A high definition filming of the Broadway production, shot by RadicalMedia, was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital download on October 15, 2013, in North America and December 2, 2013, in the United Kingdom.

[5] A reading took place on August 10, 2007, with Stephen Kramer Glickman in the role of Shrek, Celia Keenan-Bolger as Princess Fiona, Robert L. Daye Jr. as Donkey and Christopher Sieber as Lord Farquaad.

[7] The principal cast included Brian d'Arcy James as Shrek, Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona, Sieber as Lord Farquaad, Chester Gregory II as Donkey,[8] John Tartaglia as Pinocchio and Kecia Lewis-Evans as the Dragon.

The song "I'm a Believer", which was originally played as the audience left the theatre, was added to the score on October 2, 2009, and sung by the entire company at the end of the performance.

The original touring cast featured Eric Petersen as Shrek, Haven Burton as Princess Fiona, Alan Mingo Jr. as Donkey, and David F.M.

[21][22] Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire revised some of the material, alongside new direction and choreography by Danny Mefford, shortening the play and taking inspiration from children's theater.

Kimberley Walsh, of UK pop group Girls Aloud, took over the role of Princess Fiona on October 5, 2011, after Holden announced her pregnancy.

[34] A full company announcement was made in February 2014, with Chisnall to be joined by Legally Blonde star Faye Brookes as Princess Fiona, Gerard Carey as Lord Farquaad, Idriss Kargbo as Donkey, Candace Furbert as Dragon and Will Haswell as Pinocchio.

[35] A cast change for the tour took place July 8, 2015, with ensemble member Bronté Barbé taking over the role of Princess Fiona from Brookes.

The full cast was announced in November 2017[36] with The X Factor star Amelia Lily and Call the Midwife actress Laura Main sharing the role of Princess Fiona, alongside Samuel Holmes as Lord Farquaad, Stefan Harri as Shrek and Marcus Ayton as Donkey.

[37] It stars Antony Lawrence as Shrek, Joanne Clifton as Princess Fiona, James Gillan as Lord Faquaad, and Brandon Lee Sears as Donkey.

[39] The musical had its professional Australian premiere at the Sydney Lyric at the start of the year 2020, before touring Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane.

The principal characters, consisting of Shrek, Princess Fiona, Donkey, Lord Farquaad, the Dragon, Pinocchio, and Gingy, are all portrayed by Ben Mingay, Lucy Durack, Nat Jobe, Todd McKenney, Caleb Vines, Marcia Hines, and Manon Gunderson-Briggs respectively at the start of this tour.

They explain of their banishment from the Kingdom of Duloc, by order of the evil Lord Farquaad, who sentenced them into penal transportation for being freaks, under penalty of death if they ever return ("Story of my Life").

Although hesitant, Shrek decides to travel to see Farquaad and try to regain his swamp, along with getting the Fairytale Creatures their homes back, with much encouragement from Pinocchio and the gang ("The Goodbye Song").

Accepting this as a task, Farquaad decides to marry her to become king, and rushes out to plan a raffle to see which knight would be worthy enough to embark on a quest to retrieve Fiona before the Mirror can tell him what happens to her at night.

A seven-year-old Fiona dreams of the brave knight who, as her storybooks tell her, will one day rescue her from her tower and end her mysterious curse with "True Love's First Kiss".

When Shrek finds Fiona, his lack of interest in playing out her desired, romantic rescue scene annoys her, and he drags her off by force ("This is How a Dream Comes True").

Shrek brings down her mood by attempting to give subtle hints about her groom-to-be ("Men of Farquaad's stature are in short supply", "He's very good at small talk", etc.)

Unfortunately, a bitter Pinocchio (remembering they are not allowed back to Duloc) who doesn't want his friends to get killed, suggests that they should just keep going and wait until everything gets better, all the while wishing to be a real boy.

Shrek finally finds the words to express his feelings for Fiona, and he declares his love for her ("Big Bright Beautiful World (Reprise)").

Farquaad, furious and disgusted over the change, orders for Shrek to be drawn and quartered along with the Fairytale Creatures and Fiona banished back to her tower.

In 2016, the Canadian tour of the musical changed a lyric in the song "Story of My Life", after a trans man who attended a performance at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, objected to the presence of a transphobic slur, in a line where the Big Bad Wolf says that the knights called him "a hot and tranny mess"; Pink News reported that the word appears several other times in the play.

[43] However, in 2018, when several students in Maryland went on a field trip to a performance of the full musical at a local high school, they complained that the slur appeared in the song.

A subsequent controversy emerged when a parent who also complained about the slur was fired from her job at the Maryland State Education Association, with the organization saying that her statements represented a conflict of interest.

Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times: "'Shrek,' for the record, is not bad.... As the title character, a misanthropic green ogre who learns to love, the talented Mr. James is... encumbered with padding and prosthetics.... As the evil, psychologically maimed Lord Farquaad, the very droll Christopher Sieber is required to walk on his knees, with tiny fake legs dangling before him — an initially funny sight gag that soon drags".

"[50] The Associated Press said that "the folks at DreamWorks have done their darndest to make sure we are entertained at Shrek the Musical, the company's lavish stage adaptation of its hit animated movie.

Composer Jeanine Tesori has written attractive, eclectic, pop-flavored melodies that range from a jaunty 'Travel Song' to a gutsy duet called 'I Got You Beat' for Shrek and Fiona that revels in rude noises."

[51] USA Today gave the show three and a half stars out of four, writing: "Shrek, which draws from William Steig's book about a lovable ogre and the DreamWorks animated movie that it inspired, is nonetheless a triumph of comic imagination with a heart as big and warm as Santa's.

There are the usual nods to more fully realized shows, from Gypsy to A Chorus Line, and Jeanine Tesori's blandly ingratiating score doesn't feature any songs you're likely to be humming 20 years from now.