BWW Reviews: SHREK THE MUSICAL national tour comes to TPAC

If there is an overriding theme to the joyously raucous fun that is Shrek the Musical it is that we should celebrate our differences, to champion that which makes us unique. And it works beautifully: whether you're the five-year-old boy sitting in front of me so captivated by the onstage spectacle that he hardly moved for more than two hours, the eight-year-old girl to my right who implored her mother to explain "how do they do that," a plethora of "fairy tale creatures" claiming their rightful place in a vividly imagined duchy ("I'm wood, I'm good, get used to it," Pinnochio intones) and even if you're a fiftysomething theater critic cloaked in cynicism who found himself totally enraptured by the antics of an ogre, a princess and a talking ass.

Now onstage at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday, Shrek the Musical could be dismissed by some as merely a theme park version of an animated film (which, I must confess, I've never seen), but if you approach it with your eyes wide open - and perhaps more importantly, your heart wide open - you're likely to see it for what is: A fast-paced, hugely entertaining homage to fairies, their tales and all the fairy dust that makes musical theater so completely transformative and exhilarating.

Featuring the delightfully askew book and lyrics of playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and the soaring, lyrical score of Jeanine Tesori, it's a completely disarming look at childhood stories (think of it, if you will, as the flip side - or identical cousin a la The Patty Duke Show - of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods) that's so entertaining and so heartfelt you can't help but love it. The piece abounds with humor, some of it gentle enough for the youngest and most innocent of audience members, while other moments are filled with enough double entendre and adult-tinged laughs to satisfy even the most discerning grown-up in the appreciative crowd. Perhaps Shrek the Musical's biggest success is the show's uncanny nuances that allow it to be acerbic and biting while remaining thoroughly sweet and engaging.

Directed by Jason Moore and Rob Ashford, with choreography by Josh Prince, the musical is wryly self-referential while remaining totally irreverent, with scads of affectionately expressed nods to pop culture, the Broadway musical theater canon (homage is paid, however winkingly, to Wicked, Gypsy, Les Miserables, Dreamgirls, A Chorus Line, etc.), current events and trends, and so much more. It's pretty amazing how the creative team has brought all of these disparate elements together so appealingly, yet they have with the colorful, glittery production (exemplified by the scenic and costume design of Tim Hatley, the lighting design of Hugh Vanstone, the hair/wig design of David Brian-Borwn, the make-up design of Naomi Donne, the puppet design of Tim Hatley and the sound design of Peter Hylenski) that's sure to leave audiences completely sated, yet somehow wanting more. Shrek the Musical walks a very fine line and does so in a very fine manner.

The cast is uniformly energetic and winning, led by the charmingly gracious Eric Petersen as the lovable title ogre himself; Haven Burton as the lovely object of his affections, Princess Fiona; Alan Mingo Jr. as Shrek's streetwise sidekick Donkey; and David F.M. Vaughn, who very nearly steals the entire show out from under the entire ensemble, as Lord Farquaad, who is largely responsible for some of the production's most memorable moments, both musically and comedically.

Musical highlights include the show-opening "Big Bright Beautiful World;" the Lord Farquaad-led "What's Up, Duloc?" (which is near impossible to explain; suffice it to say, you have to be there); Princess Fiona's Act Two opener, "Morning Person"; and "Freak Flag," in which the entire coterie of fairy tale creatures celebrate their very freakiness in straight-outta-Les Mis-full-out-Royal-Shakespeare-Company-wedge glory that is nothing short of terrific! Special notice should also be paid to music director Andy Grobengieser, who also conducts the top-flight pit crew that features some of Nashville's finest musicians, along with The Players who travel with the company on its national tour.

- Shrek the Musical. Book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. Music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Jason Moore and Rob Ashford. Choreography by Josh Prince. Music direction by and conducted by Andy Grobengieser. Broadway at TPAC. Andrew Jackson Theatre, Nashville. Through Sunday, January 30. For details, visit www.tpac.org.

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