Review: It's A Big Bright, Beautiful SHREK at EPAC

Yes, it was a great movie. But unlike many movies, where the original is better than the transfer to stage, SHREK is better as a musical, because it was larger than life to begin with, and when something is this much larger than life, as Dorothy and the Tin Man and dozens of other creatures have known for years, you've just gotta bust out singing. Especially when you have a tale of ogres and evil demilords and princesses and talking donkeys and every creature in Grimm's fairy tales occupying space in front of a viewer. More a collection of the SHREK movies than just the original family favorite, David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori managed to create from the story of an ogre and his talking donkey sidekick a moral tale of love, loyalty, honor, and magic that covers a musical gamut from R&B to rock to badass ballad, with songs that are as singable as some of those from the classical American musical theatre period of the mid-20th century.

Over at Ephrata Performing Arts Center, director Edward R. Fernandez has managed to make SHREK a nearly perfectly-realized modern fairy tale, one that isn't just a knight rescuing a princess and slaying a dragon, but that embraces liberation, accepting differences as good, and the need to overcome personal limitations in order to grow. Personal growth and inner revolution are as crucial to our ogre hero and his friends as the need to overcome dragons - but sometimes overcoming dragons doesn't mean killing them. You can use a dragon on your side, you can.

SHREK is normally staged a bit differently than Fernandez does it on the EPAC stage, and Fernandez just may be absolutely right. Princess Fiona is often played as a bit of a timid thing at first, but it just doesn't ring true; Taylor Luckenbill has both the artistic chops and the guts to stand up to ogres in less than shining armor, especially ogres as muscular in acting talent and voice as Bryon Smith's Shrek, so that their familiar and delightful gross-out duet of "I Think I've Got You Beat" doesn't feel as if it's come out of left field, and so that "I Know It's Today" has the sharp edge that this feminist up-ending of princesses awaiting rescue from outside really deserves.

It's easy for an actor to get lost in the green foam and makeup and the ragged ogre wardrobe. Smith does no such thing - in his hands, Shrek's personality is clear and fully realized, and there's no doubt that he wears his heart, or alleged lack thereof, on his sleeve. One side note - Smith is such a powerful singer that it doesn't take much for him to be over-miked, which was an issue during the performance. His "Who I'd Be" that closes the first act is as powerful in delivery and in emotion as "I Am Telling You" at the end of the first act of DREAMGIRLS, and for many of the same reasons, where in less capable hands it's just a beautiful song.

Donkey - ah, Donkey. Ever since the movie it's been a big set of hooves to fill, but Michael Roman, who has played Donkey against Smith before, handles the part capably and with dark humor. He's a fine foil for Smith, and the audience can feel the relationship between them build as Shrek helps Donkey across the big scary bridge. Roman's a solid singer as well as a comedian, which is essential to the part.

And then, there's the smallest, though not the least, part of the entire show, the evil Lord Farquaad. Preston Schreffler is one of the most amusing, yet sinister, Farquaads this writer has seen, one who really, truly needs a therapist to get through that family origin dysfunction, and we won't even try explaining to him that marrying a princess won't make him a king, but just a married short guy with a Napoleon complex as opposed to a single one. He's short, he's mean, he's got massive issues - get used to it. Schreffler's Farquaad could eat The Gingerbread Man for lunch and not feel queasy, and his performance of "Ballad of Farquaad" stands up to Smith's "Who I'd Be" as a declaration of dysfunctional self. Get over your bad self, Mr. Daddy Issues boss man. But not while we're watching.

It's rarely usual to mention the dragon, normally a piece of enormous, bigger-than-War-Horse, puppetry. Because of stage size, Fernandez has brought in Kristin Fidler as a much smaller-scale, human-played, dragon who also is allowed a much better singing voice than most of the overblown dragon puppets. The effect of a human-played dragon is interesting and a bit surprising, as it causes the audience to feel more sympathy towards it than to a scarier, larger, anonymous character. (It's much like the human-played Tinkerbell in Open Stage of Harrisburg's PETER, HOOK, AND THE DARLINGS, with a chance to evaluate the character on a human scale and to identify its anthropomorphic qualities.)

Fernandez has brought in a lengthy list of regional stage vets to play the displaced fairy tale characters who are fighting for freedom, and if the adults in the audience can't find political parallels of almost every stripe in their struggle to get their homes back and to be accepted as social equals in Lord Farquaad's realm of Duloc, they're not bothering to think. The triumphant ensemble number, "Freak Flag," could be the rallying call of many modern groups urging Americans, and now others, to be themselves in the face of oppression, all while having a good dance.

The set is one of the nicest ones on the EPAC stage lately, and while it's apparently unintended, the Duloc banner of blue with giant white F-for-Farquaad-and-Fiona letters is almost a medieval Facebook logo, which underscores the modern relevance of the fairy-tale political struggles of the story line. Kudos also to Tricia Corcoran for some nice ensemble choreography.

If there is anything to fault in this production beyond a tendency to over-mike performers, it's not the production itself. This author has never favored the incorporation of a certain Monkees hit as the close of the show, feeling that it's complete without the addition despite the relevance of the lyrics; it's a jolt from Tesori's fine composing that should really take the cast off the stage.

Fernandez has realized the potential in this show and run with it. It's a big, bright, beautiful show, and worth seeing. At EPAC in Ephrata through the 19th, and if you've seen it before, see it again to compare this directorial vision with whatever else you've seen. Of course it's suitable for the whole family (just give up on the fart humor, which the kids will love the most), but as with certain great 1960's cartoons like THE FLINTSTONES, the message for intelligent adults is a different one than for the kids.

Visit EphrataPerformingArtsCenter.com for tickets and information. You'll find your way to Duloc when you arrive there.

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