Shrek The Musical Looks Better than Shrek The Spotlight
Shrek: For your information, there's a lot more to musicals than people think.
Donkey: Example?
Shrek: Example? Okay, er... musicals... are... like onions.
Donkey: [sniffs onion] They stink?
Shrek: Yes...NO!
Donkey: Or they make you cry.
Shrek: No! Well, sometimes.
Donkey: Oh, you leave them out in the sun and they turn brown and start sproutin' little white hairs.
Shrek: NO! LAYERS! Onions have layers. Musicals have layers. Onions have layers... you get it. They both have layers.
Donkey: Oh, they both have layers. [pause] You know, not everybody likes onions.
Shrek: And not everyone likes musicals.
Sunday Seattlest headed down to the 5th Avenue Theater for Spotlight on Shrek, a preview for the upcoming pre-Broadway stint of Shrek The Musical (yes, the same Shrek of movie fame). Organized like a more sycophantic Inside the Actor's Studio, the various players onstage gushed with praise for the smart, sophisticated Seattle audiences and the feedback they'll provide, but for the early portions, it all just felt like a not-so-subtle sales pitch (which is exactly what it was).
More info on the spotlight, and how to get tickets after the jump.
Split into three "acts," the spotlight covered the story, the creators, and finally the stars of the upcoming production. The most interesting part of the first act was finding out about how ambitious the 5th Avenue Theater was in dealing with this work, using this as an opportunity to build traps into the stage floor. Much of the discussion was on the level of a DVD featurette, describing how the twenty page story was turned into a feature-length film, and how the material (or rather, the truckloads of profit) made it perfect for a musical adaptation.
The creators came out next, discussing the challenges of writing with such little source material, and the constraints and freedom that provided, with a running joke about the secrecy of the title character's appearance. They were a likeable enough trio, but it wasn't until they started actually got behind the piano and sang a few selections that things came to life.
Accordingly, things peaked when Christopher Sieber (Lord Farquaad) came out to perform a few numbers. His glee at playing such an evil character and the enthusiasm he brought to the songs were exactly the spark that the spotlight needed. It's a silly, irreverent musical based on a silly, irreverent movie based on a not-so-silly, not-so-irreverent book. The spotlight should have kept more of that light tone and depended less on bland talking heads (it's cool that Jeffrey Katzenberg - the "K" in "SKG" of the Dreamworks logo - was there, but it would have been better had he come out in costume or anything less...perfunctory). The play looks like it'll be nothing short of a good time (if you liked the movie and don't mind occasional bouts of jazz hands), but it took an hour for the spotlight to get through the business and get to the fun.
Tickets for Shrek The Musical are on sale now exclusively to 5th Avenue Theater subscribers. Looks like it's time to subscribe.
