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align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia>Success of touring ‘The King and I’ is
no puzzlement</FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
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face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></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-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; 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='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><SPAN
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face=Georgia>Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
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align=center><SPAN
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#111111
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia><FONT color=#111111>The
double-edged sword associated with revivals of Golden Age musicals is that our
overfamiliarity with the work – its score, its staging, its characters and the
actors who defined them – cries out for change while simultaneously condemning
it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Novelty and nostalgia are
always at odds in theatrical re-productions.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#111111
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia><FONT color=#111111>This is
particularly true for stage-to-screen musicals like “The King and I,” where our
memories of the original work are cinematic. These perpetually preserved images
are impossible to replicate in a live production and are reinforced with every
viewing of the 1956 film, so each attempt at innovation is blatantly obvious and
often underwhelming.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#111111
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia><FONT color=#111111>And yet,
director Bartlett Sher’s production of this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, on
tour and on stage at the Connor Palace Theatre, offers creative changes and new
ways of tapping our emotions without ever detracting from why it was a classic
in the first place. </FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#111111
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><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-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; 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-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></I><I
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