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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Threepenny
Opera</SPAN></I></B><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> is the yang to Fine
Arts’ season of yin<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></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>Bob
Abelman<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="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">Times </I>papers<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> </I>6/4/09</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Ancient
Chinese philosophers believed that everything in the universe operates in
balance, where seemingly opposing forces —a yin and a yang—complement each
other.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The result is tranquility
and harmony.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So it is with this
season of </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">musical
productions at the Fine Arts Association in Willoughby.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Counterbalancing a
year of </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">fun
and frivolous musicals that include <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The
Princess and the Pea</I>, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Seussical</I>
and <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Willy Wonka, Jr</I>., the FAA has
chosen to end its production schedule with the poster child for weighty and
complicated musicals: <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Threepenny
Opera</I>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Adapted
from an 18<SUP>th</SUP>-century opus, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The
Threepenny Opera</I> was written by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer
Kurt Weill in the 1920s.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>While the
original work merely satirized society’s injustices by exploring the inner
workings of its lower class, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The
Threepenny Opera</I> offers a dark, biting critique of corrupt capitalism and
the lowlifes who embrace it.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">It
also purposefully undermines traditional forms of opera.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It does so by </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">trading theatrical
spectacle for simplicity, substituting </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">grand
arias with cabaret style music, and offering a population of unlikable
characters as its protagonists.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Its
songs are primal and end abruptly.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Their lyrics are explicit and jarring.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In short, <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Threepenny Opera</I> is a discordant
yin/yang balancing act in three acts; an intriguing play in opposition with its
own art form.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">The
story revolves around Mr. Peachum, who trains London’s beggars in return for a
cut of their earnings.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To his
dismay, daughter Polly marries an irresistible scoundrel named Macheath, a
former military man who is in cahoots with the crooked police chief. To escape
Peachum’s wrath, Mac leaves town but first stops off at a brothel.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His favorite prostitute, Jenny, has been
bribed to turn Mac into the authorities, but Mac escapes with the help of
another girlfriend, Lucy Brown, the daughter of the police chief.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mac is apprehended once more, is sent to
the gallows for execution, but is granted reprieve by the
Queen.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Given
its inherent edginess, this play allows for <SPAN style="COLOR: black">endless
possibilities of interpretation with varying degrees of decadence.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Many </SPAN>adaptations tend to
accentuate all that is naughty and nasty in the play.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Cross-dressed men and
women in writhing sexual pretzels; leather boys and glitter queens vacuuming up
piles of snow with their nostrils” is how <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The New York Times</I> described one recent
off-Broadway production.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">This
Fine Arts Association production, which runs through June 14, does not
follow this path.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It employs a
softer and more sanitized English translation of Brecht’s play that, under the
direction of James Mango, is particularly tame and mundane.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In fact, this production lacks the
vitality necessary to give Brecht’s story life and its social commentary
teeth.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">To
some degree, this is due to the casting.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">The quality of
a production of <I>The Threepenny Opera</I></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #333333">
often depends on its Macheath and the FAA wisely cast an equity actor in the
role. Just not the right one.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Paul
Floriano is suave and skilled, but he is not sufficiently dangerous, seductive
or intimidating.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His air of
detachment, as if above the riffraff that surrounds him, comes across as being
uncommitted to his own acting choices.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">The
rest of the cast is comprised of community players who try hard to get their
heads around this complex play and its difficult music.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The successful ones include
Aubrey-Kristen Fisher, as Polly, who has a wonderful singing voice but doesn’t
quite capture the ingénue nature of her character.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Carla Petroski, as Jenny, is a force to
be reckoned with.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Michael Rogan and
Candace Russell bring charm to their portrayals of Mr. and Mrs. Peachum.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As Lucy Brown, Natalie Dolezal is one of
the few who captures the intended humor in this play. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Audience
seating is on stage around circular tables, with the performance taking place in
and around this unadorned space and </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">an eight-piece
orchestra playing from the wings</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This captures the intimate cabaret feel
of the play, but also compromises audibility, complicates Mr. Mango’s staging
and confounds Allison Prucha’s choreography, which is too broad for such close
proximity. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=pthdr style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Mr. Mango must be
applauded for taking the risk of staging this challenging show.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Threepenny Opera</I> is the yang to the
Fine Arts Association’s season of yin.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Unfortunately, yin wins.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>