Shrek on Broadway

Tracy’s parents arrived in NYC yesterday for a brief mid-week visit.  While the weather is not cooperating too well at the moment, we do have some fun items on the agenda.  Last night we took in a Broadway show, as we saw Shrek.

I was a huge fan of the Shrek movie when it came out and the stage production does a good job of taking some of the best parts of the cinema version and including them verbatim (Ogres are like onions, “Not my buttons!”, “I’m not a puppet, I’m a real boy”, etc).  The cavalcade of fairy tale “freaks” (as they’re called in the play version) are excellent, as is the stage design and overall set production.

All in all, the show is a blast.  The first act is good and fun, but the 2nd stanza is excellent.  We had a blast the whole time, including at the end when the whole cast signs off (a la the movie version) singing “I’m a Believer”.

We got a little extra treat after the show, as one of my buddies here in NYC (Noah Rivera) is a performer in the production. He plays the White Rabbit and a couple other ensemble characters and was able to show us the backstage area and costumes.  I can’t imagine what a madhouse it is backstage during the show because it’s TINY back there - and yet the crowd only sees precision on display the whole time.

Sadly, they’re pretty vigilant about no pictures of the theater, so we didn’t get any shots inside.  But we can give the green light to anyone looking for a fun and relatively cost efficient Broadway show.  The only downside - they just announced that the Broadway version will be shutting down in early January.  But there’s plans for a nationwide tour that will start in May and hit many of the bigger US cities - so if you get the chance, maybe you can see the show a little closer to home!  If so, we highly recommend going.

Photo from Flickr