Just yesterday I reported here that even the New York Times was speculating on the likely future of Shrek - the Musical on Broadway; in a feature yesterday it stated that “The Broadway rumor mill has been speculating for weeks that Shrek might close soon after New Year’s Day”.
No sooner had these words been uttered than later yesterday it was confirmed: it will indeed close Jan. 3.
In a statement issued to the press, Jeffrey Katzenberg - the former Disney executive turned CEO of DreamWorks Animation - commented, “While we were hopeful that the show would have had a longer run on Broadway we believe it will continue to create financial value for the company and deliver profits beyond our initial investment.”
There is indeed a future life for the show - it had previously already announced that it is launching a US national tour next July in Chicago, and I’ve also heard that they’ve been scouting London theatres for a possible West End opening. It’s the classic producing model: as long as the show is still running somewhere, it remains an asset on the books and the initial investment isn’t written off yet.
After The Lord of the Rings flopped in Toronto, it promptly headed to London, where it flopped all over again. And when it flopped there, the producers announced that plans were “underway for the production to re-open in Germany in November 2009 and a touring version is also being developed to launch in New Zealand in 2009 before being presented in cities across Australia and the Far East”. Those plans have gone remarkably quiet.
But the stakes for Shrek aren’t just financial; they’re also over something far more costly: pride and reputation. As Michael Riedel wrote in yesterday’s New York Post, ahead of the closure announcement, “Shrek was DreamWorks’ attempt to take on Disney, which conquered Broadway with Beauty and the Beast and
And it’s not just Katzenberg who will be smarting today: it’s also another major blow to Neal Street Productions, the London-based theatre and film company that Sam Mendes set up in 2003 with his Donmar executive producer Caro Newling after they both left that theatre. Though Neal Street have added investment to shows that others have created like the successful transfers of the Menier’s Sunday in the Park with George and the Donmar’s Mary Stuart to the West End and Broadway, they’ve developed very little original work so far, preferring to produce ready-made plays, typically from America, like Fuddy Mears (a fast flop for them at the Arts Theatre), Three Days of Rain and Anna in the Tropics.
A new stage version of Almodovar’s All About My Mother that they co-produced for its Old Vic premiere never went further, though there had been talk of a US production. None of these, however, featured contributions from Mr Mendes; it is only the Bridge Project that he is lending his name and talents to, which is also co-produced under the company’s auspices.
So once again a bad musical - and a flop to boot is going to be foisted on the unsuspecting and wildly gullible American public . Surely the presenters throughout America could do their consistuancies are service and not book this turkey . Well we can dream, can't we?