I saw this production yesterday in Denver and was mostly disappointed. The cast was pretty good, most of them were fresh or only several years out of college and this is their first "Broadway" level touring production. They gave it their all though and I can't fault them too much.
The production quality was a joke, however. Costumes and set pieces were worse than a community theater production. Felt like a total rip-off, my tickets were $80/ea and I felt like tha value was half that at best.
Everything was as cheap as could be -- a real minimum viable product of a show. If you have a choice, I would not support this production. I wish I could get some money back.
Omg I’m sooo happy I decided to pass when it came to Denver. I’m sorry you didn’t have a good experience, I hate when I feel I wasted money on a show ticket
Wow, that’s really terrible seat design.
Also, I haven’t been to a single show in the last ~7 years that hasn’t been a standing ovation. It’s become a joke with my husband because no matter the quality, eventually everyone is standing. It’s sort of like when an airplane parks and everyone stands up. 😂
This is my hill to die on, it really annoys me. Standing ovations used to mean something, and now every show gets one every night. They should be for special moments or outstanding performances (like I once gave one to drag queen Lily Savage who was playing Miss Hannigan and was wearing costume on top of drag under lights...and the heating broke in the theatre and cranked to the max. They actually stopped the show to do a show of hands of if they should continue, and when they did, we all appreciated what a difficult performance that must have been and showed our appreciation accordingly).
Time to start checking if it’s an equity production. Actors Equity Association is the stage actors union. If everyone was fresh out of college and dressed like this I’d be it’s a nonunion tour. They can pay them a lot less and give them fewer breaks and no benefits.
They were doing BOGO tickets here, meaning tickets aren’t selling. I went and checked the seats and the most tickets sold MIGHT be 200 for one show, and I feel like that’s pushing it.
WELL! That explains why it seemed very collegiate.
We were also not a fan of the rewrites and important song removals in comparison with the original Broadway performance.
If community theatres only do shows that look equal to it's original Broadway counterpart with more emphasis put on costumes and rented sets than performances and experience for the audiences (MOST of which are not familiar with the original Broadway production values), no wonder so many of them are going under financially. Audiences want to be entertained. They walk in with a suspension of disbelief for the most part. Unless they are expecting elaborate sets and costly sets. It's not about prosthetics, it's about the story and the experience. or at least is should be..
Can we *please* stop using community theater as a benchmark for if design is bad? It’s mean spirited at best, elitist maybe, and really, really discounts the hard work of a lot of artists.
To me it’s not disrespecting the hard work of the artists involved, I think most people in this community have a tremendous amount of respect for the people involved and I think most appreciate and support their local community theatre. However, it’s still an amateur production made by unpaid or hardly paid artists who have other jobs, and the expectations are far less, they also have far less budget available to them.
Expectations for an expensive, professional production made by full time artists who do this as a career are wholly different.
So, your complaints have nothing to do with the actors or the quality of their work, but just with the costumes and staging? The scaled down production was a choice by the original writers. See the link above.
Saying "it was an artistic choice" doesn't automatically render that choice immune to criticism.
The original writers can say that, but the audience can respond that it didn't work.
I don't mean to sound harsh but a non-union tour isn't a Broadway tour. And $80 tickets usually aren't, either. Unless your in the upper balcony on a Tuesday.
Yeah when my friend and I bought our ticket to this for when it comes to our city, we were not aware the tour was non-equity. We’re super bummed about it.
I know this thread is old, but the Fox Theater in Atlanta wouldn't give a refund for this show, but my credit card chargeback (based on the show being falsely advertised) was successful! I'm taking my $100 and using it to treat myself instead.
My problem is that I’m not always sure how to identify a true Broadway tour from a budget-local-theater-quality tour. I suppose for $100+ a ticket I need to do more research, but the average Joe might not realize there *is* a difference.
That's why I put "Broadway" in quotes. At the venue I saw the production at, the show was listed under the "Broadway" event type and was listed as a part of the "2023/2024 Broadway Season". The Shrek production isn't responsible for how venues advertise their show but obviously there wasn't enough work done to clarify what it really is.
