MORE green, less yellow. If the mak ers of “Shrek: The Musical” had been brave enough to give their imaginations – and their big green guy – free rein, the show that opened on Broadway last night could have been one of the standouts of the season.
As it happens, it takes nearly all of Act 1 before “Shrek: The Musical” starts to sing. And when it does, it truly comes alive.
Until then, Jason Moore’s staging seems like a blueprint for some “DreamWorks on Ice” version, with its by-the-numbers readings from the 2001 film and greenery that looks left over from “Tarzan.”
You probably know the plot: Shrek, the solitary ogre, is forced from his swamp by a flood of fairy-tale creatures banished from Lord Farquaad’s kingdom. If Shrek wants his swamp back, he has to fight off a dragon and bring the lord a princess.
With a soft Scottish drawl that hews close to Mike Myers’ original, Brian d’Arcy James gives us a multilayered ogre – a mix of vexation, anger, humor and woe – made all the more amazing by the fact he’s emoting through green rubber. He has a fine voice and a warm rapport with Princess Fiona (the unsinkable Sutton Foster).
Fiona is a highly caffeinated soul who literally blows up songbirds and outpipes the Pied Piper (the intermittently witty choreography is by Josh Prince).
She and Shrek compete in a boisterous bout of belching and farting in “I Think I Got You Beat,” bound to be repeated – the gasworks, if not the lyrics – by every kid who hears it.
Daniel Breaker, the passionate heart of last season’s “Passing Strange,” makes an over-the-top Donkey. Then again, who could compete with Eddie Murphy? This Donkey’s all buggy eyes and padded thighs – less wiseass than ass and, with all that preening, a little light in the hooves.
Happily, we also have Christopher Sieber as the tiny tyrant, Farquaad. Sieber plays him on his knees, flaunting a pair of fabulously phony legs. He sings a funny ballad in his bubble bath – all hairy chest and teeny-tiny toes – revealing the reason he hates fairy tales: His mom was a princess, his dad was Grumpy. It’s a “Wicked” back story.
David Lindsay-Abaire’s book and lyrics, when he finally deviates from the film, are giddy with shoutouts to Broadway (look for “A Chorus Line,” “Chicago” and “The Lion King”). And he and composer Jeanine Tesori, working here in a pop vein, deliver an anthemic “Freak Flag” (“It’s time to stop the hiding/It’s time to stand up tall”) that might have powered Stonewall’s pioneers.
You’re sent out of the theater on a cloud of confetti to the strains of Neil Diamond’s “I’m a Believer,” just like the movie. Once again, “Shrek: The Musical” plays it safe.
SHREK: THE MUSICAL Broadway Theater, Broadway at 53rd Street; (212) 64-9587.