The SHREK 1st National Tour begins tonight (Tuesday July 13, 2010) at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago.
The role of everyone's favorite swamp-dwelling ogre Shrek will be played by Eric Petersen, who joins the tour from the Broadway production. He recently appeared as the socially challenged Barfee in the National tour of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Petersen originally hails from Carol Stream, Illinois where he attended Western Trails Elementary, Stratford Junior High and Glenbard North High School. He attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois where he received a BS in Theatre Performance.
Haven Burton, also from the Broadway Company will play the feisty Princess Fiona. Haven previously played Margo the Dog Whisperer on Broadway in Legally Blonde and understudied Elle Woods. Alan Mingo, Jr. is Shrek's lovably annoying best friend Donkey. He was an original company member of The Little Mermaid where he played the role of Sebastian, and prior to that played the role of Tom Collins in RENT on Broadway. Todd Buonopane plays the vertically challenged villain Lord Farquaad. He performed on Broadway as Roger in Grease! and was a member of the original Broadway Company of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Rounding out the cast of misfit fairy tale characters, the peoples of Duloc and Far, Far Away are: Joe Abraham, Kevin Boseman, Holly Ann Butler, Carrie Compere, Emily Cramer, Tyrone Davis, Jr., Sandra DeNise, Scarlett Diaz, David Foley, Aymee Garcia, Brian Gonzales, Justin Greer, Lisa Ho, Benjamin Howes, Madison Mullahey, Mara Newbery, Denny Paschall, Sarah Peak, Keven Quillon, Morgan Rose, Blakely Slaybaugh and David F.M. Vaughn.
So the show should be letting out around this time I'd imagine...how was it? Better than Broadway? Worse? Any set changes? Whaqt was the new song? Were any songs cut from the Broadway production?
Having seen both Sutton and Haven in NY, I will attest to the fact that Haven is about 20 times better than Sutton- better voice, funnier, and a hell of a lot more charisma.
I read that they made a new dragon for the tour. I really want to hear how that works and what it looks like. I also am curious about changes to the set.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
Reviews will take a few days to come out, but that said critics weren't there last night (it wasn't press night) anyway.
There was a lot of papering going on in the audience.
Overall the cast is great, especially the Fiona (vastly more energetic than Sutton Foster, and vocally more charming). The Donkey was... well. Not so funny and tried too hard I thought, plus it was hard to understand his diction often during songs. The new Farquad is fun. Chris Seiber made the show somewhat bearable for me on Broadway, so I missed him.
The biggest problem? Just as on Broadway the show is NOT FUNNY. The funniest thing is the cow puppet and that is such a throw away moment.
Some fun tunes, but awful lyrics and a book that plods along.
It's also worth noting that the audience was pretty darned quiet. Only a few solid out loud laughs. Overheard a lot of people at intermission talking about how disappointing it was.
All of that said, it's a gorgeous production. They did a good job adapting the production to tour. The biggest scenic disappointment to me was that Fiona's tower is just a flat now, not the colorful piece full of books.
The new dragon is a KICK ASS big puppet with what looked like 4 or 5 puppeteers running around it. But they do a good job of hiding them. New song is serviceable but I've already forgotten the tune! That's not a good sign.
Big scene changes that I recall? The big stained glass window in the church is gone, and now its two flats resembling a cathedral outline. Worked well.
Man in the Mirror was gone completely (or if it was there, I've forgotten it lol...). The show really almost put me to sleep several times. So my memory is a bit foggy.