Shrek the Musical

You Can Put This Ogre On Broadway, But You Can't Take Him Out Of The Swamp
While generally I'm opposed to the trend of turning every movie into a big theater production, some certainly lend themselves to the format better than others. It's a symbol of our times, a Broadway production is so expensive and so risky, they want those seats pre-sold with a familiar brand. That's the same reason we get so many carbon copy sequels and remakes in the cineplexes! Whatever happened to actual creativity? When I watched the original "Shrek" at the movies, I thought it was one of the five very best films of the year (that was the year the Academy created the Best Animation category and gave "Shrek" the award, but I've always maintained it should have been up for Best Picture as well). It was smart AND slyly subversive, pleasing for the kids at face value and a treat for adults in its scathing satire and wit. Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled with the many sequels that followed (although most were serviceable) and I groaned when I heard the green ogre was going to...

Review of BD -The original cast production preserved - for generations to come. Great score too!
When Dreamworks first released the original CGI film, SHREK, it gave Disney's animation studio a run for their money. It even poked fun at Disney characters. It took the position that adults could enjoy some double-entendre humor while the kids would love the graphics. SHREK spawned two sequels too! Then Dreamworks decided (like Disney with "Beauty and the Beast" to conquer Broadway by creating - and producing - a musical version of the film. The 2009 show got nine Tony noms (no wins) and played successfully in NY. A whopping 17 songs (in a two-hour show) were composed by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori to keep the show going. The music is - in my opinion - a combination of Alan Menken's score for "Little Shop of Horrors" and Marc Shaiman's for "Hairspray". A lot of fun.

So, with Dreamworks being a FILM company, they decided to film a live performance with the ORIGINAL Broadway Cast (before they left the company). And that resulted in this 2012...

Fabulous musical adaptation
I owned the audio CD well before this DVD came out, so I was very familiar with all of the songs. The play is delightful. It's tough to put a cartoon into a live musical play, but like the Lion King, this one was really successful. All of the principles are fabulous in their roles. Pinocchio hits some amazing soprano notes. Donkey is just as funny if not funnier than Eddie Murphy. The background stories and some of the extra items that were added to the original Shrek story fleshed out the characters even more and gave you more of a reason to love them. Even Farquod has a back story. Would love to know Donkey's back story, but some other time I suppose.

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