Shrek the Musical

Alright I have a couple confessions up front.  First, I would not have gone to this had not my girlfriend had season tickets to the Broadway performances at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis.  She actually tried to sell these particular tickets, and could find no buyers.  She tells me that normally when she sells tickets to these performances they are snapped up. 

My second confession is that I only vaguely knew the story line.  I have seen maybe half of the first Shrek movie.  So if I sound a little redundant on the story line, please forgive an old man. 

Now I have another confession, I really enjoyed this Broadway musical performance of Shrek the Musical.  If I really enjoyed it, my girlfriend’s level of pleasure of this show was in another dimension. 

The Broadway production is first and foremost a first class musical.  It is next a tried and true love story. It starts out as Beauty and the Beast and ends up as Beast and the Beast.  It is also a tale about accepting yourself for who you are if you wish to find happiness.  It celebrates the fact that we all need other beings in our life.  None of us can truly be solitary, and be happy.  It is a morality play of good triumphing over evil.  Finally, it is a fine comedy, more than a little funny. 

I’m not sure if the movie Shrek does this, but weaved into this tale were multiple story book characters.  There were among others, The 3 Bears, The 3 Little Pigs, The Big Bad Wolf of Little Red Riding Hood fame, Peter Pan, A Wicked Witch, and of course Pinocchio.  They not only help advance the story, but were guilty of many a fine dance number.  Pinocchio did bother me a bit as he had several narrative parts and singing parts all done at an irritating falsetto.  The elongating nose was cool, though. 

The performance managed very nicely to amuse both the young and the adult portions of the audience.  There were more than a few “fart” jokes aimed at the younger set and maybe some of us older types.  There were the story characters mentioned above, and of course a Princess for all the young ladies. There several adult innuendo style offerings.  For instance Lord Farquaad tall castle towers, what is he compensating for? 

The actor playing Lord Farquaad delivered a truly amazing performance…on his knees.  I was utterly impressed at the athletic ability of this man who spent most the evening portraying the 3 feet tall character while on his knees, yet delivering fine dialogue and song.  He had a long cape covering his legs behind, and false legs hanging below the character’s waist that he manipulated brilliantly.  (See picture above)

An understudy, Holly Ann Butler, came in to play Fiona.  It is hard to imagine that the primary actress, Haven Burton, could have been better. Ms. Butler absolutely nailed the performance.   

The show was purposely a little campy in parts, and did not take itself too seriously.  During one scene Lord Farquaad rides in on a plastic horse and utters the memorable line, “Whoa plastic horse.”  As if that was not enough when the character leaves the stage atop his plastic horse, a blue light on the horse’s head begins flashing and a backup warning siren is going off. It just cracked the audience up. 

The dragon and the folks that bring life to it were astounding.  The dragon flew as 3 actors/dancers dressed similarly to cat burglars manipulated poles below.  Part me forgot they were there, and the other part of me was total amazed by what they were doing.  We had second row seats, center, on the aisle which meant that we could truly see everything going on upon the stage.  I wondered what the dragon flying looked like from the mezzanine?  I am sure the actors beneath were not nearly so visible as they were not obvious from row two.   

I am really glad that my girlfriend could not sell these tickets.  It was a very entertaining evening.  If the performance comes near to you, go see it.  It works for all ages and is worth the price of a Broadway touring company ticket.