At the mention of a great musical, “Shrek” might not be the first name that comes to mind. But surprisingly, the production, adapted from the 2001 franchise and performed last weekend by West Linn-Wilsonville middle-schoolers, exceeded expectations.

Donkey, played by Matthew Snyder, stole the show. He acted with enthusiasm and excitement all through his body movement, and sassy voice inflection. His first scene of crawling wearing fake hooves started the night off with uproarious laughter.

Shrek, played by Cameron Massey for one of the two casts, had a spot on Shrek voice. Massey stepped up to the plate for his role and hit a home run. While his burping scenes always made the crowd laugh, his Scottish accent made you think Mike Meyers was on the stage.

The musical was amusing, entertaining, and overall worth it. There were minimal mistakes with sound effects but they had no effect on the acting for the performance. Many of these performers should stick with acting, it just comes naturally to them.

I would recommend not missing out on next year’s play. “Shrek” was one of the better middle school plays I’ve seen mainly due to the quality acting. The storyline of the play is almost exactly in line with the movie, but it had many different songs. At the end of the play the entire cast sings “I’m a Believer.” I’m glad they incorporated this song and the manner in which it was incorporated brought the whole play together, and really made it feel like you were watching the movie. Overall, I would give this play an A-, It was funny, creative, and a good time for all. All performers at one point had a line which was really intriguing, because there were so many performers in the play.