[NEohioPAL] Review of "The Panther Dancer" at Playwrights Local

[Bob Abelman]

 ‘The Panther Dancer’ at Playwrights Local can’t rise above sketch comedy 



Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, American Theatre Critics Association



As if pop star Michael Jackson’s tragic life and death had not been sufficiently dissected in the tabloids, in British journalist Martin Bashir’s damaging exposé “Living with Michael Jackson” and in Megan Stine’s infamous tell-all biography “The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story,” local playwright Logan Cutler Smith has added “The Panther Dancer.”  



The play is an impish amalgamation of moments that mark the arc of Michael Jackson's rise and fall.   His abusive upbringing, meteoric ascent to international stardom and first of many plastic surgeries fill act one while his financial ruin, drug addiction and the allegations of pedophilia are found in act two.



It is receiving its first full production at Playwrights Local after getting a workout at the 2016 NEOMFA Playwright’s Festival at convergence-continuum.



“The Panther Dancer’s” impishness resides in the parodic tone that touches on each of the brief, offbeat vignettes that make up this 100 minute, two-act entertainment, as five actors interchangeably play Michael, all the lesser Jacksons, and a slew of Hollywood and Motown luminaries and insiders who served to define Michael’s life.   Dressed in black shirts and white pants, the actors become characters with the addition of an article of clothing or a bad wig.  



Performed on a 16’ by 16’ stage with limited production values supplied by Chelby Benson (bare-boned scenic design), Wes Calkin (standard lighting design) and Drake Crowind (random but effective projection design), the play resembles – visually and viscerally – an overambitious and underperforming “Saturday Night Live” skit that goes on for way too long.  And it is delivered by the newest, most eager members of the “SNL” cast, the ones briefly introduced at the very end of the opening credits.   



For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/
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