Shrek The Musical Score [updated] Access

The score was nominated for multiple Tony Awards, including (losing to In the Heights ). However, it won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and has become a staple of high school and regional theatre.

Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire understood that Shrek is not a story about a green monster; it is a story about layers. Like an onion (or an ogre), the score has layers. On the surface, it is a loud, colorful, fart-joke-laden comedy. In the middle, it is a road-trip buddy comedy. But at its core, it is a delicate, aching, beautiful rumination on what it means to be alone—and to risk letting someone in. Shrek the musical score

So the next time you hear the opening banjo strum of "Big Bright Beautiful World," listen closely. Behind the sarcasm is a waltz that understands loneliness. And that is why, decades from now, high school theatres will still be building swamps on their stages and belting their hearts out to the . The score was nominated for multiple Tony Awards,

The answer arrived in 2008 with Shrek the Musical , and the secret weapon that silenced the cynics was not the elaborate puppetry or the $25 million budget—it was the surprisingly robust, emotionally resonant, and wildly eclectic . Like an onion (or an ogre), the score has layers

Composed by (of Fun Home and Caroline, or Change fame) with lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire (who also wrote the book), the score of Shrek the Musical is a masterclass in tonal balance. It wallows in the gutter with scatological humor one minute and reaches for the rafters with heartbreaking sincerity the next.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote: "Ms. Tesori’s score is a surprisingly sturdy thing, capable of supporting the weight of a musical comedy while also achieving moments of genuine poignancy. 'I Know It’s Today' is as good a three-part invention as anything on Broadway this decade."