"Everybody's favorite ogre is headed for the boards.

Oscar- and Tony-winning director Sam Mendes is teaming up with DreamWorks Animation and one of the masterminds behind the puppet-powered hit production Avenue Q to bring Shrek--The Musical to Broadway.

Prince Charming will no doubt be jealous.

Jason Moore, the Tony-winning director of Avenue Q, will helm Shrek's stage debut, while David Lindsay-Abaire (Fuddy Meers, Wonder of the World) has been hired to pen the book. No word yet on a composer, but producers say they hope to make an announcement soon.

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, said Mendes in a statement Friday. 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.

No immediate word on the show's plot, but it will likely blend elements from both Shrek and Shrek 2 and perhaps expand the scope of Shrek's fairy-tale world.

While Mendes is best known for his Oscar-winning work directing 1999's American Beauty, his roots are in the theater. He served as artistic director of London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre from 1992 to 2002, overseeing more than 70 productions there and importing several of his award-winning plays to Broadway, including The Blue Room headlining Nicole Kidman. He won a Tony in 1998 for his revival of Cabaret.

Mendes' company, SCAMP Film & Theatre, will shepherd the project, with Mendes on board as creative producer. Shrek and Shrek 2 director Andrew Adamson and producer Aron Warner have signed up as creative consultants.

Shrek--The Musical marks DreamWorks' first stab at the theater. The project is the result of a first-look deal between the studio and Mendes that was inked after the studio released his second film, 2002's The Road to Perdition.

Moore could not be reached for comment, but told the New York Times Friday that he's psyched about adapting the fractured fairy tale to the stage.

There's a supreme challenge in bringing an animated world to the stage and making it theatrical, Moore told the newspaper. But what's so wonderful about Shrek is that anarchic attitude placed in a fairy-tale world that I think will survive onstage.

Presumably, that world will include Shrek's gal-pal, Princess Fiona,and his verbose sidekick, Donkey, along with other characters from the two 'toons, including Puss In Boots, Pinocchio, the Three Pigs, Dragon and Gingerbread.

Moore's goal is to make those critters as real as possible, as he did for the puppet stars of Avenue Q, which was the surprise Tony winner for Best Musical this year, and in the same way Julie Taymor was able to breathe life into puppets in her Broadway translation of Disney's The Lion King.

And when it comes to the task, Moore's not exactly green.

With Shrek--The Musical on deck, the director's slate is getting pretty crowded. In addition to supervising an Avenue Q TV series and a Las Vegas production, Moore is also signed to helm a TV adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and mount a Broadway revival of Steel Magnolias.

DreamWorks' original Shrek gobbled up nearly $480 million in worldwide ticket sales and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, while its sequel nearly doubled that, tallying $880 million worldwide to surpass Disney's Finding Nemo as the top-grossing animated movie of all time.

If all goes as planned, Shrek will be making his debut on the Great White Way in 2006.

Source: /story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=794&ncid=790&e=7&u=/eo/20041015/en_movies_eo/15152"">Yahoo/E! Online

Source: /www.hollywoodreporter.com/"">Hollywood Reporter.

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