SHREK: The Musical is Broadway Bound

SHREK - THE MUSICAL, a new musical planned for Broadway, will be directed by Jason Moore with a book by David Lindsay-Abaire.

Jason Moore is the director of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Avenue Q, and the upcoming revival of Steel Magnolias on Broadway. David Lindsay-Abaire is the author of numerous acclaimed plays, including Kimberly Akimbo, Fuddy Meers and Wonder of the World.

Produced by DreamWorks Animation and SCAMP Film & Theatre, Ltd. (Sam Mendes, Director), additional members of the creative team will be confirmed in the coming months with developmental readings of the new musical expected in 2005.

Sam Mendes said "I have loved working as a producer over the last ten years, but the musical of Shrek is certainly the most exciting and ambitious project I have been involved with. To have a book writer as witty and talented as David Lindsay-Abaire is a great gift, and I am particularly thrilled that the ship is being steered by someone as gifted as Jason Moore. I know that they and their chosen collaborators will come up with something that is intensely theatrical, yet retains all the warmth, imagination and comic invention of the movies.'

Sam Mendes will serve as creative producer on SHREK - THE MUSICAL, a role he is familiar with having overseen more than 70 productions during his tenure as Artistic Director of London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre between 1992 - 2002. Together with Executive Producer, Caro Newling, he transferred numerous productions to Broadway including The Blue Room, The Real Thing and Electra. Ms. Newling is a co-director of SCAMP Film & Theatre, Ltd. and will serve as a producer with Mr. Mendes on SHREK - THE MUSICAL. Also on board as Creative Consultants for the stage production will be Shrek and Shrek 2 director Andrew Adamson and producer Aron Warner.

Bill Damaschke, Head of Creative Production for DreamWorks Animation, and producer of its most recent release Shark Tale, will be supervising the production on the studio side.

On the announcement Mr. Damaschke said "All of us at DreamWorks Animation are excited to be working with such incredibly successful Broadway talents. To have Jason Moore and Sam Mendes heading the Shrek team is a great way to kick off this endeavor."

The character of Shrek, a lovable green ogre, has been featured in two highly successful motion pictures. Shrek won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The popular sequel, Shrek 2, was released this past summer.

SHREK - THE MUSICAL will be DreamWorks' first venture in legitimate theatre. The production and was initiated by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Sam Mendes when the studio made a first-look deal with Mendes' producing entity, SCAMP Film & Theatre Ltd.

DreamWorks Animation, a division of DreamWorks SKG, is dedicated to the development and production of animated feature films and television projects to entertain a wide-ranging audience. Some of the films released under the DreamWorks Animation banner include the Oscar-winning Shrek, its top-grossing sequel Shrek 2 and the current hit Shark Tale. DreamWorks Animation is also producing the NBC series "Father Of The Pride."

Biographies

Jason Moore is director of Avenue Q, winner of the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical. With a B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, he began his extensive music theatre background as Associate Director for the Broadway production and US tour of Les Misérables. He is currently working on a live-action musical of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame for ABC as well as developing a television pilot for FOX with Jeff Whitty and he will Executive Produce the Avenue Q television series with Jeff Marx, Robert Lopez and Jeff Whitty. He is currently in pre-production for a Broadway revival of Steel Magnolias.

Book-writer David Lindsay-Abaire is already working with Dreamworks SKG on the screenplay of his play Kimberly Akimbo. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire's other plays include Fuddy Meers (which SCAMP produced in London's West End) and Wonder of the World, which was produced in New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York starring Sarah Jessica Parker. David is also currently working on the new musicals My Man Godfrey with composer Mark Hollmann (Urinetown); Betty Boop with composer Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party); and, Nick Hornby's High Fidelity with composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Amanda Green.

Sam Mendes (Producer) directed American Beauty (1999) and Road to Perdition (2002) for DreamWorks SKG and under the SCAMP Film and Theatre, Ltd. banner continues to develop film and theatre projects both as director and producer. SCAMP Film & Theatre Ltd is the London-based independent film and theatre Production Company set up in 2003 by Sam Mendes, Caro Newling and Pippa Harris. SCAMP has a number of theatre productions currently in development on both sides of the Atlantic. Some projects are specifically developed in collaboration with subsidised theatres and companies and illustrate a broad range including new writing, musicals, revivals and adaptations of classics.

Bill Damaschke (Producer) graduated from Wesleyan University with a BFA in Music and Theatre. As an actor he appeared on the New York stage in the 1987 revival of Godspell, he also was seen in regional and touring productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, Grease and Hair. Mr. Damaschke began his career in animation working on the hit feature Pocahantas. He joined DreamWorks in 1995 and served as production manager on The Prince of Egypt, and was named Head of Creative Production in 1999. During his tenure, he has been involved in the Academy Award®-winning blockbuster Shrek, the record-breaking sequel Shrek 2, which is the top-grossing animated film of all time, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, which earned an Oscar® nomination for Best Animated Feature, and produced the current hit film Shark Tale.