#1
Posted: 8/15/08 at 7:02am
* please note that this was written in an airport in the middle of the night by a very tired person waiting for his late flight to go home to Ohio. Excuse the incoherence.*
It’s really not all that far, far away. Only the Fifth Avenue Theater in Seattle, actually. But with advance ticket sales for the tryout of “Shrek The Musical” disappearing faster than a smoker’s breath while dancing, getting to see the production proper might just be as difficult as the trek that Shrek and Donkey undergo to rescue Princess Fiona.
So is “Shrek The Musical” the next “Lion King” or the next “Little Mermaid”? The answer is, right now, a little bit of both. But let’s not be too hyper critical, shall we? After all, the show is still pretty green. Apologies for further “green” puns in advance.
You know the story right? A giant green Ogre named Shrek (Brian D’Arcy James) and Donkey (Chester Gregory) go on a quest to retrieve the beautiful-but-secretive Princess Fiona (Sutton Foster) for the evil Lord Farquaad (Christopher Sieber). Mayhem and slapstick ensues.
Most importantly, this feels like part of the “Shrek” franchise. In the place of dozens of movie and pop culture references and jokes (though there are some, of course), we get several Broadway references and jokes that I wouldn’t dream of spoiling for viewers. The gags are genuine and elicit belly laughs for the same reason the gags work in the films: They send up the shows they target, but not in a degrading way.
That said, the show needs some work. If it were opening in this condition, I doubt anyone would be fully pleased with the final product. Families with children will find the show slow and top-heavy. Broadway fans will criticize some of the costumes and set pieces. And the score still needs work. On the other hand this is, after all, a tryout for the show and many, if not most, of the problems can be fixed before the show premiers on The Great White Way.
“Shrek” certainly takes it’s time to get going; in fact the first forty minutes of the needs-a-half-hour-trimmed-from-the-running-time show seem to be more of an exercise in wheel spinning than anything else. It was as if the creative team and actors were visibly getting used to the world they were crafting then moved on to doing the rest of the show (which gets progressively better) while forgetting the shaky first section of the production. It’s here that the score, by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire (who also wrote the very smart book) is at its weakest, and there is, sadly, no real “Circle of Life” moment that immediately immerses the audience into the world.
The first act DOES pick up, though, and by the time we reach the beginning of the second act, the production is humming along at a fair pace. The score improves exponentially and the set pieces begin to click. Yes, the dragon IS included in this production and her entrance is breathtaking. Yes, the puppetry of some of the fairy tale characters is pretty darn cool. And yes, Shrek looks like Shrek (the photos from USA Today do not do the costume justice).
But although much of the costuming is good, that only puts a spotlight on the clunkers. Yes, I’m talking about Donkey, whose costume looks like it would be more at home in a high school nativity scene at Christmas than in a Broadway production. Also, the transformation of Princess Fiona from beauty into an ogre (whoops, uh, spoilers!) is pretty lame considering the obvious budget involved. It was another opportunity to get a “wow!” out of the audience, but it just didn’t work.
The smart book and dialogue is delivered with vivaciousness by a game cast. Standouts include Foster, who already seems at home with Fiona, and embraces the character’s emotional journey without ever missing a beat. Sieber is jaw-droppingly good as the height-impaired Farquaad (in a great bit of old-stage magic, he’s simply on his knees the entire production—and it works!), never moreso than in his standout “The Ballad of Farquaad” that brings down the house.
“Shrek the Musical” has the makings of being a good, solid production that turns into a profitable Broadway run. There are several problems, both major and minor, that need to be addressed, specifically the snooze-worthy beginning, for the show to flourish as it has the potential to, but the creative team and cast show a lot of possibility for excellence here. Just don’t expect a masterpiece—life isn’t always a fairy tale, after all.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
It’s really not all that far, far away. Only the Fifth Avenue Theater in Seattle, actually. But with advance ticket sales for the tryout of “Shrek The Musical” disappearing faster than a smoker’s breath while dancing, getting to see the production proper might just be as difficult as the trek that Shrek and Donkey undergo to rescue Princess Fiona.
So is “Shrek The Musical” the next “Lion King” or the next “Little Mermaid”? The answer is, right now, a little bit of both. But let’s not be too hyper critical, shall we? After all, the show is still pretty green. Apologies for further “green” puns in advance.
You know the story right? A giant green Ogre named Shrek (Brian D’Arcy James) and Donkey (Chester Gregory) go on a quest to retrieve the beautiful-but-secretive Princess Fiona (Sutton Foster) for the evil Lord Farquaad (Christopher Sieber). Mayhem and slapstick ensues.
Most importantly, this feels like part of the “Shrek” franchise. In the place of dozens of movie and pop culture references and jokes (though there are some, of course), we get several Broadway references and jokes that I wouldn’t dream of spoiling for viewers. The gags are genuine and elicit belly laughs for the same reason the gags work in the films: They send up the shows they target, but not in a degrading way.
That said, the show needs some work. If it were opening in this condition, I doubt anyone would be fully pleased with the final product. Families with children will find the show slow and top-heavy. Broadway fans will criticize some of the costumes and set pieces. And the score still needs work. On the other hand this is, after all, a tryout for the show and many, if not most, of the problems can be fixed before the show premiers on The Great White Way.
“Shrek” certainly takes it’s time to get going; in fact the first forty minutes of the needs-a-half-hour-trimmed-from-the-running-time show seem to be more of an exercise in wheel spinning than anything else. It was as if the creative team and actors were visibly getting used to the world they were crafting then moved on to doing the rest of the show (which gets progressively better) while forgetting the shaky first section of the production. It’s here that the score, by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire (who also wrote the very smart book) is at its weakest, and there is, sadly, no real “Circle of Life” moment that immediately immerses the audience into the world.
The first act DOES pick up, though, and by the time we reach the beginning of the second act, the production is humming along at a fair pace. The score improves exponentially and the set pieces begin to click. Yes, the dragon IS included in this production and her entrance is breathtaking. Yes, the puppetry of some of the fairy tale characters is pretty darn cool. And yes, Shrek looks like Shrek (the photos from USA Today do not do the costume justice).
But although much of the costuming is good, that only puts a spotlight on the clunkers. Yes, I’m talking about Donkey, whose costume looks like it would be more at home in a high school nativity scene at Christmas than in a Broadway production. Also, the transformation of Princess Fiona from beauty into an ogre (whoops, uh, spoilers!) is pretty lame considering the obvious budget involved. It was another opportunity to get a “wow!” out of the audience, but it just didn’t work.
The smart book and dialogue is delivered with vivaciousness by a game cast. Standouts include Foster, who already seems at home with Fiona, and embraces the character’s emotional journey without ever missing a beat. Sieber is jaw-droppingly good as the height-impaired Farquaad (in a great bit of old-stage magic, he’s simply on his knees the entire production—and it works!), never moreso than in his standout “The Ballad of Farquaad” that brings down the house.
“Shrek the Musical” has the makings of being a good, solid production that turns into a profitable Broadway run. There are several problems, both major and minor, that need to be addressed, specifically the snooze-worthy beginning, for the show to flourish as it has the potential to, but the creative team and cast show a lot of possibility for excellence here. Just don’t expect a masterpiece—life isn’t always a fairy tale, after all.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
