BENTON — Shrek, the lovable ogre, and his friends will take the stage of The Royal Theatre on Thursday as The Royal Players open their production of Shrek the Musical.
The show will continue through April 17 and will be presented again April 21-24. The Royal Theatre is at 111 S. Market St. in historic downtown Benton.
Show times are at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; and at 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and military personnel, and $5 for students. Tickets can be reserved online at 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 of Little Rock will direct the local production.
Burbank, 21, grew up in Benton, the son of Dean and Sandy Burbank.
He graduated from Bryant High School in 2013 and is now studying theater at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“I started out with the Young Players at age 5. I’ve been directing since I was 16, both here at The Royal Theatre and other theaters. I am assistant artistic director at The Studio Theatre in Little Rock,” he said.
“This is the biggest show I have ever directed,” Burbank said. “We have 39 people in the cast. This is a really big cast for such a small stage.
“I love this show. It’s a fantasy show, which makes it great, but a lot of fantasy shows don’t have a real message, but this one does.
“It rings true. … The message is of acceptance. Love who you are.”
Burbank said many people might be familiar with the Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film Shrek, which was released in 2001 and featured the voices of Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow.
“But this is not the same show — similar, but not the same,” Burbank said.
He said Shrek the Musical premiered on Broadway in 2008. The show 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 The New Yorker cartoonist William Steig. Burbank said that like the first 2001 Shrek film, the musical “stays true to Steig’s fractured fairy-tale vision in which 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,” Burbank said. “Theater 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.”
Burbank said the songs are different from the animated movie, and many of the characters that were in the animated version are more developed in this stage production.
“For instance, Pinocchio is a supporting lead in the musical,” he said. “Most of the fairy-tale characters were just that in the animated version. Here you see the fairy tales expanded. Even Shrek’s character is expanded. You will learn more about his background in this production.”
Three of the four actors playing principal characters are making their first appearance with The Royal Players.
The principals include the following:
• Shawn O’Brien of Little Rock appears as Shrek.
A 2001 graduate of Harding University in Searcy with a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science, O’Brien is making his second appearance with The Royal Players; he played Daddy Warbucks in Annie in 2012.
“I’m still learning so much about my character and this show,” O’Brien said. “I saw the touring company production when it came to the Robinson Center [in Little Rock] a few years ago, so I was familiar with it.
“I am glad to be in this production,” he said. “It’s nice to reconnect with The Royal Players and with old friends from Harding.”
O’Brien is a principal support analyst for DST Health Solutions.
• Hannah M. Sawyer of North Little Rock plays the adult Fiona.
Also a graduate of Harding, Sawyer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater and has been acting since she was 8. She teaches forensics at Cabot Junior High School South.
This is the first time she has appeared in a production at The Royal Theatre.
“I love this show, mostly because of the message,” she said. “It’s all about learning to accept both yourself — and others — exactly as you are.
“Along with the message comes lots of music and dance; plus, there is a lot of comedy.”
• Payton Justice, a student at North Little Rock High School, appears as Donkey.
Justice, the 16-year-old son of Keith and Angela Justice, is also making his first appearance with The Royal Players. He is involved in his high school’s drama program and is a member of the speech and debate team. He said he hopes to major in theater in college.
“Donkey has a very charismatic attitude,” Justice said. “He’s very sassy. It is definitely a full character role. It’s a bit different from anything I’ve done before.”
• Josh Strickland of North Little Rock plays the villain, Lord Farquaad.
“This is my first show here,” said Strickland, who is a native of Newport and a 2004 graduate of Harding with a degree in psychology. He is a mental-health counselor with an agency in Jacksonville.
“I like it,” he said of The Royal Theatre. “It’s a solid community theater. It’s a little gem in central Arkansas.
“Acting is just a hobby for me, but I did a lot in college and in the community. My character in this show, Lord Farquaad, is pretty sassy. It’s fun to play him. There are a lot of things piled into that little guy.”
Other cast members include the following:
• Cheryl Troillett of Little Rock appears as Dragon.
• Laura Carlton of Benton appears as Gingy.
• Ethan Patterson of Little Rock plays Pinocchio.
• Clint Cameron of North Little Rock, a student at Pulaski Technical College, plays the Big Bad Wolf.
• Ryan Lynch of Bryant, Darren Winkler of Little Rock and Khalil Brownlee of Malvern portray the Three Little Pigs.
• Chris Counts of Benton appears as King Harold and the White Rabbit.
• Gabe Gordy of Bryant plays Peter Pan.
• Jo Murry of Sheridan appears as the Wicked Witch.
• Kaede Wilson of Benton portrays the Sugar Plum Fairy.
• Isabelle Nguyen of Little Rock, a student at Christ the King Catholic School, appears as the Ugly Duckling.
• Rachel Brown of Little Rock plays Mama Bear.
• Danny Troillett of Little Rock appears as Papa Bear and Papa Ogre.
• John Michael Murphy of Little Rock appears as Baby Bear.
• Anna Newman of Little Rock plays the Mad Hatter.
• Tamara Boggs of Little Rock plays Humpty Dumpty.
• Paula Gribble of Little Rock appears as Mama Ogre.
• Morgan Potter of Bryant, a student at UALR, plays Elf.
• Jenny Moses and Karena Malott, both of Little Rock, and Sandra Shipe of Bryant play the Three Blind Mice.
• Grayson Gribble of Little Rock plays the young Shrek and a dwarf.
• Jennifer Medford of Benton appears as Queen Lillian and Bluebird.
• Brooklyn Courtney-
Moore of Little Rock, a student at Pulaski Academy, appears as the young Fiona.
• Makayla Shipe of Bryant, a student at Bethel Middle School, appears as the teen Fiona.
• Brian Roberson of Bryant appears as Captain of the Guard.
• McKayla McNeil of Benton, a student at Benton High School, appears as the Pied Piper.
The ensemble includes Brooke Melton of Little Rock; Isabella Hammonds of Benton, a student at Benton Middle School; Meredith Medford of Benton; Madeline Martin of Sheridan; Emily Johnson of Hot Springs, a student at Fountain Lake High School; Scarlett Castleberry of Bryant, a student at Baptist Preparatory School; and Madison Tate of
Arkadelphia.
Justin Pike of Little Rock is the choreographer for Shrek the Musical. Jenny Johnston of Benton assisted by choreographing a tap dance. Susan Dill of Benton and Tracy Courage of North Little Rock are the producers, and Emily Kincaid of Benton is the stage manager.