My Shrek post w/pics

[Broadwaywest2]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 4:43pm

Well this past Saturday night me and my boyfriend trekked ourselves from sunny hot las vegas to cold Seattle to attend Shrek the musical at the 5th ave.

First off I have to say I was actually very very impressed with the show.

The set and costume designs are just phenomanal, talk about a big bright beautiful world. I loved the cartoonishness of everything. From the massive trees to Lord faarguads mirror. It was truly a spectacular looking show.



The costumes were just like the set, big and bright. Favorite was Pinnochio's.

As for the music, I thought it was okay. My favorite songs were Big Bright Beautiful World, I Know it's today, The ballad of Lord Faaquad, and Morning Person. Unfortunatly, I couldn't remember most of them after seeing the show.

Standouts as far as actors - definitly Miss Sutton Foster. She was the only to one to combine tons of emotion and comedy. It's great to see her back in a leading lady role. She walks away with every scene she is in.

John Tartaligna(sp?)- this guy was awesome. Playing a couple characters but mainly Pinnochio he is a talent to be reckoned with. I hope to see him in a leading role in his next show.

Brian D'arcy James - He made a very grounded Shrek, his closing number in act 1 is heartbreaking and yes I did tear up. However, because everyone else around him was so zany and madcap he kind of got lost.

Chester Gregory - I have to agree with pretty much everyone else who saw the show he makes a pretty weak Donkey. He's not really needed in the show. I really hope they either write his character better or he gets better before b'way.

Christopher Seiber - He was fantastic as well. And yes he is on his knees through out the entire show. I asked him about that and he says that his knees don't hurt and he is very padded. However, he did say his back hurts a lot after each performance.

I gotta say though next to Lion King this is the best animated feature to Broadway musical so far. The script is very well written just some tuning up and I think this could be a very awesome show.

Plus, the 5th ave. theater is stunning. The wordwork is amazing. I loved the ceiling with the dragons.





The Merchandise is awesome. I bought the Pinnochio shirt which I will take a pic of. Plus, they sold Gingerbread men.










And yes, there are a lot of references to other b'way shows, which is very funny and the majority of the audience got them.

[Shannon Bo Dannon]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 5:43pm

This is so great! I'm glad to hear it's got a lot of potential, I'm sure they'll do some tweaking before it comes to NYC.

I love John Tartaglia..he's my favorite..so is pretty much everyone else in the cast though.

[Weez]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 6:09pm

God that's a great-looking cast. :3

[BroadwayBoy2]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 9:03pm

well they wasted no time with merchendise.

[sally1112]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 9:08pm

Great pictures, thank you for sharing.

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 9:12pm

Makes me super excited to see the show, can't wait!

Johnny T is so adorable...

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 9:17pm

maybe it's just me... but you look like you could be related to chris sieber!

[sweeneynut]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 10:01pm

Haha, you're right, eatlasagna! I pretty much agree with everything you said, except for the set bit. I saw the show from the last row of the theatre, and the set just looked like a big blob of green. I'm sure it was nice up close, but the folks in the cheap seats would like some distinction... Great pics, by the way! Could you please post a pic of the shirt you were talking about, though? I'm a sucker for merchandise, but I didn't want anything from Shrek because I hated the crappy logo they splashed all over everything. They totally didn't have gingerbread men and pinnochio shirts when I went, though

[jerseyboyschick2]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 10:17pm

aw. I'm glad you enjoyed the show. Thanks for the review and awesome pics. I'm even more excited to see this show now:)

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 10:41pm

Do they make funny jokes about the shows the actors starred in? THAT would be funny. Like a joke about Ave.Q with Tags, or a joke about Little Women or Millie with Sutts. That would be funny, but maybe most of the audience wouldn't get them.

[Broadwaywest2]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 10:51pm

This is the shirt. I love it.

No the jokes are about A Chorus Line, Wicked, Shrek 2, Lion King

[cglaid]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 11:17pm

Is it me or does Sutton only come out after the pre-Broadway runs? I saw Young Frankenstein four times and she never came out once. Luckily I caught her before a show once. But from what I've read, she didn't really come out ever after YF, except maybe one or two times. I have seen a ton of pics from her Seattle YF run and now this one.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 11:22pm

"No the jokes are about A Chorus Line, Wicked, Shrek 2, Lion King."

Come on, not even ONE Legally Blonde or [TOS] joke? Lame.

[ChecksintheMayo]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 11:29pm

Pinocchio does talk about making a mix-tape for Farquaad, but I don't know if that was an Avenue Q or a High Fidelity joke (since Abaire did the book for that show as well).

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 11:29pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzql8ieWT_g

Apparently there IS a Avenue Q reference.

[E.Davis]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 11:39pm

Did the cut freak flag because im loving it

[ChecksintheMayo]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 11:42pm

Freak Flag is still there, though a large part of the getting fit/dance sequence was trimmed.

[sweeneynut]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 11:50pm

Awesome. Thanks for posting the pic! I like that shirt, even though I'm a girl. Oh well.

When I saw the show, there was this group of about 5 girls at the stagedoor, all decked out in Shrek clothing, saying they'd seen the show 5 times, etc. Anyway, they kept going on, and on, and ON about the mix tape reference, and told poor John how much they loved it about ten times. Then she called one of her friends at twelve at night just to tell them about the line. Really. Just thought I'd share.

[MarkCohen2]

Posted: 9/3/08 at 2:40pm

awesome i'm goign to see the show this weekend, questions abotu the stagedoor, were there a lot of ppl there, and how quickly did they come out after the show

[Cucumber334]

Posted: 9/3/08 at 8:43pm

Can you describe in detail the Chorus Line and Wicked references? I live in Seattle but love broadway so Shrek was my first show. I vaguely remember some familiar lines but I couldn't pinpoint the origination.

[Broadwaywest2]

Posted: 9/3/08 at 9:43pm

To MarkCohen2 -

The stagedoor is in the alleyway on the cross street of 5th ave. We went on a saturday night and there was about 10 people waiting and a couple were parents of some of the young actors in the show.

With the exception of Brian D'arcy James(hence why I have no picture) they all came out rather fast. It's cool too because we got to have an actual conversations with them.

To cucumber334 - The chorus line reference is during the number The Line Up - very I hope I get it. The wicked reference is at the end of Things are looking up in Duloc. That one was hysterical, the audience loved it.

[MarkCohen2]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 11:48am

Hey so is there a need to rush out to the stagedoor, or can i just take my time, thanks

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 3:15pm

John Lithgow was in Seattle this past weekend - friends saw him around town. I wonder if he was checking out the show.

[rose_pearl]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 4:46pm

^ He might have gone to see Brian...assuming they were pretty chummy in Sweet Smell.