Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Some Broadway stars decorate their dressing rooms with talismans for luck and telegrams of congratulation. Sutton Foster, who plays the tap-dancing, semi- ogre love interest Fiona in the new musical version of “Shrek,” has a quieter aesthetic.

The Tony Award-winning star’s dressing room, one flight up from the stage of the Broadway Theatre, is adorned with a damp brassiere hanging from a wall hook and an afghan and antimacassars she crocheted for the homey couch that dominates the modest space. Like Foster herself, flashy it’s not.

This may surprise fans of the 33-year-old triple-threat (actress-singer-dancer) who saw her vamping as the man-hungry blonde bombshell Inga in “Young Frankenstein.” In “Shrek,” we first meet her as a princess in a tower -- not as Rapunzel but just a cooped-up girl antsy with boredom.

“I love that we show Fiona going a little crazy,” Foster says. “The princess is often glamorized -- the tower, it’s so romantic -- and I think: How does she eat? I’ve got the whole backstory in my head. She’s on the Zone Diet and birds deliver it to her every day and she runs laps to stay in shape.”

She’s wearing a green, long-sleeve T-shirt and jeans and not a dot of makeup. Almost boyishly lanky, Foster has brown eyes and hair falling around her shoulders. She could be Mary-Louise Parker’s kid sister, though it’s unlikely that Parker has ever had to turn triple cartwheels, spin plates, raise a foot above her head, drop effortlessly into a split and warble while drinking water -- all in the course of a single number, as Foster did eight times a week in “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

Being Green

As Fiona, she does many of those things, sometimes while green, porcine and sprouting delicate little trumpet ears you could hang the dry-cleaning on. “Shrek” is a thoroughly modern fairy tale, in which inner beauty beats the other kind. Foster, at the top of the heap in a profession that puts a premium on youth, looks and sex appeal, loves that idea.

“Lemme tell ya, the whole message of Fiona accepting that beautiful ain’t always pretty, and finding love, everybody can relate to because we all struggle with that, but especially women and young girls,.

‘‘The whole girl culture and the magazines and the pressure, it makes me crazy,’’ she said. ‘‘I rebel against it. I don’t wear makeup, I’ll brush my hair if necessary but I never want someone to like me because of an outward appearance.”

Off Tract

Lest you think that “Shrek” is a feminist tract (which it is, but a sneaky one), Foster points out that her favorite part of the show is her big Act II number, hoofing with the rodents. It’s the only scene that lets her pull out all three triple- threat stops. Early in the song, she yanks off her floor-length skirt and for a few dizzy moments, prim Fiona is transformed into one rat-ecstatic, high-kicking chorine.

“We call it the Rat Tap,” she said. “That number reminds me of Ann-Margret. I thought, Ah! I can rip my skirt off? Sweet!”

And then there’s her falling-in-love scene with Shrek, played by Brian d’Arcy James. It’s noisy, in a Mel Brooks kind of way.

“I love working with Brian, so the farting and burping scene is a favorite,” Foster said. “It’s fun to fall in love with him every night. Yeah, I get to fart and burp on stage every night, and tap and be pretty. It’s cool.”

“Shrek” opens Dec. 14 at the Broadway Theatre, Broadway at 53rd St. Information: +1-212-239-6200; http://www.telecharge.com.

(Jeremy Gerard is an editor for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Jeremy Gerard in New York at jgerard2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 12, 2008 00:00 EST