The Daily Times

When actor Lukas Poost got the call that the lead role in “Shrek the Musical” was his, he was on top of the world.

Literally, in fact. The phone call came, Poost told The Daily Times this week, while he was climbing Cadillac Mountain in Maine’s Acadia National Park. The highest point on the North Atlantic seaboard, it couldn’t have been a more perfect place to receive a phone call that would change his life.

“It’s a great story, a great fairy tale, and it’s a lot of fun and has a good message,” Poost said. “The show follows the plot of the first film — there are some things where it’s almost line-for-line identical, and other scenes that are entirely new bits and pieces and ways to get from one point to the next with some brand new fun — for instance, Donkey and I play ‘punch buggy,’ and that’s really fun.

“Plus, there are 18 new songs that go along with the story, so it’s a great mixture of old and new things. Most of the moments you’re dying to see, they’re all there, along with some really great new stuff that’s also there. And there’s a lot of great stage magic that happens as well. For instance, the dragon is a 25-foot puppet that slides around on stage, which is really cool.”

Poost sounds like he might have gotten the part yesterday, but that’s just the nature of “Shrek,” based on the 1990 story by William Steig and the 2001 animated film that featured comedian Mike Myers in the voice of the title character. For one thing, the movie was a smashing success, grossing nearly half a billion dollars in box office receipts; for another, it’s an inspiring story of an unlikely hero who happens to be an ogre but realizes that with work and determination, he can be the hero he believes himself to be.

When the film — which spawned three sequels — was turned into a musical at the behest of director Sam Mendes and DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg, who bequeathed the project to NETworks Presentations around 2004, when “Shrek 2” was released. It ran for more than a year on Broadway before debuting as a traveling musical in 2010. Poost has been a part of the production since shortly after graduating college.

Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, he got involved in children’s theater and was inspired by a drama teacher in a nearby town. She taught some of the summer workshops he attended; the young charges that showed the most potential for acting were shepherded by her and would go on to success on stages around the country.

“She was an actor and director and that sort of thing, and she helped us learn about theater and nurtured our interest in it,” Poost said. “She taught us everything she knows and created a huge love for theater in a number of us.”

Poost went on to attend the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, concentrating on acting and theater, and when “Shrek the Musical” went public, he fell in love with the song that closes Act I — “Who I’d Be.”

“It was a really pretty song, and the message is that it’s basically a song of discovery about realizing you can be whoever you want to be,” he said. “That was something I always struggled with, and still do from time to time — who am I, what do I want, that sort of thing — so I brought it to different teachers and worked on it in different ways, and it became sort of my song at the school.”

During his senior year, he traveled with his fellow impending graduates to a senior showcase in New York, an annual production designed to help students network with agents, casting directors and stage managers. He sang “his” song, and afterward was introduced to one of NETworks’ casting directors. He was invited to audition for “Beauty and the Beast,” but his knack on one of the signature “Shrek” songs got him noticed when the company started seeking a new lead for that show.

After three weeks and three rounds of auditions and another three weeks of waiting, he got that mountaintop phone call, and it’s been a roller coaster ride ever since. And while he’s loved the story and the character since before he got the part, he was unprepared for the transformation process that takes place before every show — as well as the applause the first time he makes his entrance in the show, in full makeup.

“The first time I went through that, it was very exciting,” he said. “The makeup is so cool it looks exactly as you hope it would look. It’s an amazing transformation I enjoy watching happen. What really took me aback the first time is when the whole audience started applauding the first time they saw Shrek. That wasn’t something I expected at all.

“I knew it wasn’t for me — it was for the character — but that first time, I forgot what I was doing. It was like, ‘Holy cow! What is this?’ That was one of the most thrilling things I’ve ever experienced.”

And that continued reception, he added, makes the nearly two hour process of becoming Shrek worth it. His makeup takes the longest; roughly an hour and a half to adhere four prosthetic makeup pieces to his face using medical glue, all of which is then painted green. After donning a 45-pound fat suit, fake hands, an outfit made of what feels like burlap and boots that give him an almost 3-inch height boost, he becomes the ogre.

Making the character his own, however, is another thing entirely. Most fans of the film expect a Mike Myers clone; while Poost does an admirable Scottish accent, and while he studied the film to help him build a foundation, there’s enough of his own personality and creative energy in the character to keep it from being too close to or different from his film counterpart.

“I had the influence of what (Mike Myers) had done, and there were a couple of key things I wanted to try and keep that way, but I tried to focus on what I’m bringing to it,” he said. “I think what I tried most to bring out is the softer, more heartfelt part of Shrek, which I think is underrated a little bit, and I think it comes out more in the musical.

“He starts the show as an ogre who lives in a swamp by himself, and he’s been told all his life that this is what he does — he lives in a swamp, he scares people, he smells bad, he farts and burps and all of that stuff. But by the end of the show, he’s gone through this journey — literally and spiritually — to where he doesn’t have to be what everyone thinks he is. He can be the hero that he feels he is on the inside, and that’s fine.

“It’s more than fine, actually — it’s a great thing, and great art to be able to do as an actor — and still get to do all of the burp and fart jokes,” Poost added.

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