CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, September 09, 2008

"Shrek the Musical" gets off to a great start in Seattle

Jim Hill: "It's often been said that you only get one chance to make a first impression. But with this opening number, 'Shrek the Musical' manages to do in seconds what the original animated feature struggled for an hour or more to do. Which is give the audience a reason to actually care about the title character."

6 comments:

Chris said...

Really? Are you sure? As I said before, the movie musicals need to go away. What works in film does not always work in theater. Also, are ideas for new musicals so hard to come by that we feel the need to "borrow" from other industries.

I am glad to hear that the creative team took the initiative to change the beginning of the show. The movie was slow to start and the fact that they are willing to depart from the original shows the ability to adapt to the different media.

I would love to see the big media corporations like Disney and Dreamworks stop trying to make millions of dollars and try to further the art form.

Katherine! said...

I think some movie musicals are good ideas like this one. It seems like a very cute idea to add the backstory for Shrek to get the audience more on his side. Also its fun just to read about the process the show is under. With what the reviews say it looks like this will be a great show to take the whole family too.
Break a leg Shrek the Musical cast!

Hjohnson said...

I like Shrek a lot, and I'm totally fine with it being a musical. If movies turned musicals aren't your thing, there's still plenty more shows to enjoy. Lots of "movsicals" don't pan out, but lots of original musicals flop, too. It's true that not everything translates well from screen to stage--and vice versa--but I have a good feeling about Shrek.

The new beginning is definitely a good change. More back story for your main character never hurts.

Anonymous said...

First, I like how they changed the story to coerce the audience into liking the show. That was a very good idea in terms of writing. However I actually own an original copy of William Stag's Shrek and this productions begins how the book begins. The movie totally deviates from the book entirely.

Now for the bad bits. I don't like how theatre these days is a money making machine instead of a dialogue with the world at large. That's not to say that I don't like entertaining musicals its just that too much emphasizes and money is being poured into these flashy productions and not enough original material is being shown on Broadway. I believe that the golden age of Broadway has long been dead and these new "movicals" are evidence of that.

Allegra REGE said...

I have to say my first reaction was similar to Chris' as SERIOUSLY!!! But as i continued reading the article i found myself surprisingly curious. Thoughts like i wonder how they are going to do that and will that really work started popping into my mind. I especially love that they are adding their own twist on the original movie because not only does it help the audience relate better with the character but it adds a greater backstory and some more substance to the plot. I believe that it can be good if they do it the right way because it has plenty of potential to become a great musical for the whole family to enjoy!

Anonymous said...

well, i think shrek already has a good enough script to start off. we sometimes see unfortunate incidents where some shows are based on a poorly written script. but shrek already did great in motion pictures and hopefully it will take over the theatre audiences, too. what a way to break a leg in seattle!