Is Shrek Drek?
Is Shrek Drek?With all the changes taking place for the upcoming Broadway tuner Shrek - The Musical, no one would accuse you of being an ogre for wondering whether the show will be DOA.
Given the underwhelming Variety review for the Seattle tryout, which stated:
It also has plenty of flaws, but none necessarily fatal ... (Brian) d'Arcy James and (Sutton) Foster are a delight -- separately and together... Sadly, the same cannot be said of d’Arcy James and (Chester) Gregory. For some reason, the grumpy-ogre-plus-pesky-sidekick formula ... falls flat here, not helped by the static staging of some of their scenes.... Or it could be that the role of the donkey would be better suited to a character actor than to a singer-dancer — even one as accomplished as Gregory. Gregory doesn’t fare much better with his other partner, the dragon, played sometimes by (Kecia) Lewis-Evans alone, sometimes by a phalanx of women, sometimes by a puppet and sometimes by a combination thereof.it probably came as no surprise yesterday when it was announced that Gregory and Lewis-Evans will not be transferring to Broadway with the rest of the cast, especially after the Dreamworks chief Jeffrey Katzenberg admitted that critics' reviews had been "spot on." Passing Strange's breakthrough star Daniel Breaker replaces Gregory (and suddenly the musical has become more appealing to me, a complete Shrek virgin, who has never seen any portion of the film franchise). Lewis-Evans' role as the dragon is reportedly being substantially reworked.
As if that wasn't enough, it had been previously reported that choreographer-director Rob Ashford had been brought in "to provide 'a fresh pair of eyes.'" However, Ashford's presence has yet to yield an official credit.
Whether or not all of these changes will shore-up Shrek remains to be seen. But given the overall positive response I've had from many Seattle audience members, the upcoming alterations may very well make the difference between Shrek success and just another Young Frankenstein.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Brian d'Arcy James, Broadway, Chester Gregory II, Daniel Breaker, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Musical, Rob Ashford, Shrek The Musical, Sutton Foster
posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Wednesday, October 01, 2008
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