Nik Walker as Shrek and Marcus M. Martin as Donkey in the Muny production of Shrek: The Musical. Photo by Phillip Hamer.
Take the magic of Disney fairytales, add rapid-fire pop culture references and more than a few fart jokes, amplify it with an all-star voice cast, and you have Shrek: The Musical. It’s not just for the ’90s kids; millennial adults and their Gen Alpha children, nieces, and nephews are sure to get a kick out of the show. It’s a snarky postmodern spoof with old-school charm and ear worms as infectious as the diseased swamp Shrek calls home.
The massive media footprint of everyone’s favorite ogre makes it easy to forget his origins. Long before he became the star of a billion-dollar film franchise, Shrekwas a character in a picture book written and illustrated by award-winning New Yorker cartoonist William Steig. Fractured fairytales were hot in the ’90s and audiences were eager for an edgy alternative to the House of Mouse and their squeaky-clean musicals. DreamWorks snapped up the film rights and released the first Shrek movie in 2001, and the rest is Hollywood history.
In that respect, Shrek has a lot in common with The Addams Family. Both began as the quirky creations of New Yorker cartoonists, spawned media empires, and eventually found their way to Broadway.
Today, the first two Shrek films are beloved masterpieces that, along with Pixar’s Toy Story, pioneered computer animation and expanded expectations for animated family films. It also set the tone for the 2000s—boom times for post-ironic pop culture.
That cinematic success naturally brought the green guy to the stage. Written and first performed in 2008, Shrek: The Musical features an impressive pedigree, boasting lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori, the award-winning duo best known for Kimberly Akimbo. While a casual observer might expect a low-stakes children’s adventure akin to the SpongeBob SquarePants musical, the production is, in fact, a theatrical tour de force worthy of Webber. The soundtrack for the first film, featuring Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Smash Mouth’s cover of “I’m a Believer” (originally written by Neil Diamond for the Monkees), was a hit in its own right, so a musical version of Shrek wasn’t such a stretch. “Believer” is kept as the show’s high-energy encore, but the rest of the show features original songs.
The musical rehashes the events of the first Shrek film with minor twists. Shrek, our flatulent anti-hero, is content to live a quiet, nasty life in his swamp. His isolation comes to an abrupt end when a legion of fairytale creatures—including Pinocchio, the Three Little Pigs, and the Big Bad Wolf—are forcibly relocated to his land. They have been exiled by the tyrannical ruler of Duloc, a plastic, fake-nice parody of Disney World.
The very definition of “little man syndrome,” Lord Farquaad is played with scene-stealing delight by Troy Iwata. Little puppet legs are sewn onto the front of his outfit; to recreate Farquaad’s less-than-impressive physique, Iwata awkwardly shuffles about on his knees for the entire show. This choice yields excellent physical comedy; it also makes the actor’s clear and melodious singing all the more impressive. It can’t be easy to sing from the diaphragm while you kneel for two and a half hours.
Any successful staging of this material depends on the main trio, and the Muny cast delivers. Nik Walker is an experienced singer and comic actor who occasionally sets aside his affected Scottish accent to deliver rich, powerful vocals as Shrek. Marcus M. Martin is irresistibly cute in his Donkey onesie, offering soul singing reminiscent of the deep baritone of Ken Page (the academy-award winning voice of the Oogie Boogie Man). The slightly unhinged Princess Fiona receives many of the show’s best lines; Kara Lindsay delivers a dynamic performance to match her feisty character, who remains one of the most interesting and complex characters in the franchise.
This fantastical farce needs large-than-life setpieces, and the Muny delivers. The production features an innovative swiveling stage design that convincingly transforms from a swamp to a medieval dungeon, and then to a tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. The costume design is charming and complemented by zany performances from the supporting characters, who deliver some of the biggest laugh lines. Tyler Joseph Ellis is a clear standout as Pinocchio, playing him as a lanky, compulsive liar who eventually learns to love being a wooden boy and “let his freak flag fly.” Ellis’s musical comedy chops won’t surprise anyone who saw him in the 2025 production of Shucked at the Fox Theatre.
The production also features state-of-the-art puppetry from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The long-necked, smoke-belching Dragon is animated by at least four actors on stage, making it the most ambitious technical design, while Salome Smith, the “Voice of the Dragon,” soulfully sings from the wings. The deceptively simple hand puppet “Gingy” (the Gingerbread Man) makes another strong impression with its surprisingly lifelike facial movements. Aymee Garcia supplies a helium-pitched voice full of righteous indignation, demonstrating impressive ventriloquism skills while also singing beautifully as the Sugarplum Fairy. Other numbers feature large ensembles of over 20 actors, complete with chorus line kicks and tap-dancing straight out of a Busby Berkeley number.
Like a many-layered onion, Shrek: The Musical has hidden depth. It’s a simple enough concept, executed with incredible showmanship. It’s no surprise that the whole Shrek franchise, by extension, is experiencing a bit of a renaissance. 2022’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was a major hit, one of the best animated films of the 2020s; hopefully it’s just a taste of what’s coming in Shrek 5, which will feature Zendaya as Shrek’s teenage daughter. It’s ironic that Shrek spun off into a large-scale musical spectacle that rivals the Disney films it once mocked. But underneath those layers, Shrek still has the same crass, mischievous heart.
Shrek the Musical runs at the Muny through July 2. Performances start nightly at 8:15 p.m., with tickets starting at $20. The Muny has a “rain or shine” policy, so plan ahead, check the forecast, and bring a poncho. A little rain didn’t prevent the Friday performance from nearly selling out. Luckily, the tech crew quickly mopped down the set and started the show within 15 minutes. The resulting humid, hazy, and swampy air enhanced the experience—Shrek would have loved it. | Rob Von Nordheim
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit muny.org/shows.
