Two performers worked the arms and legs of the Baby Shrek puppet in the opening scene of โShrek the Musicalโ at Centennial Hall on Wednesday night, and the children in the audience squealed and applauded.
When UA alumnus Naphtali Yaakov Curry, resplendent in his Donkey character costume, moved the puppetโs legs so that it appeared to be sitting, a more mature side of the audience let loose a chorus of yeahs and applause.
That contrast of young, older and everything in between was why Broadway In Tucson needed to add a second performance of โShrek the Musicalโ on Wednesday, March 6. The Broadway tour was initially going to be one night only on Thursday, March 7, but those tickets quickly sold out last fall.
After seeing the show on Wednesday, we get it: โShrek the Musicalโ doesnโt break any new ground in the annals of great American musicals and we werenโt humming the songs when we left Centennial.
But it was unapologetically fun โ and funny.
We all know the story, based on the 2001 DreamWorks Animation film about an ogre and his companion Donkey rescuing Princess Fiona for Lord Farquaad in exchange for him booting the fairytale creatures from Shrekโs swamp.
The musical ran just a year on Broadway in 2009 and won several Tony Awards before the creators took it on the road for a year in 2010. A reimagined version featuring puppetry and boosting the emphasis on the themes of loving ourselves and one another, with new choreography by Danny Mefford (โDear Evan Hansenโ), launched in February and continues through early August.
At Wednesdayโs performance, the little kids in the audience screamed with excitement when Shrek (Nicholas Hambruch) came on stage and tried to scare off the fairytale characters. The kids were oblivious to Hambruchโs uneven vocal performance; early on it was hard to hear him over the band playing on stage and he sometimes sounded flat before he warmed up later into the two-hour-20-minute performance.
They also probably didnโt make the connection to Kelly Prendergastโs wonderful, nasally high-octave Gingy (aka the Gingerbread Man, a cute-as-can-be puppet) and the whiny character we saw in the film.
Like the adults, the kids no doubt would have loved the chance to give Cecily Dionne Davis a hug for her take on Princess Fiona. Who doesnโt love a good princess hug, but the kidsโ parentsโ hugs would be for Davisโs wonderful vocal range and warm personality she brought to the role. Weโre introduced to Fiona โ using puppets that look like oversized stuffed dolls โ first as a young child (wonderfully voiced/sung by Ally Choe), then as a teen (Katherine Ellen Paladichuk) before the adult version of Fiona picks up the aria โI Know Itโs Today.โ
But Curryโs Donkey stole the show and the hearts of the audience, and not just because we felt a familial connection given his UA ties. Curry, in his biggest role since earning his bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater from the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film and Television in 2020, brought that same sense of silliness and lovability to the character as Eddie Murphy did in the film version. Curry was genuinely funny, from his impeccable comic timing to his physical comedy, including quivering and whining in a scene where he and Shrek cross a bridge over a lava river to rescue the princess.
Other show highlights included the ensembleโs funny yet pointed performance of โFreak Flag,โ a song that sums up the playโs theme of loving one another despite our differences, and the wonderfully voiced Tori Kocher as the Dragon. The scene where Dragon eats Lord Farquaad (Timmy Lewis) was priceless.
