Why Shrek The Musical is Hot Garbage 

“Just because something has no reason to exist doesn’t mean it can’t be good” *Insert Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time*

“Dragon falls in love with Donkey after he sings for like 30 seconds” that’s…more time than it took in the movie, man 😂

Donkey in the original film is a great example of how to do an annoying character right. You make them annoying to the other characters, not the audience.

What’s especially hilarious about Freak Flag Fly is that the only reason it exists is to give the makeup crew time to get the makeup on Fiona. It serves no other purpose beyond that and that explains so much.

The actor who played Farquaad is a chad for being on his knees for an entire musical

Fun fact: The reason the fairytale creatures are added into the wedding scene is just to stall for time while Fiona changes into her ogre makeup 😂

I just thought about what you said about Shrek being an anti-musical character and I just realized something (and stay with me on this), that's _EXACTLY_ what they did with Scrooge in A Muppet Christmas Carol. The opening number, "Scrooge," has everyone singing about how awful of a person he is while he's just walking to work. He doesn't get a big "I'm not so bad" song or even an "I just want to be left alone song." He just gets taunted and jeered through this entire number as the town gets together to express how much they hate him. Hell, he's even the one who ends the song and gets everyone to leave the number after it's over just by one look. The second song, while he's in it, he only has speaking lines. "When Love is Gone" he only sings because he remembers it, but that also works to show that for the first time in years he's being vulnerable before closing himself off again after telling the spirit to leave him. The only song he really sings in is "A Thankful Heart" and the ending song, showing he's learned to open up to and embrace people.

I think Farquaad being made fun of for his size so often in the film stems from him trying to deny it or overcompensate for it, like his castle in Duloc or the ornament on his wedding cake. Farquaad makes for the perfect foil for Shrek because he acknowledges his weirdness and enjoys being himself, while Farquaad would rather imprison or exile those he deems strange, despite being "abnormal" himself. Essentially Farquaad is what he hates, which is why Shrek, Donkey and Fiona mock him for his stature.

"Why won't you sing, Shrek?!" "BECAUSE SINGING KILLED MY SWAMP"

Shrek the Musical feels like it was exclusively made for high schools to perform. The fairytale creatures getting their own song and showing up randomly in scenes feels a lot like something a high school theatre director would do to make sure the ensemble members have lines so their parents don't get mad.

One of the most infuriating parts of this show to me is that they made a song called “Forever” for Dragon. It’s a wonderful song that goes super hard and has a ton of passion in it. I love how it’s basically Dragon just venting about her own situation and then being completely blindsided when Donkey expresses genuine interest in her. I think it’s my favorite song from the whole thing! … and yet it isn’t in the definitive version of the show. Because why let Dragon have heart and character in a moment that’s fierce, yet just vulnerable enough for some sympathy?

Shrek the Musical is pretty much exclusively a high school musical. I remember watching mine and it was well done. The dragon was amazing and puppeteered by one guy.

Fun fact: The performer of Fiona signed and left her bra for the stage crew when Shrek: The Musical came to my city. It's still hanging stage left to this day

Schaff: completes Shrek franchise Puss in Boots: laughs in the corner

The only person I actually care about in the musical is John Tartaglia. He played Pinocchio, Magic Mirror, and was the puppeteer for the dragon. His work in puppetry and theater is pure inspiration for me.

I think the two things I like most out of the musical is how much more aggressive Fiona gets and that you see Shreks parents

Also weird how they turned Shrek’s iconic Scottish accent into sounding like an angry Irish drunk reading the original movie script and half-assing it.

"aggressively mediogre retelling" Don't worry, I caught your joke

The baby goose laying any eggs disturbs me because of the implications of that bird’s biology. Only mature birds should lay eggs, at least a bird that has its full adult plumage.

