

It’s one thing to turn a 26-page children’s book about an ogre, a princess and a dragon into a cartoon movie.

Shrek is one of the most popular movies for kids and students at St. Joseph's Middle School in Penfield are getting an up close look at the Broadway version of Shrek.

What can one say about a musical unafraid to go low for laughs – so low that one of the best songs culminates in a farting and burping contest? For starters, one could admit it’s pretty funny.


In the words of one smelly ogre, it is indeed "a big, bright, beautiful" - and green, very green - world.

Bill Damaschke, who joined Dreamworks in 1995, has been integrally involved in every one of the studio's animated offerings from "Shrek" in 2001 to the just-arrived-in-theatres "Puss in Boots." Here he discusses his inspiration behind these blockbuster hits.



SHREK THE MUSICAL with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori, will play the Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N River Road, for one weekend only this Thanksgiving, Nov. 25 -27, 2011.