‘Shrek the Musical’
Oct. 28, Robinson Center Music Hall
New York critics weren’t wild about the 2008 stage incarnation of “Shrek the Musical.” But, outside of “The Lion King,” theater critics have pretty much walled off their hearts to popular film cartoons being made into high-priced, Great White Way entertainment. Then again, it’s a tricky business to turn the intricately animated into singing and dancing flesh-and-blood.
Now “Shrek the Musical” arrives at Robinson Center Music Hall thanks to a non-equity tour diverted to Little Rock by Celebrity Attractions. Directed on Broadway by Arkansas native Jason Moore, “Shrek” has undergone changes and songs have been added and cut (book and lyrics are by David Lindsay-Abaire and music is by Jeanine Tesori), but it’s still a musical that very much resembles the 2001 Dreamworks movie.