Book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire; Music by Jeanine Tesori/ Based on the Dreamworks animation motion picture and the book by William Steig

Orpheus Musical Theatre Society  directed by Jenn Donnelly

A terrific production can make a believer out of a curmudgeon of a reviewer who has always hated body-noise and bathroom jokes. No doubt about it.

Orpheus Musical Theatre Society‘s Shrek the Musical overcomes the limitations of the script, the generally unmemorable score and assorted loud belches and regular breaking of wind to land a show of stunning quality and great visuals. It also offers a low-key presentation of the message that love and acceptance come in many forms. …

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Crossing from one medium to another works best with first-class material. For example, the novella Gigi by Collette became a delightful movie at the hands of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe in 1958. Despite the high quality of the movie, the stage versions, musical or play, were less successful.

When the original is not top notch, the result is even less likely to be entirely successful. The 1954 Paramount movie, White Christmas, had very mixed reviews (to put it mildly). Therefore, when David Ives and Paul Blake delivered a stage version, they were faced with numerous problems.

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