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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Formula doesn’t quite
translate in Beck bio-drama <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT
size=3>News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times
Courier<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This
review appeared in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald
</I>3/20/09</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Calibri
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Fans of television’s
<I>West Wing</I> and <I>Sports Night </I><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">will find something very familiar about
</SPAN>Aaron Sorkin’s <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Farnsworth
Invention</I>, currently on stage at the Beck Center for the Arts.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In form and in function, this play
follows the recipe <SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">for success the
playwright </SPAN>brought to primetime drama in the late-1990s.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Sorkin’s failsafe
strategy for TV was to introduce a core of intelligent and immediately likable
characters and place them in an alluring and intense work environment that is
strictly off limits to mere mortals.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>He then inundates the audience with fast-paced, industry-specific babble
that is hard to follow and impossible to comprehend.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This establishes the credibility of
these special individuals, who understand this babble, and the story delves into
what makes them tick, warts and all.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><I><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: windowtext">West Wing</SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: windowtext"> explored the people that run the man
that runs the nation, and offered a behind-closed-doors peek into the intriguing
world of global politics and White House politicking.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><I>Sports Night</I><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> featured the sportscasters who make elite
athletes famous, and gave us a backstage look at the high-pressure world of
broadcast journalism.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><o:p><FONT
size=3></FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: windowtext"><FONT size=3>In <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Farnsworth Invention</I>, <SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Sorkin applies this formula to the world of
technological innovation in the late-1920s.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are introduced to two
</SPAN>ambitious visionaries—the self-taught, farm boy savant with the ability
to transform ideas into inventions and the immigrant media mogul who built his
empire with the sweat equity of others.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Together, they made television a reality.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In a blur of rapid-fire, high-brow
banter, we hear but do not really learn about the physics that drives early TV
technology, the intricacies of the stock market crash that encouraged ingenuity,
and the nuance of copyright law.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><o:p><FONT
size=3></FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
size=3>This formula works brilliantly in episodic, hour-long, made-for-TV drama,
where the story can methodically unfold across the eight months of a television
season. It is less successful in a single installment of made-for-theater
theater.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Way too much information
is crammed into this two hour, two act play. Yet, because it is about the
complex lives and incredible accomplishments of actual people, it seems as if
not nearly enough information is provided.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><o:p><FONT
size=3></FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Sorkin’s
play relies on drive-by dramatic devices to deliver loads of information in an
efficient manner. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Character-defining events are reduced to
flashes of flashback. Technological triumphs are truncated into mere eureka
moments.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Exposition is condensed
into snappy one-liners delivered by mogul David Sarnoff, who also </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">provides
the audience with a running analysis of inventor Philo Farnsworth’s life.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His nemesis, Farnsworth, responds with
his own dueling color commentary about the idealistic but ruthless Sarnoff.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A Greek chorus of assorted wives,
colleagues and investors are brought on to move along the storyline, and then go
away.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=3>Director Scott Spence does a marvelous job of keeping things clean, crisp
and in a state of perpetual motion.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The plot never loiters, the show’s momentum never lags and the bare set
facilitates the storytelling by not getting in the
way.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=3>Paul Floriano has created a fleshy, interesting Sarnoff, broadcasting’s
most notorious SOB.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His exchanges
with an extremely personable Sebastian Hawkes Orr, as the naïve and
self-destructive Farnsworth, help bring the script’s implicit but obscured drama
to the surface and make this production a piece of entertainment rather than a
history lesson.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>By the end of Act
2, the audience cares about these characters, warts and all, which is quite an
achievement for Floriano and Orr.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=3>The large ensemble, with each member playing an assortment of characters,
is quite good.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Performances by John
Busser, as Farnsworth’s brother-in-law, and Emily Pucell, as </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=3>Farnsworth’s wife, are particularly noteworthy.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Sorkin’s most recent
television production, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Studio 60</I>,
took place behind the scenes of a fictional live sketch comedy TV show.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It didn’t make it beyond its first
season on NBC. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Farnsworth Invention</I>, which lasted
only three months on Broadway, is further proof that his recipe for success is
not always successful. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>The Farnsworth
Invention<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> runs through April 11 at the
Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For tickets, which range
from $17-$28, call 216-521-2540 x 10 or visit <A href=""><FONT
color=#ff0000>www.beckcenter.org</FONT></A>.<o:p></o:p></I></FONT></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>