That "lets go to the opium den" giggle is just the one time where Schaffrillas got to be happy.

genuinely nothing could have prepared me for that “what are you doing in my swamp?” delivery

Every other commentary channel: "creates an oc to represent themselves" Schaffrillas: *T A M A T O A*

I know I'm very late, but as someone who is rehearsing Fiona currently. That wedding crash scene is really needed for makeup purposes. It's already barely any time at all to get a dress off, a fat suit on and green make-up on. I wonder what alternatives Schaffrillas could come up with if he knew this fact. I'd be interested to hear his thoughts.

28:55 Did anyone else hear him distinctly say "...but the vast majority of them are just kind of medi-ogre and forgettable" ?

I saw this musical live, and I just wanna say that the actor for lord farquaad absolutely *carried* that whole show

This should have been a self aware parody of musicals similar to "The Guy Who Doesn't Like Musicals" with as many new jokes about it being a musical as possible. Then the music should be entirely inspired by the moive's orginal soundtrack. Hell like you said the movie could even be a somewhat new plotline of shrek refusing to take part in the musical and verbally getting frustrated with the songs and interrupting while people sing. Maybe it would be a little to similar to "the guy who doesn't like musicals" but i think that would be better than this dumpster fire.

As someone who just finished doing a production of Shrek: The Musical, this is a really fun thing to be in, and it actually has a really good message in the fairy tale creatures embracing what makes them unique and special.

Fun fact: my middle school was going to perform this musical in spring of 2020. The school had to call off the show the day before the pandemic hit our area lol

There's a part in the musical where Donkey says "If you kill a man, I'll hide the body" and given how creepy he looks in the musical I'm starting to think that he'd actually do that

Some additional fun facts about Shrek the Musical: -The parodying of Defying Gravity in What’s Up Duloc was improvised by Chris Sieber for the Tony performance. People loved it so much they later added it to the show. This is why it does not appear on the cast recording. - The dragon puppet and song were so poorly received they were changed in future productions. The puppet was changed to a more straightforward dragon puppet with the full body, there is now only one singer for the voice of the Dragon, and they wrote a new song called Forever which is much better than Donkey Pot Pie (although still kinda forgettable. - The inclusion of “I’m a Believer” at the end of the show was also added later in the shows run, as a response to critics and audience member disappointment around the musical not featuring any of the iconic songs from the film. This is why it feels so out of place. - Another fun fact I like is that the guy who plays Pinocchio (John Tartaglia of Johnny and the Sprite’s fame) is also the guy who puppeteers the dragon head and does live mo-cap for the mirror during that scene (this is live and not pre-recorded).

This musical is probably my biggest guilty pleasure… mainly due to Farquad and the set design

i always hated how this version did dragon. when i was dragon in a production of shrek jr. (which is much better because it cuts out a bunch of unimportant and stupid scenes) it was just me voicing the puppet WHILE on stage and in a costume and three prisoners as my backup singers. it looked way better and made so much more sense.

Schaf: "Let's talk about some stuff i did like" Me: "He's going to dop the ad read isn't he?" Works every time

The beetlegeuse musical even references this in the opening, he says to the audience directly something along the lines of "starting with a ballad, bold choice. And such a departure from the original source material!" As soon as that line was said I knew I'd love this adaptation

everyone gangsta until shrek drops a transphobic slur

You can hate Shrek: The musical as much as you like, but you can’t deny that John Tartaglia is hella talented and deserved better (he plays Pinocchio)

The scene where the fairytale creatures interrupt Shrek at the wedding exists for one simple reason. The makeup crew needs time to transform Fiona into an ogre. It may feel shoe-horned in, but it's actually kind of necessary. No rebuttals to your other issues. Obviously, criticism is based on personal preference, and if ya don't enjoy something, hey...ya don't enjoy it.

So I can't speak for the original musical itself, but when my high school performed it, it was done so well that I couldn't even hate on it. Our Shrek actor was literally perfect for the role. Hope you're doing well, Dalon.

