The Royal Players will present the Shrek the Musical on April 14-17 and April 21-24 at The Royal Theatre in Benton, 111 S. Market St., in Benton.
Show times are 7 p.m. on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets cost $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and Military, and $5 for students. Tickets can be reserved online at http://theroyalplayers.ticketleap.com. For phone reservations, call (501) 315-5483. Tickets can also be purchased at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.
Mark A. Burbank directs this a song-and dance-filled stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning DreamWorks animated film. Justin A. Pike and Jenny Johnston are choreographing.
The Royal Players will re-create the fantasy Kingdom of Far Far Away—where things get turned upside down. Instead of a knight riding a noble steed, the hero is Shrek, a swamp-dwelling ogre teamed up with a chatterbox donkey. And the princess? She’s the slightly temperamental Fiona. After Shrek rescues Fiona from a dragon-guarded tower, the two fall in love before she reveals there’s more to her than meets the eye. Other fairytale misfits add surprises: from a Gingerbread Man with an attitude to Three Blind Mice channeling their inner Dreamgirls.
This family-friendly show features a terrific score, with 19 songs including “What’s Up, Duloc,” “Who I’d Be,” and “Freak Flag.”
After Shrek the Musical premiered in 2008, as the most expensive show ever produced on Broadway, it played for more than a year and earned numerous Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations.
The musical draws from a 1990 children’s book by famed New Yorker cartoonist William Steig. Like the first 2001 Shrek film, the musical stays true to Steig’s fractured fairytale vision where dragons are friendly, swamps are better than castles, and the true hero isn’t handsome or noble but a grouchy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside ogre who is more or less content with himself and his life in a swamp.
“On the outside, Shrek the Musical is a show where kids can enjoy the colorful characters and the broad surface humor, while adults will enjoy the more sophisticated cultural references,” said Mark A. Burbank, the director. “Theatre lovers will love the sly Broadway bits from Fosse to Chicago to Wicked with a good-natured poke at Disney theme park cuteness. This is a funny show. It’s a family show. And it has a beautiful message about accepting people for who they are, not who you want them to be.”
The 39-member cast features actors of all ages from the central Arkansas area: Shawn O’Brien as Shrek; Hannah M. Sawyer as Fiona; Payton Justice as Donkey; and John Strickland as the villain, Lord Farquaad.
Other cast members include Cheryl Troillett (dragon), Laura Carlton (Gingy), Ethan Patterson (Pinocchio), Clint Cameron (Big Bad Wolf), Ryan Lynch, Darren Winkler and Khalil Brownlee (3 Little Pigs), Chris Counts (King Harold/White Rabbit), Josh Brown (Peter Pan), Jo Murry (Wicked Witch), Kaede Wilson (Sugar Plum Fairy), Isabelle Nguyen (Ugly Duckling), Rachel Brown (Mama Bear), Danny Troillett (Papa Bear/Papa Ogre), John Michael Murphy (Baby Bear), Anna Newman (Mad Hatter), Tamara Boggs (Humpty Dumpty), Morgan Potter (Elf), Jenny Moses, Sandra Shipe, and Karena Malott (3 Blind Mice), Grayson Gribble (Little Shrek/Dwarf), Chris Counts (King Harold/Bishop), Jennifer Medford (Queen Lillian/Bluebird), Brooklyn Courtney-Moore (Young Fiona), Makayla Shipe (Teen Fiona), Brian Roberson (Captain of the Guard), and McKayla McNeil (Pied Piper).
The ensemble includes Brooke Melton, Isabella Hammonds, Meredith Medford, Madeline Martin, Emily Johnson, Scarlett Castleberry and Madison Tate.
The show runs about 2 hours with one intermission. Shrek the Musical is generously sponsored by Everett Buick GMC.
