West End's SHREK THE MUSICAL Sets February 24 Closing

DreamWorks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions today announced that SHREK THE MUSICAL will end its run at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on Sunday 24 February 2013.

Bill Damaschke, Chief Creative Officer for Dreamworks Animation, and producer of SHREK THE MUSICAL, said today:

“When we moved in to Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in March 2011 we knew that it would be the perfect home for Shrek The Musical and so it has proved to be. Joining an illustrious list of new musicals that have played this venue is a source of pride for me personally, and for the whole transatlantic team that works on the show every day. Of course it is not without sadness that we have decided to leave next year but it is some consolation that Sam Mendes and Caro Newling, our producing partners at Neal Street Productions, will retain the lease of this remarkable building. At DreamWorks Theatricals our attention turns to planning a UK tour of SHREK THE MUSICAL in 2014, the introduction to the UK of Madagascar Live!, and our live arena tour of How To Train Your Dragon which we plan to bring to the UK in late 2013.”

SHREK THE MUSICAL, based on the story and characters from William Steig’s book Shrek! and the Oscar®-winning Dreamworks Animations feature film Shrek, held its first preview on May 6, 2011 and opened on June 14, 2011. The show was nominated for four Olivier Awards, Nigel Harman taking the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor in a musical for his performance as the diminutive Lord Farquaad.

SHREK THE MUSICAL played on Broadway from December 2008 to January 2010 and was nominated for eight Tony Awards, winning Tim Hatley the Tony for Best Costume Design of a Musical. A production opened in Chicago in July 2010 and has toured over 60 cities in the United States. The production will visit a further 75 cities over the course of the next year.   

Licensed productions of SHREK THE MUSICAL have played in Spain, Poland, France, Malaysia and China and productions will open later this year in Brazil, Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands.