Shrek: The Musical

Shrek: The Musical

Joan Marcus for DreamWorks Theatricals

Broadway TheatrePreviews begin Nov 8.

The greening of the Great White Way continues. As though obeying some secret dictate of theater fashion, musicals have lately been churning out a garden of verdant characters, and the latest is now lumbering onstage: Shrek, the lovable ogre at the center of a new musical based on the 2001 megahit movie. “It would be great if [Wicked ’s] Elphaba and the Grinch and Shrek and Frankenstein’s monster were all in a cover band,” jokes the man in the ogre suit, Broadway veteran Brian d’Arcy James (The Apple Tree). “They could do Green Day tunes.”

Just as the film’s gentle snarkiness distinguished it from treacly family fare, Shrek: The Musical is likely to cop an edgier attitude than Broadway’s multiple Disney tuners. “The film and the musical take their cue from the lead character being an ornery, blustery freak—and delighting in that, finding empowerment in who he is,” says James. The show’s producers have assembled an A-list team for the adaptation: Pulitzer Prize–winning librettist David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole), composer Jeanine Tesori (Caroline, or Change) and director Jason Moore (Avenue Q). It’s the kind of lineup that would turn Shrek’s rivals green with envy...if they weren’t all green already.

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