Michael Ball Doesn’t Go Green in Shrek???

UPDATED, 23 Mar 2010: A spokesperson told Whatsonstage.com that Ball is 100% committed to appearing in a musical at Chichester Festival Theatre, which would mean he’s unlikely to be available for the anticipated Shrek transfer timeframes.

Michael Ball is in negotiations to play the title role in the transfer of Broadway screen-to-stage musical Shrek, according to today’s Daily Mail (See The Goss, 6 Nov 2009). The stage adaptation of the animated films, about a lonely green ogre who finds happiness with the help of a wise-cracking donkey and a tough-talking princess, is produced by Sam Mendes’ Neal Street Productions and, in the company’s theatrical debut, the Hollywood studio Dreamworks (See News, 15 Oct 2004). It ran on Broadway for just over a year, and producers reckon it would do better in the West End – if they can find the right, available, venue. If Ball does go green, it may mean he’d no longer be available to star in a Chichester Festival revival of Sweeney Todd with Imelda Staunton (See The Goss, 9 Mar 2010).