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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>‘The Panther Dancer’ at Playwrights Local
can’t rise above sketch comedy </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
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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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face=Georgia>Member, American Theatre Critics Association</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN><FONT color=#444444>As if pop star Michael Jackson’s tragic
life and death had not been sufficiently dissected in the tabloids, in British
j</FONT><FONT color=#111111>ournalist Martin Bashir’s damaging
e</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
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color=#222222>xposé </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
color=#111111>“Living with Michael Jackson” and in Megan Stine’s infamous
tell-all </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">biography
“The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story,” local playwright <SPAN
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color=#444444>Logan Cutler Smith has added “The Panther Dancer.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
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color=#444444 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN><FONT color=#444444>The play is an </FONT><FONT
color=#404040>impish amalgamation of moments </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
color=#111111>that mark </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
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color=#404040>the arc of Michael Jackson's rise and fall.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His abusive upbringing, meteoric ascent
to international stardom and first of many plastic surgeries fill act one while
his financial ruin, drug addiction and the </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
color=#111111>allegations of pedophilia are found in act
two.</FONT></SPAN></FONT><SPAN
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color=#404040 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><FONT color=#444444>It is receiving its first full production at
Playwrights Local after getting a workout at the 2016 NEOMFA Playwright’s
Festival at convergence-continuum.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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color=#444444 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><FONT color=#404040>“The Panther Dancer’s” impishness resides in
the parodic tone that touches on each of the brief, offbeat vignettes that make
up this 100 minute, two-act entertainment, as five actors interchangeably play
Michael, all the lesser Jacksons, and a slew of Hollywood and Motown luminaries
and insiders who served to define Michael’s life.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Dressed in black shirts and white pants,
the actors become characters with the addition of an article of clothing or a
bad wig.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: helvetica"><FONT
color=#404040 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><FONT color=#444444>Performed on a 16’ by 16’ stage with limited
production values supplied by Chelby Benson (bare-boned scenic design), Wes
Calkin (standard lighting design) and Drake Crowind (random but effective
projection design), the play resembles – visually and viscerally – an
overambitious and underperforming “Saturday Night Live” skit that goes on for
way too long.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And it is delivered
by the newest, most eager members of the “SNL” cast, the ones briefly introduced
at the very end of the opening credits. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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color=#444444 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 article, go to </SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0563c1>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>