LITTLE ROCK — Ready ogre not, here comes Shrek the Musical stage show that opened Friday night at Robinson Center Music Hall in Little Rock.
The two-act production is a Broadway bundle of tunes, wrapped in green around the characters of the love-seeking ogre, Shrek (big Lukas Poost); his long-eared sidekick, Donkey (fast-talking Andre Jordan); and Shrek’s equally green and gross girlfriend, Fionna (Liz Shivener). She proves the point in the show’s funniest number, “I Think I Got You Beat,” in which the dainty princess and the lumbering ogre take turns making rude noises.
Friday night’s performance built to a standing ovation from most of the mixed crowd of adults and children. Some of the youngest members of the audience fell to the droops after more than two hours, but nobody sleeps through the closer: Shrek at the mike to belt out The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.”
The big green guy has been around more than 20 years, from his debut in cartoonist and author William Steig’s picture book, Shrek!, through four (so far) computer-animated movies - or five counting the current spin-off, Puss in Boots. The stage play can’t even claim to be the first Shrek that looks like a person could reach out and touch it: Shrek Forever After (2010) came out in 3-D.
But the stage benefits from a lively cast - and it can’t be easy in Poost’s ogre get-up - including the evil Lord Farquaad (Merritt David Janes), impossibly runty thanks to trick of costuming.
Twenty more dancing pigs and other sprites populate Shrek’s fairy-tale world, all dwarfed - even the dwarves - by a yellow-eyed dragon so big it takes a team of four puppeteers to bring the warbling behemoth to life.
Songwriters Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire provide 18 numbers, none likely to outlive the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein, but enjoyable in the moment.
Shrek the Musical continues through Sunday. More information is available at ticketmaster.com or by calling (501) 244-8800.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 10/29/2011