We watched the show on streaming last night (actually liked it better than when I saw it in the theater several years ago). Anyway, during the song Freak Flag, didn't they wave a flag a la Les Miserables in the show? That wasn't in the video- strange since it looks like the original cast...
I, too, saw the show with a flag. Didn't the Tony Awards performance also include a flag?
SHREK is a show that continuously evolved after opening night, and even post-closing for the tour.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
There are videos online with the flag, as well. As others have pointed out, the show did change after opening night and really changed on the tour. The licensed version of the show is the tour version and I swear the stage directions mentioned Les Mis during Freak Flag.
Another example of how the show constantly changed: Dragon. I remember when I saw the show it was one woman but on the dvd recording there are three women. Then in the shows afterlife (west end) they even wrote a different song for her.
The currently licensed version is not the tour anymore, but a revision to the tour materials. People who got the initial licensed materials for Shrek for perusal have been confused when the actual materials came in and did not match anymore.
I am in a production of "shrek" right now and i know that the tour version is very different from the broadway. They cut "Donkey pot pie" and replaced it with "Forever". They also changed some lines in " Story of my life" and " Freak Flag". As for the flag, it might have been that for the movie they staged it differently to fit the screen.
The show was recorded fall 2009, prior to Brian D'Arcy James early November departure. John Tartaglia also returned to the cast (he had left and was replaced by Rob Sapp). "I'm A Believer" hadn't been the curtain call for even a month when it was filmed. The show closed in January 2010, and all changes, ("Donkey Pot Pie"->"Forever", lyric changes, new dragon puppet, new choreography, etc) made their debut in the national tour.
In Seattle, the Dragon was played by one actress, (Kecia-Lewis Evans) and had two songs, but that was retooled for Broadway, where three female vocalists made up the voice. For all subsequent productions, the role of the Dragon returned to being a solo role, mainly consisting of the new song "Forever".