‘Shrek the Musical’ should live happily ever after on Broadway
Published 12:47 pm Thursday, September 18, 2008
SEATTLE —“Shrek the Musical” should sweep Broadway when it opens there Nov. 8. It’s the place in Manhattan that dotes on the different, embraces the edgy and favors the freaks.
“Shrek” is a story that focuses on freaks. Weird fairy-tale characters. Freakish-looking ogres. A woman who is half-princess, half freakish-looking ogre. But get past the shrill-voiced gingerbread man (still attached to his baking sheet), the wooden boy and all that squeamish green and there are some mighty life lessons to be learned. Not the least of which is that “beautiful ain’t always pretty.”
“Shrek the Musical” is playing to enthusiastic audiences at The 5th Avenue Theatre through Sunday. The show premiered in Seattle before it opens in New York and why not? We enjoy the different here, too. Sure enough, the crowds are giving it up for “Shrek,” which is monstrously clever and freakishly funny with a happy ending well suited for the lexicon of timeless fairy tales.
This tale is about a giant green ogre hardened by years of abuse, who ventures from his swamp with a wisecracking Donkey to rescue Princess Fiona from Lord Farquaad and to get his swamp back from a banished band of fairy-tale creatures.
The enthusiasm surrounding this version of “Shrek,” adapted from the movie, is certainly anti-climactic at this point, after a hefty three weeks of previews that got the word out that this is a sure-fire hit. During those previews, “Shrek” has been tucked and tweaked and tuned so finely that the end product is trim and fit and flows quite flawlessly. It’s like watching a skilled gymnast on the mats.
And, as in any polished floor routine, there’s that delicious blend of choreography, skill, good music and delivery. “Shrek the Musical” scores a 10 in all these categories.
With lyrics by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire, and music by Tony-nominated Jeanine Tesori, “Shrek’s” score shines, from “Big Bright Beautiful World” to “Freak Flag.” The tunes move from ballads to R&B to swing to a sexy soul number sung by Donkey called “Make a Move,” and they dazzle every time the Dragon, played by Kecia Lewis-Evans, unleashes her pipes.
The lyrics are infused with puns, sarcasm and irony. Fiona’s song “I Know It’s Today” spills with lines such as “though I seem a bit bipolar; and I’m a vandal now as well, though he won’t mind. I’m a find, I’m a catch, and a very gifted bowler!”
Punctuating the end of the rhythmic “I Think I Got You Beat” with farts and belches is just good stuff. And the dancing skeletons, set against a black-light backdrop, was pure campy fun (choreography done by Josh Prince).
The dialogue, like the lyrics, also was pun-infused. Brian D’Arcy James as Shrek sustained his sauciness under what might as well have been a ton of makeup, maintaining his persona as the monsterly misanthrope with biting zingers throughout like “I’m like a crackpot magnet.” He was a pretty good singer, too.
Sutton Foster was a total darling as Fiona. Her song “Morning Person” was wonderfully clever and beautifully sung with a splash of slapstick thrown in. Donkey was played hilariously by Chester Gregory.
Some might argue that Lord Farquaad stole the show. His lordship was played by Christopher Sieber, nominated for a Tony for his work in “Spamalot.” In “Shrek,” some Monty Pythonlike bits also succeeded. Farquaad’s bathtub scene (“What are those things? Are those his feet? Oh. My. God,” one patron exclaimed) and his dance number in “Things Are Looking Up in Duloc” are among the highlights.
What makes Farquaad’s entire shtick funny yet poignant is that he is, in fact, a freak also, ironic in light of the way he hates all other freaks. Thus providing one of the life lessons of “Shrek” that lingers among the layers of all this merriment: Accept people even though they may be different; don’t judge too quickly about a person simply by appearance and accept the flaws within ourselves so that we might better love others.
