Header Image: Production image of 2020 Sydney season of Shrek the Musical. Image by Brian Geach
Last month, the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) announced that musical theatre would once again resume in the Lyric Theatre in January, resuming with an ambitious 100% capacity audience. The first cab off the rank is the family-show Shrek the Musical which adapts the original 2001 CGI film by DreamWorks Animation, which had to be cancelled earlier in the year due to COVID-19. While the original announcement did not come with a cast list, in recent days we have learned that 20 out of 24 of the original Australian cast members will return in their original roles.
Ben Mingay as Shrek, Lucy Durack as Princess Fiona, Nat Jobe as Donkey and Todd McKenney as Lord Farquaad will lead the main cast, joined by a special guest appearance by Marcia Hines as The Dragon. The lead cast will be joined on-stage by a multitude of ensemble members, who will fill the role of various fairy-tale personalities and other inhabitants of the kingdom of Duloc. This cast list includes:
- Courtney Bell (Red Riding Hood)
- Ross Chisari (Little Pig)
- Annie Chiswell (Ugly Duckling)
- Andy Conaghan (Wolf)
- Chelsea Dawson (Wicked Witch)
- Denise Devlin (Mama Bear)
- Mackenzie Dunn (Swing)
- Blake Erickson (Papa Bear)
- Manon Gunderson-Briggs (Gingy)
- Bree Langridge (Swing)
- Rubin Matters (Peter Pan)
- Sarah Murr (Fairy Godmother)
- Joshua Robson (Little Pig)
- Tom Sharah (Little Pig)
- Leigh Sleightholme (Swing)
- Tom Struik (Pied Piper)
- Rhys Velasquez (Swing)
- Caleb Vines (Pinocchio)
- Sascha Wykes (Baby Bear)
Shrek the Musical was due to be performed in Brisbane earlier this year as part of The Gordon Frost Organisation’s East Coast Tour, but had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. The season will commence in the QPAC Lyric Theatre from 9 January 2021. QPAC will be presenting this season in association with Gordon Frost Organisation, the first time in a while that the centre has been lead presenter in a musical theatre production.
Tickets for the show can now be purchased via the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) website, or by calling their QTIX Booking Team on 136 146.
