By Liz Nicholls, .ca
They say that you never really know someone till you travel (or, eek, go camping) with them.
A grouchy green ogre and a sassy big-mouth donkey, travelling companions in the Broadway musical that opens Wednesday at the Orange Hub, have a very funny, knowing road song all about about that.
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“Why me? Why me?” sings Shrek, who prizes swamp solitude way too much to jump at a journey with a loud donkey as a travel buddy. Donkey is thrilled by the companionship. “O man, what could be better than this!?” he sings.
No such road trip friction, no “are we there yet?” laments, for the co-stars of the NUOVA Vocal Arts production of Shrek The Musical. Two days into rehearsal last week, Jeremy Carver-James, who plays Donkey, was already saying it felt like he and Michael Watt as Shrek had been working together for ages. And as for Watt, they call his co-star Carver-James “a super-star…. It’s been so inspiring to see him work; it’s like watching a masterclass while I’m in rehearsal for a show…. He inspires me to bring everything I have!”
Both actors arrive in Shrek the Musical with huge affection for the story of the ogre who finds self-esteem, friendship, and that elixir of life, love. Actor/playwright/composer Watt, most recently seen as the motor-mouth care-giver Ray in Bea at Shadow Theatre, is “such a fan!” of the 2001 DreamWorks movie animation from which Jeanine Tesori (music) and David Lindsay-Abaire (book and lyrics) fashioned the musical. “It’s pretty much perfect,” Watt thinks. “But the musical just gives us another chance to zoom in on the characters, to delve into how these characters are processing where they’re at and where they want to go…. ”
“Also,” Watt laughs, the musical “is such a platform for a party — so danceable, so much spectacle, so much fun…. It’s a score I really, deeply love! And there’s so much love in it.”
Toronto-based Carver-James, fresh from a production of Waitress, the Sara Bareilles musical, at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, says “when movies are turned into musicals, sometimes you wonder why? With this one, it’s an opportunity to flesh out already rich characters, Donkey, Shrek, Fiona (Jacquelin Walters) , and tell a story that’s resonant for contemporary times.”
Here’s a coincidence that amuses him: in January on the RMTC mainstage, as Ogie in Waitress, Carver-James was singing “You’re Never Ever Getting Rid Of Me.” A month later, in Shrek the Musical, Donkey’s first song is “Don’t Let Me Go.” Some theatre transitions were meant to be.
Says Watt, “everyone is on a journey of acceptance, self-discovery, even Farquaad (Stephen Allred),” the evil Lord who’s banished a whole gaggle of fairytale creatures. They point to the Act I finale number, “Who I’d Be,” wherein “Donkey asks Shrek who he’d be, in another life. And we get to see him really unpack hopes and dreams he never thought he’d (realize)….”
As he describes, Carver-James, a McGill grad, came to musical theatre via opera (he was in NUOVA productions of The Magic Flute, The Bartered Bride, The Tenderland), and the world of classical music as a boy soprano in Calgary, then at opera school in Montreal. His thinking? “Opera is the hardest kind of music. So if I can do opera I should be able to do any kind of music.”
“Opera isn’t really accessible for everyone.. You do a musical and look out at the audience (he was in Stratford Festival productions of Something Rotten and La Cage Aux Folles), and everyone is SO engaged. It’s just so tangible. People are so happy!”
Donkey, says Carver-James who’s been in several productions of Shrek across the country (with more to come this summer, for Drayton Entertainment in Ontario), “is one of my favourite roles I’ve ever done…. It’s most like myself, I guess.” He’s “so light, so energetic, all the things you aspire to be at the moment in this contemporary world. He’s always thinking forward, always looking for the best…. “ He thinks of Donkey as a kind of mentor, and sounding board, for Shrek, as that ogre sheds layers and embraces love. “I’m so happy to get back into those shoes.”
Carver-James’s upcoming schedule is a testimonial to that affection. While he’s performing Shrek here, he’ll be taking overnight flights to Chicago to be part of workshops for the revamped Scott Joplin opera Tremonisha, slated for production there in May.
As for Watt, who was in NUOVA’s production of White Christmas and Titanic before that, they find Shrek “charming and funny, and not worried about being palatable…. I love the parts of him that are gross, and nasty. Despite feeling insecure, he likes being an ogre. And that’s really fun.”
Both Carver-James and Watt have writing plans post-Shrek. In a very busy musical theatre career, with credits ranging from Come From Away (in Australia) to Hairspray, Rock of Ages to 9 to 5, it’s a moment to ask himself “what are the stories I want to be telling?” says the former. Watt is half — with Walters, who plays Fiona in Shrek — the creative partnership in the indie theatre company Walters & Watt, whose archive includes the original play-with-music Fringe hit Let’s Not Turn On Each Other, and the folk-rock opera What Was Is All at Nextfest.
Expect to see a new Watt play, Reign Check, this summer (and before that, an excerpt at SkirtsAfire). “It’s in our same absurd, silly style, very campy,” says Watt in playwright mode. “About an aging king and why he’s not stepping down, capitalism, politics…. We always say no to music … and then there’s always a song!”
PREVIEW
Shrek The Musical
Theatre: NUOVA Vocal Arts
Written by: Jeanine Tesori (music) and David Lindsay-Abaire (book and lyrics)
Directed by: Kim Mattice-Wanat
Starring: Michael Watt, Jacquelin Walters, Jeremy Carver-James
Where: Orange Hub, 10045 156 St.
Running: March 5 to 9
Tickets: showpass.com
