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style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#111111>Voices soar but staging stalls in Blank Canvas’
‘The Wild Party’ </FONT></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#111111 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
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align=center><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; 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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in"><FONT
face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: "></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; 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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in"><FONT
face=Georgia>Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN style="COLOR: "></SPAN></P>
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align=center><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; 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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in"><FONT
face=Georgia>Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: "></SPAN></P>
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style="COLOR: "></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN
style="BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%">“Some love is
fire: some love is rust/But the fiercest, cleanest love is lust.”</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#111111> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#111111 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#111111>So begins Joseph Moncure March’s seedy, Jazz
Age narrative poem “The Wild Party,” on which Andrew Lippa’s lyrical musical of
the same name is based.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#111111 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#111111>Both lure you into a
</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
color=#2a2a2a>prohibition-era </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#111111>world that
</FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">reeks of cheap perfume, gin-saturated
sweat, and raging pheromones. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
dark and ominous musical, whose 2000 O</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; LETTER-SPACING: 0.1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">ff-Broadway
run garnered Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Obie awards, does so with a
brilliant and boozy score.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is
currently on display at Blank Canvas Theatre. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; LETTER-SPACING: 0.1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#2a2a2a>Like the characters themselves, the music is diverse and often
</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ">dissonant
(think Fosse meets Brecht), offers complex and dramatic key-changes, and has
moments that approach atonality which foreshadow the strong likelihood that
</SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#2a2a2a>things will not end well for anyone.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia>It is the performance of this music that is Blank Canvas’ strength
and salvation, for the show’s staging does much to undermine this production.
</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "> </SPAN><FONT face=Georgia><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; 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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in">For
more of this review, go to </SPAN></I><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; 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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in"><FONT
color=#0563c1>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></I><I
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style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; 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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in">.
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