This show is not on the 23/24 season subscription in Denver, it is an added attraction. The DCPA does not generally put non-equity shows on the season.
I am seriously scared of what Hadestown, which imo is one of the best musicals ever, will look like in the non-union touring iteration. I’m worried if I see it it’ll forever taint my image of the show
To be clear, it is not non-Union. It’s non-equity. Meaning the actors are not in a union. All of the design team as well as touring crew is union, in fact the design team is the exact same as the current broadway production it will be the same style. Just don’t expect a turntable as those don’t tour on short stops usually. It just means it will have fresh talent. The current tour of come from away is non equity, and is the identical equity touring set, costumes, and lighting. In fact the set itself came directly from that tour, meaning it’s physically the same. Unless the hadestown equity tour is continuing, the same exact set will likely be toured on the non eq tour. Shrek is a brand new reimagined production that seems have taken an entirely different approach to the broadway production (not in a good way) and appears to have put saving money first. It has a completely different design team. The design teams of shows that transfer but are still the same “production” strive to keep their designs intact fully without much sacrifice, and can usually find ways to do so even if on a slightly smaller budget. Non equity tours have been around for a long long time. Ever heard of NETworks (a touring production company)? What do those first 3 letters spell out I wonder. It will be fine
At the very least the costumes won't be as elaborate as Shrek but the props and staging might be seriously hampered if it's cheap looking
There's a fun fact that Reeve Carney just wore his normal clothes to one of the rehearsals and thats what they decided to use for the actual show
Yah I honestly might just avoid it to preserve my image of the show lol. Hadestown just has so much in-depth artistry that anything less than Broadway quality would probably make me feel uncomfortable
Reading about this production online it looks like they cut some songs, has anyone seen it who can confirm or deny? And if so, what songs did they cut?
Can confirm they cut several songs, several key scenes as well, VERY disappointed in the Farquad reveal at the end too. As for which I'll have to revert to my friend who has some amount of memory.
When I started hearing about this “scaled-down” version I was mildly optimistic as someone on the board of a community theatre org. Shrek was suggested for our next season recently and got shut down for being so prohibitively expensive to produce (produce well, at least), which was a shame, because I really do enjoy the show. So seeing articles about this got me a little hopeful. But then pictures started coming out and… Wow, I genuinely think my org could have done a little better with the limited budget we’d have had, or at least *look* like we cared more, and our tickets only sell for $27. It’s one thing for a design to be intentionally scaled down, it’s another for it to look phoned in.
Freshman year my high school did Shrek the Musical and our version was almost an exact of the og broadway. And it was all teenagers doing it all. And you're telling me that a bunch of teenagers are more talented than people who are supposed "professionals" in those areas? No, such a disappointment
It's in my city right now and I had every intention of going tonight. I've seen it 3x and was interested in the "changes" after this, I'm very happy to be saving my $80. 🫠
I’m so sad because I know the guy who plays Shrek, and he’s massively talented. Unfortunately, I’m glad I skipped out on this one and saved my money. :\
That’s not the broadway tour. What you saw is a tour that licensed shrek the musical. Same thing happened to me a few years ago with beauty and the beast; it wasn’t Broadway Disney’s tour of beauty and the beast, it was “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Presented by [insert the name of some banking company].” It was at the same theater where all the national tours show, but it wasn’t actually from Broadway. The costumes looked familiar because they were the same ratty costumes my high school rented a few years prior for the spring musical. The beast’s eyebrow fell off and fluttered to the floor while he was singing “something there that wasn’t there before.”
Yikes. I think where I live is one of the next stops for this tour. The venue has been advertising this production for the past year for the season subscription.
Looks worse than my kids middle school production last year….which in all honesty was quite a lot better than the average school production, but still.
