Shrek the Musical
Jul. 13th, 2014 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aSaw Shrek the Musical at the Berkeley Playhouse today, and it was pretty terrific. I enjoyed the original movie when I saw it, but always found that it had two flaws: an overly obnoxious Donkey and too many flatulence jokes. Shrek the Musical was both less annoying and less flatulent.
(Did you see what I did? That was almost a flatulence joke?)
The Musical has a lot of the delightful elements of the movie: deconstructionist faerie tales, lots of faerie tale critters, messages about acceptance, and lots of humor. There were also fun references to books and faerie tales as well as some meta-commentary on the faerie tale genre.
However, The Musical also really nailed the music. Not only is there a lot of variety and lot of really upbeat fun, but the Musical also constantly references other Broadway shows. A few great songs from Rent were satirized in the Donkey's first song; "76 Trombones" (which we just saw in The Music Man) briefly blared up through a song late in the play; and the last lines of "Defying Gravity" (from Wicked) ended yet another song. Overall, the music was very strong, but the references just made it that much more fun.
I loved almost every song, and there were some terrific dancing numbers too. Among the great songs: Don't Let Me Go (Donkey, with the Rent asides), I Know It's Today (Fiona, a song lasting 20 years, sung consecutively by three actresses), What I'd Be (Shrek, about being a hero), I Think I Got You Beat (Shrek & Fiona, other than the fart-and-burp-contest ending), Freak Flag (the faerie tale cast, although disappointingly there was no flag run back and forth like there should have been), I'm a Believer (the whole cast, yes from the Monkees, with amazingly frenetic energy for a show ender).
Berkeley Playhouse's production was also pretty great. Great costumes and make-ups that generally raised the bar for what I've seen over the last few years; a curious flat set that was meant to look like a pop-up book and was a really interesting visual; and really terrific designs for the Dragon numbers.
I hold with my analysis that my favorite broadway shows are the recent ones (Rent, Wicked, Avenue Q, Seussical, and now Shrek). Overall, well recommended. Go see it at the Berkeley Playhouse before it ends in about three weeks. There were too many empty seats today!
(Did you see what I did? That was almost a flatulence joke?)
The Musical has a lot of the delightful elements of the movie: deconstructionist faerie tales, lots of faerie tale critters, messages about acceptance, and lots of humor. There were also fun references to books and faerie tales as well as some meta-commentary on the faerie tale genre.
However, The Musical also really nailed the music. Not only is there a lot of variety and lot of really upbeat fun, but the Musical also constantly references other Broadway shows. A few great songs from Rent were satirized in the Donkey's first song; "76 Trombones" (which we just saw in The Music Man) briefly blared up through a song late in the play; and the last lines of "Defying Gravity" (from Wicked) ended yet another song. Overall, the music was very strong, but the references just made it that much more fun.
I loved almost every song, and there were some terrific dancing numbers too. Among the great songs: Don't Let Me Go (Donkey, with the Rent asides), I Know It's Today (Fiona, a song lasting 20 years, sung consecutively by three actresses), What I'd Be (Shrek, about being a hero), I Think I Got You Beat (Shrek & Fiona, other than the fart-and-burp-contest ending), Freak Flag (the faerie tale cast, although disappointingly there was no flag run back and forth like there should have been), I'm a Believer (the whole cast, yes from the Monkees, with amazingly frenetic energy for a show ender).
Berkeley Playhouse's production was also pretty great. Great costumes and make-ups that generally raised the bar for what I've seen over the last few years; a curious flat set that was meant to look like a pop-up book and was a really interesting visual; and really terrific designs for the Dragon numbers.
I hold with my analysis that my favorite broadway shows are the recent ones (Rent, Wicked, Avenue Q, Seussical, and now Shrek). Overall, well recommended. Go see it at the Berkeley Playhouse before it ends in about three weeks. There were too many empty seats today!