Shrek: The Musical
8 p.m. Friday–Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Through May 23
The Pollard Theater
Pollard Theatre Company has gone just about full-time into the musical-theater business, and now they’re putting on Shrek: The Musical, adapted from the 2001 animated film. The challenge for Pollard in this production is to create a spectacle that makes up for a musical that’s emotionally flat, albeit crowd-pleasing. The results are mixed, with the whole being less than the sum of the parts.
The show tells the old ogre-rescues-sleeping-princess-from-dragon-guarded-castle story. You know someone will fall in love and live happily ever after. The only question is who and with whom. Although Shrek teems with fairy-tale and nursery-rhyme characters, it deals with such contemporary issues as whatever makes you “special” (that is, an outcast) also makes you strong. Even if you are a boy made of wood (Pinocchio) or a boy who won’t grow up — but are really a 34-year-old woman — (Peter Pan), you’re good enough and strong enough and, doggone it, people like you.
The show’s creators (Jeanine Tesori, music; playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, book and lyrics) set the tone with the ironic “Big Bright Beautiful World.” No, that’s not the life of ogres. If you have the misfortune to be born an ogre, you’re loathed, feared, and shunned at every turn. In other words, people judge you before they know you.
The production features strong leads and supporting cast. Doug Ford does a fine job in the title role. Ford has a beautiful singing voice, but it’s not much on display here. He has to stay in character, and it would seem odd if an ogre sounded like Michael Bublé or somebody. Ford gives a heartfelt performance in the poignant “When Words Fail,” something we can all relate to.
Gwendolyn Evans plays Fiona, a princess with a secret. The feisty Fiona takes no guff off anybody, and Evans illuminates the character’s strengths and vulnerabilities.
The young Nigel Hall has the unenviable task of playing Donkey, a role created and possessed by Eddie Murphy in the film. It’s probably impossible to play Donkey without channeling a little Murphy, but Hall effectively makes the role his own.
Charlie Monnot is the diminutive Lord Farquaad. In this costume-intensive show, Farquaad comes up short, and Monnot does a capital job in what must be a physically demanding role.
Director W. Jerome Stevenson has to deal with middling material here. The show’s humor is more silly than funny — to wit, the number “What’s Up, Duloc?” Lindsay-Abaire’s book includes running flatulence jokes that would send 10-year-old boys into hysterics. Tesori’s pleasant, if unremarkable, score ranges from bluesy to bouncy to balladry. Jennifer Rosson faithfully adapts her choreography to each number’s demands. The supporting cast has its moment in the fun “Freak Flag.” A four-piece, heavily synthesized band accompanies the production.
Michael James designed the plentiful and elaborate costumes. The show is played on James A. Hughes’s cartoon-like scenic design.
Shrek: The Musical closely follows the film’s storyline. Like the motion picture, it ends with an exuberant rendition of Neil Diamond’s “I’m a Believer,” but this isn’t really a children’s show. Although several audience members at the reviewed performance were youngsters, you can decide how your child would deal with the almost three-hour running time. Some adults will be looking at their watches.