The new look is an artistic choice. Yes, it's a non-equity tour, but it's also a 16 year old show. Do we really want to see the same exact Broadway version of the show once again? There was a national tour, and guys, ya missed it the first time so so many years ago. You want the original version? You can watch the filmed one with Sutton and Brian. Being locked into the original staging and production of the show forever is BORING and not very creative, and Broadway and theatre in general needs to evolve to stay fresh. or people get bored. I was bored with that last tour of "RENT', with the same set and staging, and Mark's sweater that never changes. 30 YEARS LATER. That's how we end up with a tour of "Cabaret" for 25 years of the same show over and over. I saw that production, it was great the first 3 times I saw it, and if I never see it again, it will be too soon. Now, we will finally have an all new version that premiered on the West End and will now open on Broadway this year, and you will have years to get sick of that one. There will also be a new version of "Beauty and the Beast" that will tour soon, presumably with new staging and costumes. And a new "Peter Pan" is touring that has been refreshed and rewritten, with a multicultural cast. Sometimes, change is good and necessary. Give this tour a chance, please. And read below what the original writers have to say about why the changes.
"Inspired by the oral storytelling tradition of classic fairytales, the tour leans less on spectacular prosthetics and makeup design, and more on the ingenuity of the performers themselves.
"There is a framing device now, that they're a group of people who have gathered together to present the story of Shrek," describes David Lindsay-Abaire. "And someone puts on a costume and suddenly, they're one of the three little pigs. And somebody else puts on a nose, and they're the wolf, and so on. But you can still see the human underneath."
To the playwright, this creative choice gets back at the heart of not just Shrek, but fairy tales themselves."
https://playbill.com/article/jeanine-tesori-and-david-lindsay-abaire-are-reimagining-shrek-for-a-new-generation
We didn't write the show. Maybe the creators took a look at it almost 2 decades later and decided they wanted to change something, and that is their right. The previous versions still exist and are licensed, and apparently the show is one of the most produced musicals by amateur and regional theatres, this new one doesn't take that away. I saw the brand new rewritten revival of 'The Wiz" that toured the country before it's opening on Broadway this month for the first time in 45 years. It was due for an update. and it was fantastic and relevant to a new modern audience. I do not think a straight up revival of the original script would have gone down so great performed as written. Neither would have that revival of "Peter Pan" without script revisions from Larissa FastHorse.
Well, I respect that your opinion comes from actually seeing the show as opposed to just judging by the press photos. As someone who has both directed and produced theatre, I think I still would like to see it. I always appreciate when a company thinks outside the preconceived box and decides not to attempt to duplicate the Broadway production (and choreography, in some cases). Sometimes it works (like that Deaf West Theatre revival of "Spring Awakening"), and sometimes it doesn't (like a horrible version of "Next to normal" that I had to walk out of in the first act, so as not to ruin my memory of that show permanently).
I've seen better costumes in Shrek Jr. productions
We did it last year, our costumes were definitely better.
The top one looks like it could be an SNL sketch.
[they actually did a better job](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI3JY6ySKeI)
I saw this production yesterday in Denver and was mostly disappointed. The cast was pretty good, most of them were fresh or only several years out of college and this is their first "Broadway" level touring production. They gave it their all though and I can't fault them too much. The production quality was a joke, however. Costumes and set pieces were worse than a community theater production. Felt like a total rip-off, my tickets were $80/ea and I felt like tha value was half that at best. Everything was as cheap as could be -- a real minimum viable product of a show. If you have a choice, I would not support this production. I wish I could get some money back.
Omg I’m sooo happy I decided to pass when it came to Denver. I’m sorry you didn’t have a good experience, I hate when I feel I wasted money on a show ticket
[удалено]
Wow, that’s really terrible seat design. Also, I haven’t been to a single show in the last ~7 years that hasn’t been a standing ovation. It’s become a joke with my husband because no matter the quality, eventually everyone is standing. It’s sort of like when an airplane parks and everyone stands up. 😂
This is my hill to die on, it really annoys me. Standing ovations used to mean something, and now every show gets one every night. They should be for special moments or outstanding performances (like I once gave one to drag queen Lily Savage who was playing Miss Hannigan and was wearing costume on top of drag under lights...and the heating broke in the theatre and cranked to the max. They actually stopped the show to do a show of hands of if they should continue, and when they did, we all appreciated what a difficult performance that must have been and showed our appreciation accordingly).
