Shrek The Musical Essay

“Shrek the Musical” is a book musical adaption of the Dream Works film Shrek. The librettist and lyricist is David Lindsay-Abaire and was composed by Jeanine Tesori. The story line of the play follows closely to the film. It follows Shrek an Ogre trying to reclaim his swamp back from a group of fairy tale characters. In order to do so he must confront Lord Farquad who has banished all the fairy tale characters to Shrek's swamp. In doing so Shrek is promised his swamp back in exchange for him retrieving a princess from castle tower. Shrek the musical used a combination of scenic, lighting and costume design to enhance the performance for the audience.

The scenic design of the performance was done by Tim Hatley. The scenes were done on what appeared to be a Proscenium stage, which as effective because it allowed a wide area of props and objects. It also create a film like quality to it. The scenes like the swamp were convincing and the layout of Farquad castle was captivating. The scene with Donkey and Shrek traveling yet moving in place worked very well for a …show more content…
He used lighting in several scenes of the performance to captivate the audience or help explain what was happening. For example, lighting was used effectively when the Dragon was first shown in the play. Donkey was really scared and the darkness really helped show that, as well get the audience to experience that them self. The lighting was also very useful for the transitions throughout the play. It was used to show the transition between day and night when the characters were traveling. It was also used quite often to focus on the character who was singing or talking at the time. It was used effectively in the scene to focus on Donkey and Shrek arguing whether they should travel together. The lighting design was very effective, it got the audience to feel the mood of the scene and focus on the action of the