Coming back a year later, the night I went to see this live always felt like a Fever Dream. It will always feel like a Fever Dream and nothing will ever be able to top it.

i unironically LOVE shrek the musical words cannot begin to express how much i love it actually

Re: the "Shrek is about celebrating your differences but everyone makes fun of Farquaad" thing, I think the point the movie was TRYING to make was that Farquaad isn't just a short guy trying to make it in the world, he's actually denying the fact that he's different at all (cake topper is taller than Fiona, bed is really big despite him being small, etc.). His entire identity is about denying who he is. Whereas Shrek is all about being who he is, to the point where he thinks he can never change, which is why he probably pokes so much fun at Farquaad, because the latter is so obviously trying to deny himself, and making life harder for others who don't fit a traditional mold in the process. To be fair, the movie does take it too far in places, and I definitely don't like the idea that it's okay to criticize people for what they can't control as long as you don't like their personality. So in the end I guess I agree that it's a problem, but I also understand what the movie might have been going for. If they'd had Shrek show a little sympathy for Farquaad in the musical, that might have been an interesting change.

I haven't actually seen Shrek: The Musical, I just came to hear Schaff talking about Shrek. There's a special place for it in the ligma sphere of my brain that makes it go brrrr

I wanna make an announcement. Farquaad wasn't wrongfully shamed for being short in Shrek, the point of his character was to show, despite all the power and wealth and status that Farquaad had, it didn't change who he was. A small, insignificant man who can be easily eaten by a dragon.

I once almost failed a music class because the final project was about a presentation on a musical I chose shrek the musical but it was absolute garbage so I just didn’t do the final

The thing with Shrek not wanting to sing just reminds me of the whole “because singing killed my grandma” bit in Trolls. Shrek could definitely have done it better.

Fun fact: Originally the opening song was supposed to an original song. They just put in all star by smash mouth as a holder til the new one came in. But the test auidance liked it so much they kept in All Star. Also DreamWorks then contacted All Star to do I'm a believer at the end of the movie.

I was in a production of Shrek the Musical a few years ago. I regularly performed at the theatre putting it on, so I went out for it even though I don’t like the musical. Oh boy. So, seeing it live is apparently better than watching the proshot, according to my wife and several others who came to see it for me, despite sharing similar views on it. However, the particular production I was in left MANY sour tastes in my mouth. First, we had a white guy playing Donkey. Not necessarily a problem, and we worked really hard to make sure the makeup in NO WAY darkened his skin, unfortunately, the actor very much was trying to emulate Eddie Murphey’s performance, and it definitely came off as “vocal blackface”, which deeply disturbed and offended my mother-in-law when she came to see the show. Second, our Farquad was played by a raging homophobe. He was from a large, fundamentalist Christian family (10 children, and like 6 of them were in the show, including Donkey’s actor), and I already had a difficult time being around them because I’m gay and even if they never said anything TO me, I knew where I stood with them. Hearing someone who I knew was homophobic, who I had HEARD say homophobic things (before he realized that I was gay and thought he was just surrounded by straight people), play a clearly queer coded character just REALLY bothered me. Really, the fact that there was so much queer coding in general made me uncomfortable when combined with how outdated a lot of the jokes were. The trans slur made me wince EVERY TIME, and I wished that like was changed to literally anything else. I hope that it really has been removed since I was in the show, because it was certainly there back in 2016. One of the only good things in Freak Flag was that our Pinocchio was at least played by a non-binary actor, so when they delivered the “I’m wood, I’m good, get used to it” like, it felt less like a gross coopting of queer history than if we had a straight actor playing the role. Overall, I’m just not that impressed with the show. It manages to take a movie that feels so ageless and make it into something that feels so incredibly dated after a relatively short period of time. It was fun to be in even with the cringe lines because dressing up as fairytale creatures is always fun, but overall, it’s pretty underwhelming. (Also, in the book, the Fairy Godmother is called the “Sugar Plum Fairy”, so she’s technically a different character? She’s the actor who voices the Gingerbread Man, so I guess they went a Christmas theme with both characters, but you’re right, she is styled to look a lot like Fairy Godmother, and that’s confusing given her role in the franchise.)

