SHREK, the green ogre who is a bit of a reluctant hero, has conquered the silver screen; can he find a home on the Great White Way now?

SHREK THE MUSICAL will start performances on November 8 at the Broadway Theatre in New York, in an adaptation by bookwriter/lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire (who won a Pulitzer Prize for RABBIT HOLE) and music by Jeanine Tesori (known for her Broadway work on CAROLINE OR CHANGE and THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE). The official opening date is December 14.

Brian d’Arcy James, a busy Broadway performer, will play the title character, with lovely Sutton Foster (now in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN) as the Princess he kind-of seeks. The wise-cracking donkey will be Chester Gregory II and Christopher Sieber will portray the vile Lord Farquaad.

Those who want to get a sneak peek at the new musical can do so in Seattle from August 14- September 21, where the production goes before it dares Broadway. (That’ll be at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, BTW.)

The buzz along Broadway is mixed, with plenty of skepticism but equal amounts of optimism. Whatever the critics have thought (and sometimes, as with LION KING, they’ve been effusive), Disney has shown that derived-from-cartoon-film musicals can draw a crowd; but then again, SHREK isn’t a Disney film or Disney stage production.