Scamp, the theatre and film production company run by Sam Mendes, Caro Newling and Pippa Harris, will develop the musical in collaboration with Dreamworks SKG, who produced the hit film of the same name. Bill Damaschke, Head of Creative Production for DreamWorks Animation, will supervise for the studio. Hardly a stranger to New York theatre, he appeared there as an actor in the 1987 revival of Godspell.

Jason Moore, who won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical for his Broadway production of Avenue Q, will direct. Moore is a hot property himself these days — he’s currently working on a live-action musical of Disney’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” for ABC, is developing a television pilot for Fox, and is set to executive produce an Avenue Q spin-off TV series. Shrek will premiere in New York, though no time-frame has yet been announced (except that developmental readings will take place in 2005).

Mendes commented on the appointments of Lindsay-Abaire and Moore in a press release, saying, “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 young and gifted as Jason Moore. 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.”