BWW Reviews: Dutch Apple's SHREK - Big Music, Big Message, Big Green Ogre

The first thing to realize about SHREK: THE MUSICAL is that it is not "Shrek" the movie. It's got bits of the movie. It's got bits of later movie. It's got bits all its own. And it's got lots of Shrek and Donkey, which is the entire point of Shrekness. Ogres and talking donkeys doing slapstick routines is just what the universe needed but didn't know it needed. Furthermore, it's got a message, and a pointed one, which you don't expect out of a show that's simultaneously vulgar and fart-loaded and innocently adorable. And don't let the fact that it's a show full of fart jokes turn you off of it before you've seen it.

SHREK, at Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre right now, directed by Prather Entertainment Group veteran Paul Bernier, is a moral tale not only about the friendship of Shrek and Donkey, and about the love of Shrek and Princess Fiona, but about the fact that it's great to be different, that it's great to be crazy-weird, that letting your freak flag fly - the main lines of the central song in the show - is an awful lot better than letting dictatorial authority restrict your life.

Shrek, the ogre, played by Chuck Caruso in a way that's both crotchety and sweet at the same time, is just furious that all the fairy tale creatures of the kingdon of Dulac have been forced out of Dulac by the evil and amazingly short Lord Farquaad (Christopher Violett) because they're Not Like Everyone Else. He's not furious for them, he's furious that they've been sent to his swamp, and they're taking up his unoccupied territory. So he marches off to the capital to demand his property back. On the way he meets Donkey, or Rendell DeBose, who's energetic enough and funny enough for three dancing, singing donkeys.

Princess Fiona, who's Shrek's match in snarkiness, sarcasm, and the blowing of wind, is Kate Marshall. She's as fearless and feisty as her character should be, and Fiona was around well before "Brave" in the category of feminist role-model princesses. There's a nice awakening in Fiona to the facts that Prince Charming is a myth and that True Love isn't always beautiful and idyllic, and Marshall's depiction of that development is really quite charming on its own.

What Shrek doesn't anticipate on reaching Dulac is that Farquaad wants Fiona rescued from a tower, a la Rapunzel, so that he can marry her and become king - his interest in Fiona is purely a property-rights matter. Since he's too small to do it, he offers Shrek his swamp back in exchange for rescuing Fiona and bringing her to him. It's from there that everything else develops. That includes romantic dragons looking for interspecies love, fairy tale characters staging a revolution against Farquaad and asserting their right to be different, and Fiona's discovery that when you have two halves of yourself at war with each other, don't bank on which one needs to win.

The best numbers in the show are undoubtedly Fiona's "I Know It's Today," "I Think I Got You Beat," in which Fiona and Shrek compare tales of woe and their bodily sound percussive abilities, and "Freak Flag," when the fairy tale characters demand their right to express themselves as different, magical, sometimes crazy, characters. The concluding number, unfortunately, which was added after the show was developed, is The Monkees' "I'm a Believer" - a song that's fitting to the magic that is Shrek and Fiona, yes, but that, while it can certainly get a crowd of the right age going, simply feels awkward. David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori created a show full of wonderful mock-Seventies R&B, and the closing insertion of Sixties bubble-gum pop is musically jarring. Better to listen to "Make a Move," in which Russell DuBose does a fabulous James Brown impression, and hum that and "Freak Flag" on the way out the door.

Costumes are nicely handled, especially that of the slightly dysfunctional "Peter Pan" character, and the sets are also delightful and quite literally "fantastic".

This is a show that draws children. It's probable that many adults don't catch the underlying message of the show, which even today is still fairly radical, as well as children may - different isn't only okay, it's great. Or as the show says, "What makes us special makes us strong." Even though that's a message kids need to learn, it may be worth thinking twice before taking them to see this. If you've been trying to get them to behave in a more grown-up fashion, you need to explain that this doesn't include grown-up farting ogres having wind-blowing contests. The show's not vulgar in terms of coarse language, but it's got a mature theme or two being presented by some definite non-role-models that are cartoonishly attractive to children. On the other hand, older children should be required to see this. Although it wasn't intended as an anti-bullying message, it's certainly in there.

At Dutch Apple through June 21. Call 717-891-1900 or visit www.dutchapple.com for tickets and information.

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