BWW Reviews: York Little Theatre's SHREK: THE MUSICAL - It's Big, Green, and Raucous

SHREK: THE MUSICAL isn't SHREK, the movie - it's a compilation of different parts of the various films with a few bits of its own material, and plenty of music. With book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori, it sounds, at first guess, like a fun children's story, but it's a bit more mature than that in many ways, especially in its metaphors and its subtext. The fart jokes, and there are plenty of them, aren't at all mature, though they're all too easy for children in the audience to get quickly and want to copy (after all, that's adults on stage doing that!). It's fun, it's meaningful, and while you'll have an urge to drag the kids, it's probably actually better for a slightly older crowd.

SHREK: THE MUSICAL is at York Little Theatre, where director Rene Staub's imposed some form upon what can easily be chaos - it's a huge cast, with an entire ensemble of very fractured fairy tale characters acting up. But there are really only three main characters and a prominent secondary character - Shrek himself, played by a big, green, grumpy Randy Stamm, Donkey, a zippy, wisecracking Brady Bennett, Princess Fiona, also known as Rachel Ann Morgan (YLT regulars won't recognize the Swedish bombshell Ulla from THE PRODUCERS here), and then the infamous Lord Farquaad of Duloc, YLT newcomer Michael Zorger, who works his knees off as the shortest ruler of any kingdom, ever.

But what it's about is the right to be different. Lord Farquaad wants Duloc to be perfect, and that means that weird people - like fairy tale characters such as Big Bad Wolves, Fairy Godmothers, talking animals, witches, and magical creatures - have to be purged. They're too odd, too colorful, too hard to control, too non-conformist, too not-normal. And so they need to be banished - right into Shrek's secluded swamp, interfering with his own right to be alone in his swamp. An irate Shrek marches to the palace to demand his swamp back. Farquaad offers it back to him - in exchange for Shrek's size and strength, which can rescue the tower-held Princess Fiona to be Farquaad's bride. To say that things go downhill from there would barely begin to suggest the rest of the story.

The music? The songs? They're cute, and they have some good R&B beats, or a few of them do - "I Think I Got You Beat" and "Make a Move" are two of the best of those. But for the most part, none of them are memorable, except for the one that encapsulates both the fairytale creatures' revolt and the theme of the show -- "Freak Flag", which is just about as catchy as a song can get. That's just as well, because it's got a theme the audience would do well to remember, that different isn't just something to be tolerated, but to be embraced. (If that suggests a multitude of possibilities that make you uncomfortable, you might ask yourself why. That message isn't just about loving gingerbread men and talking pigs.)

The humor? As mentioned, fart jokes predominate, though aside from that, the humor's mostly clean (and what isn't will go right over younger heads). There's a running gag about Lord Farquaad's stature, or lack thereof - possibly the only abnormality that it's permissible to attack here. If you don't like short people jokes, this isn't your show. Pinnochio and his nose go through a number of adjustments, with, mercifully, no gags about that matter. It's also blessedly free from a great deal of the sexist humor that infects many book musicals, though the plotline about princesses needing to be rescued by brave knights is certainly itself sexist and a bit tired (as is the whole "true love's first kiss" business, though the twist on that is critical to the happy ending).

Fortunately, Princess Fiona's a strong character, unlike many females in musical theatre, and she's strong-minded, strong-willed, and a pretty tough cookie. If only those were presented as a bit more admirable - though Shrek and Donkey do appreciate those qualities for what they are.

Stamm gives a fine performance as the big green guy, and Morgan is certainly competent as the princess with a secret nearly as big as her stubbornness, but it's Bennett and Zorger who are the real delights here. Bennett's both athletic and possessed of some great timing, and Zorger makes Farquaad as slimy as he is short, and gives an inspired performance of "The Ballad of Farquaad" when he reveals his own... little... secret about his parents. No one's exactly what or who you think they are at first, which is very much like real life - all of the characters, except perhaps the fairy tale ones themselves, and Donkey, have their own closets. And as in real life, it's the ones who don't bother with them who get attacked first.

Among the fairy tale characters, check out Fairy Godmother (Connie Briscoe), Pinnochio (Amber Gamber) and the Three Blind Mice (Hillary Miller, Kaitlyn Hunt, and Rebecca Robertson).

And while, yes, it was in the movie, don't try to understand the presence of "I'm A Believer" as the closing. It's "Freak Flag," the eleven o'clock number, that's the real high note at the end - if anything should be the curtain number, it should be a reprise of that, but Lindsay-Abaire's convinced his show works best going out on Neil Diamond and The Monkees. It's got a beat and you can dance to it, but it loses the meaning of the show, and "Freak Flag" is just as danceable. On opening night, the cast's performance of "I'm A Believer" didn't feel cohesive, and was possibly the low point of the show, though "Freak Flag" had been a high-energy pulse. The audience enjoyed The Monkees' greatest hit well enough, but as Gertrude Stein said of Berkeley, there was no "there" therev in its delivery. Unfortunately, directors have no discretion in replacing the curtain number.

If you're up for a dose of big, green, and raucous, SHREK: THE MUSICAL is your show. It's a good, old-fashioned book-musical musical comedy. It's one that no one will really be convinced until after they've seen it that it might not have been as kid-centric as they thought it would be. And it does have a love story and a happy ending, which are in short supply in the world of modern shows - it's the anti-LES MIS, the anti-RENT, the anti-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

At York Little Theatre through July 27. Let your own freak flag fly. Call 717-854-5715 or visit www.ylt.org for tickets and information.

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