'Shrek’s' Dream Team:
Talk about your dream teams. Shrek the movie franchise is following the road to Broadway as Shrek the Musical, being produced by Academy and Olivier Award-winning director Sam Mendes and DreamWorks Theatricals. Jason Moore, a Tony nominee for Avenue Q, is directing. Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire wrote the book and lyrics, and Olivier-winner Jeanine Tesori is the composer.
The Road More Traveled:
Increasingly movies are inspiring Broadway shows, and the Shrek series, based on the William Steig book, has three films under its belt with a fourth being discussed.
It was Mendes who had the idea to take the book and the first movie and create a new version for the stage. The plot remains much the same, but is more fleshed out, and there is a completely original score, a new book, and new lyrics.
Of course all the familiar characters will be there: Shrek, played by Brain d’Arcy James; Tony-winner Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona; Christopher Sieber as Lord Farquaad; and Tony-nominee Daniel Breaker as Donkey.
From Page to Stage:
Producers wanted Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori from the start, and that might seem an odd choice until you dig a little deeper.
Lindsay-Abaire won the Pulitzer Prize for the intense Rabbit Hole, but he is equally well known for the quirky plays Kimberly Akimbo and Fuddy Mears. And he wrote the screenplay for the animated film Robots. Lindsay-Abaire writes of outsiders who have been told by the world they are one thing, but who believe themselves to be something different – in other words, Shrek.
“He sets out on a journey to find out who he is in the world,” Lindsay-Abaire said, and that’s the story he wanted to find.
New Music:
For Tesori, while she is noted for teaming with Tony Kushner, of Angels in America fame, on Caroline, or Change, she also has composed for animated films. She loved working with Lindsay-Abaire and relished the challenge of taking a very well-known property, such as Shrek, and finding new places to take it.
And writing for an audience that will include many knowledgeable critics (i.e. young Shrek fans) didn’t faze them.
“We were writing for ourselves,” Tesori said, with a laugh. “We’re really immature.”
What They Learned in Seattle:
Seattle has joined San Francisco and Chicago as a “try-out” city for Broadway. Shrek opened in August at the 5th Avenue Theater, which also premiered Hairspray and The Wedding Singer.
Director Jason Moore said they learned a lot about the pacing of the show and about the challenges of realizing their vision on stage. For instance, the Dragon was conceived as a lead actor with an eight-member chorus. But the question arose – is the Dragon that one person or those nine people?
“It was confusing for the audience,” Moore said, and they decided to go with the chorus.
More Than a Movie:
Everyone involved with the project was clear on one thing, Shrek the Musical is more than Shrek the movie moved to the stage. And the word that kept emerging in interviews was “character.”
Brian d’Arcy James knows the expectations for his character, the familiar vocal print, the very well-known temperament, and he’ll deliver that. But the beauty of putting the show on stage, he said, is the ability to better explore who Shrek is, why he’s that way, and what inner journey he takes.
The work is hard. It takes an hour and half for him to get in his costume and half an hour to get out.
"Have You Ever Played a Princess?":
For Sutton Foster, playing Fiona “was a pretty easy decision.”
She got a call from Jason Moore, who asked, “Have you ever played a princess?”
“No,” Foster replied, “but I’d like to.”
And she’s equally excited to be doing more than the movie.
“People might think they know what we’re up to,” she said. “Hopefully, we’ll surprise them.”
The Large and Small of It:
Shrek is a big production and no mistaking that, but amid the grand scale, the focus is going to be on the characters.
“I have to give credit to Jason Moore,” Foster said. “It is so easy to get lost in the spectacle, but character development is Jason’s gift.”
As to finding the story in the spectacle, Moore, himself, put it best: “It’s really three people walking in the woods.”
Where and When:
- Broadway Theatre
1681 Broadway
(Broadway at 53rd Street)
- Show Times and Tickets