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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Mercury Summer Stock
delivers a blue suede smash-hit<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">News-Herald,
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Chagrin</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> Times, Solon Times,
Geauga Times Courier<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">This
review will appear in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald</I>
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">on
8/10/12</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Theaters have a strategy
when choosing their lineup of plays for a season.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some select shows thematically, such as
Rabbit Run’s summer of Charles Dickens-inspired works.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Others, like Porthouse Theatre, have
opted for a summer devoted exclusively to musicals.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mercury Summer Stock, it seems, is going
for a season of extremes.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">After opening with the highly stylized
“Cats,” with its </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>T.S.
Eliot pedigree, philosophical</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> overtones and actors preening each
other in the moonlight, MSS’s current production is the Elvis Presley-infused
“All Shook Up.” <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>With a musical
score derived from Top 40 hits from the 1950s, a delightfully superficial
storyline and brash, full-throttled production values, “All Shook Up” is what
“Cats” was not.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This jukebox musical
features a motor-cycle riding, hip-swiveling roustabout named Chad who wanders
into a small, comically conservative Midwestern town (there is an ordinance
against tight jeans) and shakes things up.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Chad brings rock ‘n roll to the locals and, by doing so, introduces love
in all its incarnations and a musical number for every possible occasion at any
given opportunity. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Promoted as a
cleverly camouflaged rendition of Shakespeare's comedy “<SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Twelfth Night,”</SPAN> with its employment
of star-crossed lovers, mistaken sexual identity and such, Joe DiPietro’s “All
Shook Up” is mostly a high-energy mash-up of popular tunes and production
numbers that rock the room. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This musical is all about
the music which, in this MSS production, is given a hard-driving beat you can
dance to by an on-stage, 5-piece band under Eddie Carney’s direction.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is danced to by a phenomenal ensemble
employing director Pierre-Jacques Brault’s period-appropriate and very clever
choreography, and is accompanied by incredible vocals by a gifted cast of
featured performers.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>These performers include
Matthew Roscoe, who creates an extremely affable Chad; the absolutely adorable
Dani Apple as Natalie, a young garage mechanic desperate for love; big-hearted
Dan DiCello as Natalie’s lonely, widowed dad; the hilarious Brian Marshall as
Dennis, who adores Natalie but is too insecure to do anything about it; the
delicious Dana Aber as the pheromone-secreting museum curator; Jesse Markowitz
and Lauryn Alexandria Hobbs as the star-crossed lovers; Kelvette Beacham as the
disheartened Sylvia; and Kathleen Caldwell and Carter Welo as the uptight mayor
and her silent Sheriff. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They are
wonderful, one and all.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Jukebox musicals
have grown in number and popularity in recent years, and they come in a variety
of shapes and sizes. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>At one extreme
of the arts and craftsmanship continuum is the </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>2010
Broadway hit “Come Fly Away,” which came to PlayhouseSquare last May.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is an excursion into the Frank
Sinatra song book that merges Sinatra’s own voice from re-mastered </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">original recordings with a
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>live band and is enacted through a </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">world-class troupe of dancers
performing Twyla Tharp’s</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"> <SPAN
lang=EN>classic and modern choreography.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>At the
other end of the spectrum is the popular “Momma Mia!,” which toured through
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Cleveland in 2002, 2004,
2008, 2009 and again last month.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Lightweight and oh so easy to listen to, "Mamma Mia!" is set to the disco
beat of Abba songs that inspire, albeit incredulously, a bright, breezy and
brain-dead storyline and gimmicky staging. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>“All Shook Up”
is most certainly Abba-esque, with its pre-fabricated musical score, simple
story derived from song lyrics, mainstream sensibilities and the guilty,
feel-good afterglow that follows after seeing a performance.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>What makes “All
Shook Up” more robust and more pleasurable for those who don’t typically
gravitate toward this type of fare is its deliberately corny dialogue, a
perpetual wink and nod at its own ridiculousness, and classic rock ‘n roll
source material that includes "Heartbreak Hotel," "Burning Love," and “<SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Can't Help Falling In Love.” <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">What makes
this MSS production such a blue suede sensation is the incredible talent on
stage, the campy </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">cardboard scenery by Janet Conley that
fails to take itself seriously, and a director who has apparently mandated that
everyone on both sides of the proscenium arch have a hell-of-a good time.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>They do and you
will.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">“All
Shook Up” continues through August 18 at Regina Auditorium on the Notre Dame
College campus, South Euclid.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For
tickets, $15 to $18, call 216-771-5862 or visit <A href=""><FONT
color=#019fc4>http://mercurysummerstock.ticketleap.com</FONT></A>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>