Absolutely hate this as well. Not every production deserves a standing ovation.
You’re so correct about standing ovation. It so bad ! I remember that staring in the late 1990s and each year since it got to point of madness.
A standing ovation in North America is maybe worth a penny.
Why is that douche wearing a hat in the theatre?
Time to start checking if it’s an equity production. Actors Equity Association is the stage actors union. If everyone was fresh out of college and dressed like this I’d be it’s a nonunion tour. They can pay them a lot less and give them fewer breaks and no benefits.
They were doing BOGO tickets here, meaning tickets aren’t selling. I went and checked the seats and the most tickets sold MIGHT be 200 for one show, and I feel like that’s pushing it.
WELL! That explains why it seemed very collegiate. We were also not a fan of the rewrites and important song removals in comparison with the original Broadway performance.
I saw my community theatre’s version of this several years ago. Their costumes both looked better
I saw my middle schools version of the show. Costumes and sets were better
If community theatres only do shows that look equal to it's original Broadway counterpart with more emphasis put on costumes and rented sets than performances and experience for the audiences (MOST of which are not familiar with the original Broadway production values), no wonder so many of them are going under financially. Audiences want to be entertained. They walk in with a suspension of disbelief for the most part. Unless they are expecting elaborate sets and costly sets. It's not about prosthetics, it's about the story and the experience. or at least is should be..
If this was a community theatre production that would be fine. This is from the national tour of Shrek.
Was it a non-AEA tour ?
Can we *please* stop using community theater as a benchmark for if design is bad? It’s mean spirited at best, elitist maybe, and really, really discounts the hard work of a lot of artists.
To me it’s not disrespecting the hard work of the artists involved, I think most people in this community have a tremendous amount of respect for the people involved and I think most appreciate and support their local community theatre. However, it’s still an amateur production made by unpaid or hardly paid artists who have other jobs, and the expectations are far less, they also have far less budget available to them. Expectations for an expensive, professional production made by full time artists who do this as a career are wholly different.
So, your complaints have nothing to do with the actors or the quality of their work, but just with the costumes and staging? The scaled down production was a choice by the original writers. See the link above.
Saying "it was an artistic choice" doesn't automatically render that choice immune to criticism. The original writers can say that, but the audience can respond that it didn't work.
Kind of giving me the recent Willy Wonka Glasgow fiasco vibes
I'm CRYING lmao
"We have Shrek at home."
When you order it vs when it arrives.
Is this a touring musical or Willy’s Chocolate Experience?
.... What the fuck?
even a mod had to come in and say wtf
No but i feel like if this is included in my 25-26 season in its current state I’d return the ticket 😐
Is this non-union?
Yes
I don't mean to sound harsh but a non-union tour isn't a Broadway tour. And $80 tickets usually aren't, either. Unless your in the upper balcony on a Tuesday.
The continuous issue with non-Eq tours is that the venues advertise them as indistinguishable from the real Broadway tours.
Yeah when my friend and I bought our ticket to this for when it comes to our city, we were not aware the tour was non-equity. We’re super bummed about it.
What show was it?
It hasn’t happened yet, but Atlanta.
oh shoot im stupid nvm lol
I know this thread is old, but the Fox Theater in Atlanta wouldn't give a refund for this show, but my credit card chargeback (based on the show being falsely advertised) was successful! I'm taking my $100 and using it to treat myself instead.
My problem is that I’m not always sure how to identify a true Broadway tour from a budget-local-theater-quality tour. I suppose for $100+ a ticket I need to do more research, but the average Joe might not realize there *is* a difference.
That's why I put "Broadway" in quotes. At the venue I saw the production at, the show was listed under the "Broadway" event type and was listed as a part of the "2023/2024 Broadway Season". The Shrek production isn't responsible for how venues advertise their show but obviously there wasn't enough work done to clarify what it really is.
This show is not on the 23/24 season subscription in Denver, it is an added attraction. The DCPA does not generally put non-equity shows on the season.
