For a guy who has spent most of this decade working on and off a project, you'd think Stephen Sposito might be tired of it by now. He insists he's not.

The project is "Shrek: The Musical," a national touring production of which comes to town Tuesday for eight performances. The musical, with Sposito as assistant director, ran for 441 performances on Broadway, from December 2008 to January 2010. Sposito is now national tour director.

"I think this show's been in development for eight years," he said in a telephone interview from Portland, where he was launching the current tour. "It's a long road from idea to now."

Sposito said he "started working on it when it was a reading of Act 1. I've seen it from ideas to where it is now, a fully realized production. Doing a musical from the group up is very creative. You and your team have to figure out everything."

Sposito said the production that will come to Sacramento – he won't be with it, as he'll fly back to New York to resume his role as assistant director on the Broadway show "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" – "has the benefit of all that's gone before. We've made changes all along the way, done something a little different from the Broadway production to the London production to now.

"It's a long process, and we're always looking at it and tweaking it, trying to move it forward."

"Shrek: The Musical" is based on the 2001 animated film "Shrek." The musical has an original score that differs from the film's (except for the tune "I'm a Believer" that was added after the show opened on Broadway). And the touring production has a new opening, "a storybook idea that came out of the London production," he said. The musical, of course, retains all that film's fairy tale imagery and characters, from the big green ogre to the nonstop-talking donkey.

Real live singers and dancers use puppets to portray some of those fanciful animated characters – and that can be a challenge, the director said.

"Hopefully, when you watch the show, it looks easy, but you (the director) have to find people who are great singers, good actors, who are funny, can tap dance and puppeteer.

"You're not just looking for a singer. You're looking for a singer who can do 10 other things. Most people don't come into the process with puppet experience."

The show is hectic, Sposito said. "Every time an actor is off stage, they're putting on a prosthetic, changing costumes or getting into a puppet. It has to be just as choreographed backstage as onstage."

It sounds like a situation rife for injuries, but "We haven't had a history of hurts," he said. "I think it's because they're doing so many different things that they're never doing one thing long enough to get injured. Some shows, you're doing six tap numbers – 40 minutes of sustained dancing – and it blows out your feet or your knees. We've been lucky."

The tour will be out for about 40 weeks, Sposito said, going from here to Costa Mesa; Tucson, Ariz.; and El Paso, Texas, before heading East and then to Canada.

Sposito has another project come the fall: He's going to start workshopping another musical. "It's the first stop in exploring if a show is going to have a future," he said. "You really have a blank canvas, and it's a very exciting process. Long, but exciting."

That's something he knows well, thanks to "Shrek," the show that keeps him working ogre and over again.

SHREK: THE MUSICAL

WHAT: Broadway Sacramento opens its 2011-12 season with the national touring company production of the musical – part romance, part twisted fairy tale – based on the animated film about an ogre who arrives in a faraway kingdom to rescue a feisty princess.

WHEN: Opens 8 p.m. Tuesday and continues at 8 p.m. Wednesday, 2 and 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. next Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Oct. 1, and 2 p.m. Oct. 2 (final show)

WHERE: Community Center Theater, 1301 L St., Sacramento

COST: $16-$83, depending upon performance and seat location

INFORMATION: (916) 808-5181, www.calmt.com

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Call The Bee's Jim Carnes, (916) 321-1130.

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