Shrek The Musical Jr by HC Dance and Performance Academy in Darlington

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This article has been written in March 2025.

We were invited along in March 2025 to watch “Shrek The Musical JR ” performed by HC Vocal And Performance Academy

The Venue

The show was held at Hummersknott Academy in Darlington. Most of their performances are held here. It is a fully wheelchair accessible venue for watching shows with disabled toilets close to the theatre room and wheelchair spaces for watching the show. There is a large onsite car park with disabled spaces near the entrance as well as an overflow car park.

I’ve included an image below from Hummersknott Academy to show their car park. The purple star is the entrance for the show;

There were refreshments to purchase both before the show started and in the interval. There were lots of snacks available including sweets, chocolate bars, crisps and homemade cup cakes as well as hot and cold drinks and hot dogs. Prices were very reasonable and cheaper than usual theatre prices.

The Show

The set was amazing! It was all handmade and you could tell so much effort had gone into it. I really appreciate things like this and it makes it extra special.

The opening of the show started with a fairytale about Shrek as a young boy and his journey of leaving his parents and finding the swamp. It was told from a giant story book prop with the characters stood inside and with the younger cast members sat around the book listening, such a lovely way to involve little ones from the very start!

The rest of the story is similar to the Shrek animation except with some modern twists, extra singing and dancing of course. And with some original songs and lots of humour opportunities added in!

What was great to see is that every single member of the cast including the youngest really stood out as being confident and comfortable with their characters and putting their all into it.

A few character highlights that stood out include;

-Donkey with his Eddie Murphy accent was just brilliant, so similar! And the mannerisms were so well done for someone of a young age too. The relationship and the silly banter between donkey and Shrek was performed spot on too, with Shrek moody character and donkeys annoying yet lovable side too. It really did take you back to the well loved hilarious characters in the movie itself.

-The tiny height of Lord Farquaad was just hilarious and true to the animation. The props and outfits were just perfect! You couldn’t help but giggle each time he came on stage with his tiny height and bossy and vain demeanour. Especially when sat on his throne. Lyla Appleby and Charlie Vart both did great at playing this character and getting across the right attitude.

-The dragon costume and the scene props were outstanding too, they really had that wow factor!

-The fantastic voice of the oldest princess Fiona played by Amber Evans, just amazing!

-I also thought that when meeting Shrek (played by Jacob Robinson) the princess did brilliant at showing off her ruder side with the dirty manners trying to compete with Shrek! It really showed the similarities between the two of them and that romance isn’t always what you expect! Amber and Jacob had a great funny connection when playing Fiona and Shrek.

-The dancing from everyone was just brilliant and they were all just enjoying it and looking comfortable too. It is clear they all worked very hard with the rehearsals and choreography.

-I enjoyed the upbeat positive songs, especially the ones celebrating everyone’s unique differences and that nobody should be left out. What a lovely idea and very relative to Shrek too and the various characters!

-I really admire that this performance company have thought hard when casting the members to allow them to showcase their strengths and to show a bit of themselves and individual personalities whilst in character still. They all matched brilliantly for the character types and allowing them to be themselves whilst having the opportunity to develop on other areas. This really gave a sense of diversity too!

Everything combined together from the range of ages, and the opportunity allowing the different personalities and talents to be shown, made this show just so gorgeous and heartwarming to watch. From the fairytale characters to the youngest of dancers they all really put their all into it and produced a fantastic upbeat and funny performance.

And the best ending with everyone dancing and singing along together to “I’m a believer” - a fantastic applause at the end from the audience.

Their next show will be Beauty and the Beast, also showing at Hummersknott Academy from 4th until 6th July 2025. Get yourself along to support this local performance academy.

You can book here

You can follow their socials and keep an eye out on future performances here

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This article has been written and published by Charlotte Walcott (Business Owner of ©️Family Fun Darlo Mum)

A bit about me- Mum to 2 boys, Kamron-8 and Leo-2, and stepmum to Damon- 15. Sharing family days out ideas, family venues and events in Darlington, County Durham, Teesside and Yorkshire.