From May 3 to 12, the McPherson Playhouse is home to everyone’s favourite ogre.
The Victoria Operatic Society spring show has Shrek, Donkey, Princess Fiona and the rest of the fairy-tale gang singing and dancing in the pop culture phenomenon Shrek The Musical. The family-friendly show features Morgan McLeod as the disgruntled ogre, Heidi Fox Lange as the princess, Dwayne Gordon as vertically-challenged tyrant Lord Farquaad and Dan Comeau as Donkey in this story that kids and adults alike know and love.
Beginning with William Steig’s 1990 book Shrek!, the fairy tale parody spawned four movies, spinoffs and millions of humorous Internet content. Like the movies, Shrek The Musical playfully satirizes fairy tales and their movies, with different productions sprinkling in references from such Broadway shows as Rent and Wicked.
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Winner of the Best Costume Design Tony Award in 2009, as well as being nominated for Best Musical, Shrek The Musical hit production not long after the Dreamworks Studios film hit the big screen in 2001. Starting in 2002, writer David Lindsay-Abaire, Thoroughly Modern Millie lyricist Jeanine Tesori and Avenue Q creator Jason Moore previewed the first production in Seattle in 2008, which quickly moved to Broadway later that year.
After its run ended in 2010, the musical toured around the world, entertaining theatre-goers with its wisecracking story of friendship and acceptance.
Tickets for the VOS show start at $21.75. For more information on the company, check out vostheatre.ca and for tickets head over to rmts.bc.ca.
– Felicia Santarossa, contributor
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