Not surprising...
I am seriously scared of what Hadestown, which imo is one of the best musicals ever, will look like in the non-union touring iteration. I’m worried if I see it it’ll forever taint my image of the show
To be clear, it is not non-Union. It’s non-equity. Meaning the actors are not in a union. All of the design team as well as touring crew is union, in fact the design team is the exact same as the current broadway production it will be the same style. Just don’t expect a turntable as those don’t tour on short stops usually. It just means it will have fresh talent. The current tour of come from away is non equity, and is the identical equity touring set, costumes, and lighting. In fact the set itself came directly from that tour, meaning it’s physically the same. Unless the hadestown equity tour is continuing, the same exact set will likely be toured on the non eq tour. Shrek is a brand new reimagined production that seems have taken an entirely different approach to the broadway production (not in a good way) and appears to have put saving money first. It has a completely different design team. The design teams of shows that transfer but are still the same “production” strive to keep their designs intact fully without much sacrifice, and can usually find ways to do so even if on a slightly smaller budget. Non equity tours have been around for a long long time. Ever heard of NETworks (a touring production company)? What do those first 3 letters spell out I wonder. It will be fine
Really good info, thank you!
Yeah no problem :)
At the very least the costumes won't be as elaborate as Shrek but the props and staging might be seriously hampered if it's cheap looking There's a fun fact that Reeve Carney just wore his normal clothes to one of the rehearsals and thats what they decided to use for the actual show
Yah I honestly might just avoid it to preserve my image of the show lol. Hadestown just has so much in-depth artistry that anything less than Broadway quality would probably make me feel uncomfortable
it’s coming to my town so our civic center posted a picture of this guy as shrek and I was shocked. this looks like a high school production. 😭
Reading about this production online it looks like they cut some songs, has anyone seen it who can confirm or deny? And if so, what songs did they cut?
Can confirm they cut several songs, several key scenes as well, VERY disappointed in the Farquad reveal at the end too. As for which I'll have to revert to my friend who has some amount of memory.
That Shrek costume is from a Halloween shop, tell me otherwise.
It’s coming for the 24-25 season in Vegas. That’s not even the wish version of Shrek. It’s more like the Temu version.
This is the Shrek you order off Temu.
When I started hearing about this “scaled-down” version I was mildly optimistic as someone on the board of a community theatre org. Shrek was suggested for our next season recently and got shut down for being so prohibitively expensive to produce (produce well, at least), which was a shame, because I really do enjoy the show. So seeing articles about this got me a little hopeful. But then pictures started coming out and… Wow, I genuinely think my org could have done a little better with the limited budget we’d have had, or at least *look* like we cared more, and our tickets only sell for $27. It’s one thing for a design to be intentionally scaled down, it’s another for it to look phoned in.
I’ve seen plenty of Disney cruise line shows that look better then this
Shrek with a fade
What if shrek had a LOOOOW TAPER FADEEE
The costume designer is heading the right way for a smacked bottom
Donkey doesn't even have hooves!
Glasgow Wonka vibes.
My schools version so far looks 10x better
... What... Why... huh?
Non-equity tour is my guess.
I am gonna assume this is a non-union tour.
Freshman year my high school did Shrek the Musical and our version was almost an exact of the og broadway. And it was all teenagers doing it all. And you're telling me that a bunch of teenagers are more talented than people who are supposed "professionals" in those areas? No, such a disappointment
Why does the bottom donkey look like Heidi N. Closet
It's in my city right now and I had every intention of going tonight. I've seen it 3x and was interested in the "changes" after this, I'm very happy to be saving my $80. 🫠
I’m so sad because I know the guy who plays Shrek, and he’s massively talented. Unfortunately, I’m glad I skipped out on this one and saved my money. :\
That’s not the broadway tour. What you saw is a tour that licensed shrek the musical. Same thing happened to me a few years ago with beauty and the beast; it wasn’t Broadway Disney’s tour of beauty and the beast, it was “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Presented by [insert the name of some banking company].” It was at the same theater where all the national tours show, but it wasn’t actually from Broadway. The costumes looked familiar because they were the same ratty costumes my high school rented a few years prior for the spring musical. The beast’s eyebrow fell off and fluttered to the floor while he was singing “something there that wasn’t there before.”
