Another Recommendation -

Seattle is the last stop of the touring production of the new movie-musical-tie-in before it hits Broadway the end of the year. The kids were interested, so I took them, albeit a bit skeptically, to see it this evening.

It was still a bit rough (as compared with a highly polished production that has been playing for months and months on end), but the sets were great, the music was enjoyable, the costumes and staging very imaginative, and the overall production was very very funny. It followed the same basic story as the movie and did lift some of the gags directly from it, but most of it was new and/or different enough that it was not uncomfortably redundant even if you have seen the movie (*multiple* times- because one's kids were pre-teens when it first came out...) Many, many pop-culture and fairytale references. The actor playing Shrek was very good, but Lord Farquaad totally stole the show. He was hilarious in every scene he showed up in. One must see it to fully appreciate how they handled him being so very short.

Hats off and thumbs up.