The Music Theater Works production of Shrek: The Musical, a meet-ugly tale of an amiable ogre and a princess hiding a dark secret that opened Saturday at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, delivers a fun family romp that showcases the talents of its female cast members to the best effect.
Dani Pike brings real passion to the role of Princess Fiona in addition to a fine, powerful singing voice interpreting the book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori. You can viscerally connect with Fiona’s anguish over being locked up alone in a dragon-defended tower for 20 years waiting for a prince to save her and show her the true meaning of love. And as Dragon, brassy Maddison Denault goes big during their showcase numbers “Forever” and “This Is How a Dream Comes True,” fitting for the love interest of Donkey (a lively, good-humored Eustace J. Williams), who professes his preference for “big, big girls.”
Whenever Denault and especially Pike are onstage, the story moves with a spring in its fairy-tale step, while Donkey and Lord Farquaad (Michael Metcalf) provide ample comic relief. Meanwhile, Jordan DeBose shows it’s not always easy being green as Shrek. DeBose does a good job with the Scottish accent we expect from the movies, and they sing well. But instead of wearing the high-stakes emotional drama on their tunic sleeve, this Shrek mostly seems to let the story happen to them without much variance in reaction. In the second act, we see this sleeping giant wake up and deliver a high-energy rescue of Fiona from the clutches of the pint-sized potentate Farquaad. The show would be much improved if we saw that fire from the beginning.
Still, this is a good time at the theater for all ages, bolstered by a full orchestra in fine form and Rachel M. Sypniewski’s delightful costumes for the ogres and other fairy tale creatures, including, most memorably, Pinocchio (an engagingly over-the-top Michaela Shapiro). Shaya Harris and Omi Lichtenstein do a nice job with their brief Teen Fiona and Young Fiona roles, especially when they share the stage with Pike on the haunting “I Know It’s Today.” And the gingerbread puppet Gingy, brought to life here by Crystal Claros, is good for several laughs.
In the program, producing artistic director Kyle Dougan highlights the recent gift of a media and projection computer system that made the production’s sophisticated projections possible. Without that system, audiences would only be able to imagine the clouds of flatulence Shrek and Fiona produce rather than actually seeing them explode to life. Ah, progress.
Shrek: The Musical runs through December 31 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Brett Beiner