I forgot 90% of the musical, and remembered Who I’d Be, and was so glad when you said you liked who I’d be. It’s just, amazing. I so agree that Shrek should have not sung until that song, it would have hit so much harder.

I just like this musical because my high school put on the funniest version of it ever. Farquad was played by one of the nicest kids in the school. Seeing him ham it up was just hilarious. Grumpy the Dwarf was played by everyone's favorite teacher. There were a lot of in-jokes added that no one outside of our school would get. It was great.

Schaff: Reviews all the mainline Shrek productions Also Schaff: Now I can finally lay down and die

I’m still disappointed in myself for making my parents sign the field trip form to see Shrek the musical in the first grade.

Fun fact: Brian D’Arcy James, who played Shrek in the musical, is right now playing the Baker in the Broadway revival of Into the Woods

I literally just preformed this musical as a part of a theatre program I do, and despite how much fun I had with it, I definitely agree with most if not all points shown in this video.

Fun fact: Fiona, in “I think I got you beat” says that she was sent away on Christmas Eve. In “I know it’s today, she says “Day number 8423”. That number of days would put the musical’s timeline in late January/Early February. Duloc’s environment is that of a more northern place, and the Shrek Christmas special has snow, so therefore it should be snowing during the musical. Some girl in my theatre production pointed this out (She really liked math and biology for some odd reason) and it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard but for some reason it stuck with me.

27:24 This would've also followed along with my favourite quote when it comes to musicals "You sing when you can no longer speak," which basically means that you have to place songs at moments so emotional that the characters can't hold back any more and just HAVE to sing their heart out for the audience to hear

Fun fact: The actor for Gingy, Haven Paschall, went on to voice Serena in the Pokemon XY anime.

“They interrupted a strong emotional moment for no reason” Pooh’s Adventures: ALLOW US TO INTRODUCE OURSLEVES

Honestly "Who Id be" was the only song that hit home for me. Obviously Im not an ogre, but I get how he feels when he sung about wanting to be someone else but knowing he can't. He wants a happy ending like everyone else. Admittedly like I do.

The musical should have been mostly about Farquad. His first song at the beginning to illustrate how exactly he put all the fairytale creatures in the swamp and why, maybe a song about the tournament where Shrek barges in and suddenly the song is centered around Shrek beating his knights while Farquad is insulting him to further solidify how rude and egotistical Farquad really is, and a song about getting ready for the wedding with Fiona, she's expressing her uncertainty about marriage and how she feels about Shrek all while Farquad is either singing over her or flat out ignoring her feelings as he sings about the preparations.

Shrek: farquaad is short Donkey: *dies*

*It’s actually really faithful….* _To Shrek the Third._

I can’t bring myself to hate this show. It’s the show that got me into theatre in middle school. Its what sent me on the path I am now and I really am appreciate it for that.

I actually had a lot of fun with this show. It's definitely not perfect and I really don't care for the bipolar joke, I enjoyed acting in this production greatly. Plus, I did the junior version, so the story is even more condensed. I was the understudy to Donkey and we got an understudy show. Donkey is actually such a fun character to portray. A lot of his lines are kind of all over the place, which matches his personality. But it makes you think about your delivery a lot and I really enjoyed figuring out how to make it really funny and his character not annoying.

9:30 There is a reason for why the scene is like this if they wanted to recreate the scene properly then Fiona needs to transform from human to ogre and to pull it off they need to shuffle the actress off stage to apply the ogre makeup so this little interlude is just there to buy time for them to do that otherwise there would just be a good 5 minutes of dead air.

