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align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT face=Georgia>Vocals,
not visuals, win the day for Beck’s ‘Shrek: The Musical’ </FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I
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color=#2c2c2c face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></I></B> </P>
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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-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; 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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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia>Screen-to-stage productions are a mixed blessing and a diverse
lot.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; LETTER-SPACING: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333>While theatrical stagings of live-action films
like “Billy Elliot” and “The Producers” need only the addition of a musical
score to facilitate the storytelling in the absence of editing, animated films
like “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” require elaborate production values to
compensate for the lack of computer generated imagery and cinematic
artistry.</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: ; LETTER-SPACING: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
color=#333333 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333>Try as it might with scenic designer Don
McBride’s movable set pieces, Brittany Merenda’s often animated projections and
Steve Shack’s lighting, Beck Center for the Arts’ production of “Shrek: The
Musical” falls short of the film’s visual </FONT>majesty and the higher-budgeted
Broadway and touring productions’ bells and whistles.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Rented costumes, augmented by costumer
Betty Pitcher, help fill the void but only to a
point.</FONT></SPAN><STRONG><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; LETTER-SPACING: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"></SPAN></STRONG></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; LETTER-SPACING: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
color=#333333 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="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: ; LETTER-SPACING: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333>Not a problem, for this staging more than makes
up the deficit in so many other ways.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="BACKGROUND: white; 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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; 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"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>