There are lots of different ways to try to lose weight.
One of the most popular probably wouldn't be donning a fat suit, burlap pants and tunic, double-layered boots with lifts and adding green prostheses to your face, hands and arms. That sounds like gaining weight.
Eric Petersen laughs good-naturedly as he explains what's involved in his transformation from good-looking actor to the multi-layered (clothing and personality, of course) green ogre Shrek for his title role in the national tour of “Shrek the Musical.”
DreamWorks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions Ltd. teamed up to produce the show, which opens Tuesday and runs through Sunday at the Benedum Center as part of the PNC Broadway Across America — Pittsburgh series.
“It takes an hour and a half to put on the makeup and 45 minutes to get in the rest of the costume,” Petersen said from the show's run in Cleveland.
Although he appears green all over, Petersen said the only places colored makeup is applied are around his eyes and upper lip, so his skin blends right in with the ogre-green costume.
The transformation starts when he puts on the 40-some pound fat suit, which gives him lots of padding, and he even has to pad his arms and put on Shrek ogre gloves.
When all is said and done, Petersen has packed on 50-55 pounds.
Moving successfully with all that extra weight, he said, definitely has added up to a personal weight loss.
“Throughout the show's run, I have become adept at maneuvering,” he said. “The biggest hindrance is it's extremely hot. The underarm area in the shirt has patches for ice packs. By intermission, they have melted to warm water.”
While it may be hard to recognize Petersen in his ogre attire, he has been through the 'Burgh before in the first national tour of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” where he portrayed William Barfee.
Petersen remembers one of the celebrity spellers was the Steelers' Max Starks. Pittsburgh audiences, he recalls, were great.
“I've been in New York now about 10 years,” he said. “‘Spelling Bee' was my first big break with the national tour.”
Yet in addition to theater, Petersen has TV credits on “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU” and on the daytime soap opera “As the World Turns.”
His wife Lisa Marie Morabito also is an actor, and she and their infant daughter Sophia Marie — he calls her Sophie — are with Petersen on the tour. In fact Sophie was born in Chicago during the third preview.
Although she's too young to explain it now, Petersen said his 7-month-old daughter seems to know it's really her daddy under all that costume and makeup.
“She's been around me (dressed as Shrek) since she was 3 weeks old,” Petersen said, explaining days when he performs a matinee and evening show, he keeps on much of the makeup in between.
His interest in playing Shrek dates to when he and his wife saw the show on Broadway. He said she turned to him and said, “You have to do that role.” And he did audition for the original workshop four years ago.
His opportunity to join “Shrek” came while Petersen and his wife were doing summer stock at the Barn Theatre in Michigan. In a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” she was the Narrator and he was Pharoah.
He got a call that they needed an emergency replacement for the Broadway show, but Petersen already was committed to “Joseph.”
“Luckily, the guy who was my standby as Pharoah was good and could take over that part,” Petersen said. So he headed to New York, had a costume fitting on a Sunday, and started almost immediately, initially appearing as Papa Ogre and the Straw Pig of the Three Little Pigs fame.
He recalls one special day quite vividly when, following a full rehearsal, Petersen returned home in a good mood.
“Lisa greeted me at the door with a video camera, asking me how the rehearsal went. She kept telling me to follow her into the bathroom,” Petersen said. “I looked around and said, ‘You did the laundry, that's nice.'”
When he looked more closely, he saw three positive pregnancy tests on the sink.
“I was so excited and got almost no sleep. The next morning, I got called to be Shrek for two shows,” Petersen said.
The musical is based on the story and characters from William Steig's book as well as DreamWorks' animated film. “Shrek” was the first animated film to win an Oscar in the specialized category.
While there were lots of familiar songs in the movie, the musical is something quite different.
“There are something like 23 songs in the show, and all except the finale, “I'm a Believer,” are new,” Petersen said. “The people who did the writing of the show are so good, at the top of the game. What's so great about the music is it doesn't have one musical theme. There's a gospel number, rock and roll and a power ballad. All the songs really move the story forward.”
While the musical follows the general story line from the movie, there are differences. It includes young Shrek with his mother and father, venturing out into the real world for the first time. There's the vertically-challenged Lord Farquaad, lots of misfit fairy tale creatures, the people of Duloc, Dragon, the beautiful-but-feisty Princess Fiona and Shrek's favorite sidekick Donkey.
Shrek's still a swamp-dwelling ogre who goes on a mission to rescue the princess from the Dragon-guarded castle and reclaim the deed to his land.
In addition to Petersen, Haven Burton as Fiona and David F.M. Vaughn as Lord Farquaad join the national tour from the Broadway show.
Petersen said they are good friends as well as co-workers.
Alan Mingo Jr. plays Donkey. While he wasn't in “Shrek” previously, Mingo is an original company member of “The Little Mermaid,” where he played Sebastian the crab.
“He's so hilarious,” Petersen said of Mingo. He's perfectly crafted this character.”
Petersen said there's a certain magic to Shrek. “It really is so cool, not only for the kids, but for the adults, to see a real-life version” of the green ogre. “I really encourage people to come see the show. It definitely is a family show, but it's surprising how much adult humor is included.”
Tickets range from $22 to $68 and are available at the Box Office at Theater Square in Downtown Pittsburgh, by phone at 412-456-6666 and here .
