Word: broadway
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Shrek, the new Broadway musical based on the 2001 movie hit, is DreamWorks' first attempt to capture a share of the riches that Disney has amassed by turning its animated musicals into Broadway blockbusters. And on paper it's a no-brainer. The movie, based on William Steig's children's stories about a softhearted ogre, was one of the most charming of the new wave of cartoons for the whole family launched in 1989 by Disney's The Little Mermaid. With its fart jokes and self-parodying humor, Shrek was hipper and funnier than the more earnest and straightforward...
Shrek the movie differs from the animated hits that Disney has brought to the stage in several important ways. For one thing, it's not a musical - which means no Elton John or Howard Ashman-Alan Menken songs to build a Broadway score around. More crucially, it is the first of the computer-animated films to be turned into theater - which presents different challenges. The romantic sweep and handcrafted classicism of Disney's earlier films could in no way be translated literally to the stage - and that inspired directors like Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and Francesca Zambello (The Little...
...without the speed and dexterity of the digital palate, everything that was light and offhand in Shrek onscreen becomes heavy and in-your-face in Shrek onstage. Brian d'Arcy James, a competent Broadway-musical vet, looks the part in his lime green makeup as Shrek but misses most of the gentle-giant charisma of the character (voiced by Mike Myers) onscreen. His hilariously hyperactive donkey buddy is a big comedown when it's just a guy in a donkey suit - despite Daniel Breaker's good impersonation of Eddie Murphy's terrific performance. Sutton Foster, a Broadway superstar slumming here...
...help. Waddling out onstage as the show's big-name guest star, accompanied by fervent cheerleading from the "surprised" host, she looked plump, shaky and a little out of touch. As my colleague James Poniewozik pointed out in his review, the show's disappointing ratings were further evidence that Broadway is not mainstream American entertainment anymore...
...Maybe not, but Liza is still somebody's idea of entertainment. Witness the frenzied scene a few nights ago at Broadway's Palace Theatre, where Liza is doing a one-woman show through Jan. 4. For one thing, she looks a lot better on a theater stage than she does under the close scrutiny of TV cameras - sleeker, steadier, slimmer. The spangly pantsuits flatter her. She sounded better too, at least when the hand mike was in its proper place and she wasn't being drowned out by the 12-piece orchestra, larger than that for many Broadway musicals...