Culture | Theatre The Evening Standard's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Shrek just keeps on giving, doesn’t he? We can’t get over the ogre.
DreamWorks’ first spoof fairytale animation appeared in 2001, with Mike Myers voicing the truculent emerald antihero, Eddie Murphy as his garrulous Donkey companion and Cameron Diaz as the combative Princess Fiona. There have been four sequels so far with a fifth just announced, plus the Puss in Boots spinoffs. In 2008 it was turned into a Broadway musical by David Lindsay-Abaire (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesoro (music) which came to the West End in 2011.
Now it’s back in London, remounted at the cavernous Eventim after a regional tour. Though cheerfully well-meaning, and likely to find a captive family audience for the summer holidays, it’s pretty lame. In theory Shrek should be a surefire candidate for musical adaptation: the original movie had a score full of pop hits and the films it pastiched, from Disney and others, are full of mockable tunes.
Our theatres brim with shows that have expanded the bankability of existing intellectual properties by adding songs, from Back to the Future to Mrs Doubtfire. Unfortunately, this feels less like the reinvention of a much-loved classic in a new medium, more like a lazy rip-off. The songs are unremarkable, the occasional flashes of wit in the lyrics swamped by inanities: Fiona shares with us .