<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<DIV align=center><STRONG><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Blank Canvas’ ‘Bat Boy’ goes for the
jugular</FONT></SPAN></STRONG></DIV>
<P style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
align=center><STRONG><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN></STRONG> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><SPAN
style="COLOR: "><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="COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN style="COLOR: "></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><SPAN
style="COLOR: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">Member, International Association
of Theatre Critics</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><SPAN
style="BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">For four years now, Blank Canvas Theatre has lived the
schizophrenic existence of offering serious<SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> American classics such as “Twelve Angry
Men” and “Of Mice and Men” alongside irreverent musical comedies the likes of
“Debbie Does Dallas” and </SPAN>“<SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Psycho Beach Party.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333>This year is no exception. The company’s
most recent production was </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#222222>Thornton Wilder’s somber </FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT
color=#333333>“Our Town” and its next will be the outrageous cult classic
“Reefer Madness.” <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#333333>Squeezed in between – literally as
well as artistically – is the current production of Keythe Farley, Brian
Flemming and Laurence O'Keefe’s short-lived Off-Broadway show “Bat Boy: The
Musical.”</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#333333>“Bat Boy” is a modern-day gothic tale
ripped from a supermarket tabloid headline and set to rock-gospel music. It
features a young man – born half boy and half bat – who, after being found in a
local cave, is educated, socialized and loved by the Parker family but struggles
to find acceptance among the unenlightened locals. </FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#333333>Everything about this musical – its
broadly drawn small town characters, its wildly parodic overtones, and its
quirky show tunes with titles like “Another Dead Cow” – is built for
laughs.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333>But imbedded in the work are some rather
serious themes drawn from classic literature, such as Bat Boy’s inability to
fight fate (</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%">Aeschylus’
“Prometheus Bound”),<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>the
townspeople’s fear of those who are different than themselves (</SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333>Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”) and the
intriguing complications that arise within the Parker family household
(Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And a
few songs, such as “A Home for You” and “Children, Children,” are beautifully
built ballads.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#333333>As a result, some productions –
including the one offered by Great Lakes Theater several years ago – choose to
accentuate all that is dark and dramatic in the musical by pushing the play’s
pathos to the forefront.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#333333>This Blank Canvas production
certainly has the potential to do the same. </FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="COLOR: ">For more of this review, go to
</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT
color=#0563c1>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: ">.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P></SPAN></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>