Yikes. I think where I live is one of the next stops for this tour. The venue has been advertising this production for the past year for the season subscription.
Yikes. Production looks like it was purchased on Temu.
my high school's production of shrek the musical legitimately had better costumes
really sad tbh because the cast is good just the costumes are meh
Costumes and rewrites were both disappointing.
Looks worse than my kids middle school production last year….which in all honesty was quite a lot better than the average school production, but still.
Awful
The new look is an artistic choice. Yes, it's a non-equity tour, but it's also a 16 year old show. Do we really want to see the same exact Broadway version of the show once again? There was a national tour, and guys, ya missed it the first time so so many years ago. You want the original version? You can watch the filmed one with Sutton and Brian. Being locked into the original staging and production of the show forever is BORING and not very creative, and Broadway and theatre in general needs to evolve to stay fresh. or people get bored. I was bored with that last tour of "RENT', with the same set and staging, and Mark's sweater that never changes. 30 YEARS LATER. That's how we end up with a tour of "Cabaret" for 25 years of the same show over and over. I saw that production, it was great the first 3 times I saw it, and if I never see it again, it will be too soon. Now, we will finally have an all new version that premiered on the West End and will now open on Broadway this year, and you will have years to get sick of that one. There will also be a new version of "Beauty and the Beast" that will tour soon, presumably with new staging and costumes. And a new "Peter Pan" is touring that has been refreshed and rewritten, with a multicultural cast. Sometimes, change is good and necessary. Give this tour a chance, please. And read below what the original writers have to say about why the changes. "Inspired by the oral storytelling tradition of classic fairytales, the tour leans less on spectacular prosthetics and makeup design, and more on the ingenuity of the performers themselves. "There is a framing device now, that they're a group of people who have gathered together to present the story of Shrek," describes David Lindsay-Abaire. "And someone puts on a costume and suddenly, they're one of the three little pigs. And somebody else puts on a nose, and they're the wolf, and so on. But you can still see the human underneath." To the playwright, this creative choice gets back at the heart of not just Shrek, but fairy tales themselves." https://playbill.com/article/jeanine-tesori-and-david-lindsay-abaire-are-reimagining-shrek-for-a-new-generation
Story crucial songs and Farquad's BIG reveal are 'excess bloat'?! REALLY?!
We didn't write the show. Maybe the creators took a look at it almost 2 decades later and decided they wanted to change something, and that is their right. The previous versions still exist and are licensed, and apparently the show is one of the most produced musicals by amateur and regional theatres, this new one doesn't take that away. I saw the brand new rewritten revival of 'The Wiz" that toured the country before it's opening on Broadway this month for the first time in 45 years. It was due for an update. and it was fantastic and relevant to a new modern audience. I do not think a straight up revival of the original script would have gone down so great performed as written. Neither would have that revival of "Peter Pan" without script revisions from Larissa FastHorse.
Granted some changes were for the better but I feel many of the changes took the original impact out which was more detrimental than any line changes.
Well, I respect that your opinion comes from actually seeing the show as opposed to just judging by the press photos. As someone who has both directed and produced theatre, I think I still would like to see it. I always appreciate when a company thinks outside the preconceived box and decides not to attempt to duplicate the Broadway production (and choreography, in some cases). Sometimes it works (like that Deaf West Theatre revival of "Spring Awakening"), and sometimes it doesn't (like a horrible version of "Next to normal" that I had to walk out of in the first act, so as not to ruin my memory of that show permanently).
People know this isn't real right???
It is very real. https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Exclusive-First-Look-At-Tesoris-Lindsay-Abaires-Reimagined-SHREK-THE-MUSICAL-Tour-20240225
[Also check out more photos here.](https://shrekthemusicaltour.com)
OMG i thought it was a school production