There is a famous story that during the voice over work for the original motion picture Shrek, Mike Myers, who was of course voicing the title character, decided halfway through that Shrek needed a Scottish accent. Myers's decision cost Dreamworks millions of dollars in time and reanimating Shrek's mouth to coincide with his new Scottish dialect. Well, here it is seven years later and Dreamworks is once again spending millions of dollars on the intricacies of Shrek's voice. Not for animation purposes -- Shrek (played by Brian D'arcy James, at least I think he is underneath all that makeup, somewhere), now, is very much real and in live-action -- but, instead, to be sure he can carry a tune.




Shrek the Musical is Dreamworks first foray into the world of theatre and judging from the elaborate set, it appeared no expense was spared. It is a fair assumption that most audience members will feel they are more than familiar with the storyline before the show begins; since very few changes occur in the metamorphose from screen to stage, their assumptions are justified. Of course, this is a Broadway musical so most of the differences will result from the characters randomly, and quite often, breaking into song. Gone is Smash Mouth's "All-Star" (thank god); instead, replaced by musical numbers such as "Morning Person" (a hilarious delight!) and "Freak Flag" (paging Mr. Smash Mouth; Mr. Mouth, your song may be needed again).




Shrek the Musical is, for lack of a more elaborate word, fun. The story, of course, focuses on Shrek and Donkey (Daniel Breaker, who plays the role with approximately 300 percent more sass than Eddie Murphy did, if that's possible) rescuing Fiona (Sutton Foster) from the dragon at the bequeath of Lord Farquaad (Christopher Sieber). Look, I don't want to give anything away on how they bring Farquaad's (ahem) short stature to fruition, but, it's worth the price of admission, alone, to watch Sieber not just steal every scene -- this would be a gross understatement -- but give a performance that would make Keyser Söze blush.

Shrek the Musical is sometimes uneven; a truly fantastic scene that has the house buzzing will often be followed by a quiet duet shared between Shrek and Fiona. Again, the show is quite fun -- especially when Farquaad or the expanded role of the fairy tale misfits are on stage, led by Pinocchio (John Tartaglia, who also is the voice of the computerized Magic Mirror set piece) -- but never sustains all the momentum it often builds. Regardless, it would be hard pressed to envision any scenario in which Shrek fails -- as a reluctant hero or at the box-office -- that is, unless Mike Myers had chosen to give Shrek the voice of The Love Guru.

Shrek the Musical is currently playing at the the Broadway Theatre.


Story by Mike Ryan

Starpulse contributing writer
Mike Ryan can be reached at miker@starpulse.com.