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    “Let Our Freak Flags Fly”: Shrek the Musical and the Branding of Diversity

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    Zazzali_2010.pdf (683.4Kb)
    Issue Date
    2010-05
    Author
    Brater, Jessica
    Vecchio, Jessica Del
    Friedman, Andrew
    Holmstrom, Bethany
    Laine, Eero
    Levit, Donald
    Miller, Hillary
    Savran, David
    Smith, Carly Griffin
    Watt, Kenn
    Young, Catherine
    Zazzali, Peter
    Publisher
    Johns Hopkins University Press
    Type
    Article
    Article Version
    Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    “’Let Our Freak Flags Fly’: Shrek the Musical and the Branding of Diversity” argues that DreamWorks used Shrek the Musical to exploit a generic theme of multiculturalism to extend the reach of the Shrek franchise and challenge Disney’s domination of the Broadway market. By bringing a political-economic analysis to bear on the study of commercial theatre, the essay shows that DreamWorks’s marketing strategy—diversification—provided the theme—diversity—for the product it was employing to implement that strategy. Yet because Shrek’s multicultural message is contradicted by the blatant racial stereotyping of Donkey, Shrek’s “jive-spouting sidekick,” the musical in fact epitomizes the contradictions that inform multiculturalism in the early twenty-first-century marketplace and functions as an unlikely emblem of the Age of Obama
    Description
    This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theatre_journal/v062/62.2.brater.html
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/14779
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.2307/3245896
    Collections
    • Theatre Scholarly Works [34]
    Citation
    Jessica Brater et al. (2010). “Let Our Freak Flags Fly”: Shrek the Musical and the Branding of Diversity. PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 22(2):111-122. http://www.dx.doi.org/10.2307/3245896

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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