<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Porthouse’s ‘Hairspray’ offers a slightly dented
‘do</FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 1.0in 5.25in"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">If artistic antithesis is what Porthouse Theatre was
going for this season, it has certainly hit its mark.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Few musicals are more dissimilar than the summer stock
company’s July offering of “Violet” – with its sensitive and highly theatrical
storytelling, patchwork of <SPAN style="COLOR: ">rural southern folk music, and
short story-to </SPAN><SPAN
style="BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%">staged
concert-to </SPAN>Broadway<SPAN style="COLOR: "> origins – and
</SPAN>“Hairspray,” its current production.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Based on a blatantly low-budgeted nonmusical film by
king-of-camp John Waters, the stage version of “Hairspray” shares the
light-weight storyline of a big girl with big dreams against a backdrop of the
civil rights movement in 1960s Baltimore.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Tracy Turnblad lives to dance and, despite her
unfashionable girth, unpopular parents and liberal views, lands a spot on a
local TV teen dance program, which she helps integrate with her high school
detention buddies. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">In these dog-days of August, “Hairspray” is a refreshing
spritz of aerosol that repels humidity and lethargy thanks to an airy, uplifting
musical comedy book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, upbeat period pop-rock
music by Marc Shaiman, and wonderfully playful lyrics by Shaiman and Scott
Wittman.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Audiences are expected to leave their
brains at the door and enjoy the cool breeze that is this
show.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">One of the musical’s more campy conventions, which is a
remnant from its celluloid days, is having a man in drag play Tracy’s Mom.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As past productions have learned,
“Hairspray” is at its best when Edna is portrayed as broad and boisterous, and
the rest of the production follows suit.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Everything about this Porthouse production is
delightfully broad and boisterous, except its Edna.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>For
the rest of this review, go to </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>