Shrek The Musical at QPAC on hold until lockdown is over

The southern states were green with envy that we were able to put on Shrek The Musical with full capacity but Sunday night’s glittering opening night has been cancelled due to lockdown.

Shrek The Musical was to be the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s showpiece opener for 2021 but the show is now a major casualty of the pandemic.

Following the Premier’s announcement today of a three-day lockdown for Greater Brisbane, the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) will be cancelling all performances at the Centre scheduled from 3pm today Friday, January 8, until 6pm on Monday, January 11.

QPAC will communicate directly with impacted patrons via SMS and email regarding exchanges and refunds for all cancelled performances.

The Friday matinee of Bluey’s Big Play The Stage Show went ahead but the big event, Shrek The Musical, is off so tantalisingly close to opening night.

Actor Ben Mingay as Shrek. Picture: Mark Stewart

Previews were scheduled for Saturday ahead of the gala opening Sunday night at 6pm which was expected to have a full house in the Lyric Theatre.

Impacted patrons will be refunded and at this stage it is anticipated the season of Shrek The Musical will commence following the lockdown period. Further performance scheduling will be determined in line with Queensland Government Health directives.

QPAC will continue to communicate regarding event information to impacted patrons directly via email and SMS and will also provide updated information on its website and social channels.

Shrek The Musical is one of the most anticipated shows of the year but it has been cancelled in the short term until after the lockdown.

The show was supposed to be the first major musical in Australia with a 100 per cent capacity audience and QPAC chief executive John Kotzas had gone to great lengths to make it happen, partnering with production company the Gordon Frost Organisation to bring it to fruition.

“As soon as 100 per cent capacity was announced QPAC was determined to revisit the possibility of staging the much anticipated Shrek The Musical,” Mr Kotzas said.

“We pulled put all the stops to bring this much-loved story to the stage.”

QPAC boss John Kotzas pulled out all the stops for Shrek The Musical which is now on hold until after the lockdown. Photo by Mark Cranitch.

The cast, including stars Ben Mingay (Shrek) Lucy Durack (Princess Fiona) and Todd McKenney (Lord Farquaad) arrived a couple of weeks ago and have been in rehearsals ever since fine tuning the show which was shut down in Melbourne last March.

Now they are all holding their breaths until Monday evening as we wait to hear when the flatulent green ogre will take to the stage in Brisbane.

For the most up to date information on events at QPAC go to www.qpac.com.au