I feel like a better way to incorporate a "musical" adaptation is to have Shrek not have any songs to himself (maybe only one). Then once a musical number concludes he pokes fun at how bad it was, or SOMETHING. I think it would be a good way to keep that same humor of the "musical reject" and slap in the face that Shrek is.

As someone who played Fiona, I can personally tell you that I had a lot of issues making her the “human” because the musical script kills the vulnerable side of Shrek. There just isn’t enough emotional substance. I actually really only lived for the act finales. “You love me as I am, take me as I look” always made me more emotional than it should have as a plus-size actor. You hit the nail on the head.

Alternative Title: Why Shrek -The- -Musical- is Hot -Garbage-

My old high school actually performed Shrek: The Musical this year, and the actors were great (especially Farquad, I think it can be pretty funny if there’s a good actor, and my old school had one) but you’re right on the idea that there wasn’t much of a callback to the original Shrek. It was more Disney than actually Shrek, almost like one of those movies that shouldn’t be made into a musical.

“Though I seem a bit bipolar” “I am a very gifted bowler” -princess fiona (shrek the musical)

Fun fact: In the Australian shrek musical Farquaad calls his horse Scomo after Prime Minister Scott Morrisson.

14:21 In the production I saw, he didn't have an onion. Shrek apparently just thought of something random off the top of his head, but it's still more organic than just holding an onion for no reason.

Given all the costumes, puppets and other effects this musical uses... I can't help but think it's not preformed much any more, at least not to the standard of the original. I'd be really curious if any one still preforms this show live.

I now absolutely need to hear Schaff's opinions on Dear Evan Hansen, after that drive-by evisceration

Sherk would have been a perfect protagonist for The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals

This immediately went from a perfectly normal Schafrillas video to something else when Schaf said he hasn’t seen Beetlejuice

10:48 - actually, during the final months of the original production, they got rid of that giant dragon puppet in favor of a more full body puppet on top of Donkey pot pie being replace with Forever, which that song is easily the best song for me in the updated cast album.

The end of an era of talking about mainline Shrek stuff. Can't wait to see the Snyder cut.

[Spoilers for The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals] I do personally have a soft spot for this musical, and love a lot of the songs, but you make a great point about the idea that Shrek should have not sung until the end of Act I, like in the end of TGWDLM when Paul finally sings and it SHOCKS you. Go off, king!

little late to the train, but I 100% think songs like Freak Flag were absolutely tacked on to be ensemble numbers good for use outside the show's context. It felt forced in the show, but Freak Flag is definitely catchy and easy to work with because as a kid I performed it on TWO occasions for two different theatre classes. It's a theatre teacher song.

Can’t wait until Schaff realizes that Shrek 4D exists

Schaff: *Completed his Shrek collection* Also Schaff: _inner peace_

Though I've never been a fan of Shrek the Musical, "I Know It's Today" and "The Ballad of Lord Farquaad" are straight up bangers.

Fucking surreal to see this piece of media discussed. I played guitar for the pit band for a production of this musical, and was surprised by how many jazz chords and how much sheet music I actually had to read. It was all around a great experience with a highly professional pit orchestra and cast, but I rarely ever reminisce on it. Thank you for this video, as for the past 7 years I've never really thought about it

Am I the only one who started laughing until I had tears in my eyes when 7 year old shrek turned around and showed his face for the first time? 🤣

"Don't look up what the plot is about, good lord." Me, proceeding to google the plot of Thoroughly Modern Millie, about to make a mistake I'd regret: "You underestimate my curiosity."

Suggestion: Since you're closing out the final chapter on your Shrek series, Schaff you really should check out & compare what are considered "Shrek copycat films", such as Hoodwinked, Happily N'Ever After, and more recently, Charming. Edit: I put air quotes around Shrek copycat films for a reason, because I personally don't consider them to be that way. To this day, I unironically enjoy Hoodwinked & Happily N'Ever After since I grew up with them on DVD. I'm only saying that the general public critical opinion tends to label them as such. Regardless though, thank you for all your replies, as I didn't expect this to gain much traction tbh! 😊

The fairytale characters are likely there during the wedding scene so that Fiona can physically make her costume change while the rest of those folks block her upstage.

