I’m On My Way – which I hummed on the journey home.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/theatre-news/shrek-musical-how-laura-main-14240429