Isaac Eaton discovered quickly that it’s awful tough trying to fill the shoes of legendary comedian Eddie Murphy.
“It’s challenging to find my own voice for the character,” said Eaton, 17, a senior who will portray Murphy’s iconic character Donkey in Franklin Regional’s high school production of “Shrek: The Musical,” which opens Feb. 26.
“Eddie Murphy is such a unique presence in the original movie,” Eaton said. “People come into it expecting an over-the-top performance with Donkey, but I also think it’s important to try and find my own take on the role.”
The original “Shrek” film came out in 2001, nearly a decade before any of the cast members were born. But Shane Swensson, who plays Shrek, along with dual-cast actors Mia Evankovich and Harper Lacey (Princess Fiona), and Eaton and Prem Nadesan (Donkey), were all at least somewhat familiar with the movie.
“Doing a Scottish accent was a very new thing for me,” said Swensson, 17, a junior. “At my callback audition, I’m surprised my first couple tries even sounded remotely Scottish. But it’s been really fun to learn it.”
Director Mark Wolfgang is working with one of the largest casts he can recall in his 24 years running the musical.
“Last year we had a lot of kids, but with cast, crew and orchestra we have about 150 total,” he said. “It’s incredible to have moments with 100 students onstage, but that also presents a lot of challenges — both in costuming and in having so many people all on at once.”
The upshot is that a much larger number of cast members have a well-defined role as opposed to being a chorus member.
“There are so many characters that have their own little part in the show,” Wolfgang said. “We have a 14-foot-long dragon we rented from a company in Indiana that a student will puppet. Lots of characters and lots of specialty props, like an exploding bird and other weird stuff you don’t typically have in a musical.”
Evankovich and fellow senior Harper Lacey, who are splitting the role of Princess Fiona, were also split on the character’s quirkiness.
“I love that she’s super weird,” Evankovich said. “And she’s pretending to not be weird, so that’s a lot of fun to do onstage.”
“For me sometimes it’s a little challenging to be super-weird,” Lacey said. “Some of Fiona’s role is super over-the-top, but she also has to dial it back in certain scenes. Finding that balance has been hard, but also a lot of fun.”
Nadesan, who is alternating the role of Donkey with Eaton, said that as a senior he’s trying to just enjoy the overall experience in his final high school musical.
“I’ve grown up with a lot of these people,” he said. “We’ve all performed together, and it’s cool to see it culminate in this huge show where everyone has a part or plays some pivotal role onstage.”
The snowstorm and subsequent deep freeze that kicked off in late January made it difficult to rehearse as often as Wolfgang would have liked.
“With the days we missed, we’ve had about seven weeks total to get the show together,” he said.
Stage crew members were busy in the background of a Feb. 17 rehearsal, taking measurements and continuing set construction.
“It’s been tricky figuring things out without the sets,” Evankovich said. “A lot of choreography depends on the set, so we’re going to have a lot to learn as soon as they’re all finished.”