If they wanted to have that aspect of the whole "let your freak flag fly" thing with the fairy tale creatures, a good way to help make that work would've been to rework Farquaad a bit as well. Maybe instead of the characters making jokes about how he's short, the comedy comes from Farquaad being so insecure about his shortness that he freaks out at people over things that weren't intended to be jabs, but that he takes the wrong way because he's a huge egotist. It could also make him a better foil for Shrek; Shrek learns to accept his strangeness and to not care that society hates him and to focus on the people who care about him regardless of his status as an ogre, while Farquaad continually stews in his self-hatred over this one part of himself that he can't change to the point of pushing people away and making himself miserable.

Fun Fact: In “Ballad Farquaad” there’s actually a cut middle verse that explains that he never knew his mother who was Princess Sweetpea in the final product. Edit: Wow I didn't expect to get this many likes

Oh my god, Schaf just completely destroyed Evan Hansen like it was nothing. How do you just move on from that

1:15 - In the later Productions of Shrek The Musical dragon was voiced by one person at the backstage instead of three on stage. But in the pre-broadway Seattle version before Broadway dragon was voiced by one person (Kecia Lewis-Evans), but Kecia Lewis-Ewans left the musical when it came to Broadway, so the three dragon actresses from the show were voiced the dragon.

My school almost did this musical for our spring 2020 show, but then the world exploded. I was also going to be a part of it (Thelonious), so I'm kinda glad the show never happened.

I actually think the show fixed a problem with Farquaad's character. The jokes about his height are justified if it's his insecurity about his height is what drove him to villainy. His anger makes sense, but so does peoples' reactions to him.

17:00 He sounds like some old man yelling at a group of kids to get of his property.

12:48 PROOF! that Tamatoa has a meme-able face every second hes on screen

My big problem for the filmed version of the show was the absolute assassination of Dragon. Her song "Forever" was so much better than Donkey Pot Pie and when I saw it on non-broadway tour, the full body dragon puppet and having knights as background musicians was SO GOOD. And seeing the voice come out to bow in a gorgeous dragon themed dress at the end to give one last long note??? Killer.

I played Lord Farquaad for my high school's drama class sophomore year, and I will say that it was a lot of fun playing the character, especially during the actual performances and getting the audience reaction to some of the best moments of Farquaad in the play. But yeah, I'll admit that the whole show is a giant mess, and our production in particular ran into a number of problems that made it 10x worse. So while we all had a ton of fun at the end of the day, yeah it was a complete dumpster fire lol. Also, being on your knees 24/7 fucking kills your entire legs and takes way more commitment than you'd think. RIP my knees.

6:00 I KNOW! I ASKED MY DAD ABOUT THE PLOT OF A MUSICAL HE WATCHED AND HE SAID "YOU'VE READ WHAT IT'S BASED ON YOU SHOULD KNOW" AND I SAID "IF IT HAS THE SAME PLOT AS WHAT IT'S BASED ON WHY WAS IT ADAPTED?"

28:00 This exact detail is one of the billion things I love about the Muppet Christmas Carol film. In the completed VHS/UHD version of the movie that isn't missing my favorite song in the film, Scrooge only sings thrice in the entire movie: once when he briefly duets with his old girlfriend when she breaks up with him in the past (implying that, decades later, he still remembers what she said/sung to him by heart, making it hit all the harder), and twice at the end of the film, when he's a changed man. Heck, he's the one who initiates both songs at the end.

As someone who was a stage manager for a high school production of Shrek the musical I can confirm that it's hot garbage. It was fun to do though, a couple people almost got crushed by a set piece Probably the reason for the fairy tail creatures showing up at the finale is so Fiona has time to quick change and that's the only reason