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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic'><FONT
face=Georgia>Mercury throws glitter at the ‘Wizard of Oz’ to see what
sticks</FONT></SPAN></B><SPAN
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align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><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><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><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="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
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-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold'><FONT
face=Georgia>Like the directions to Oz that the Scarecrow offers Dorothy during
their first encounter in the cornfield, there are two ways to go when
approaching a stage production of “The Wizard of Oz.”</FONT></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold'>One
is to realize that, ever since MGM’s iconic 1939 reworking of L. Frank Baum’s
novel with </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial'>Harold
Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s Oscar-winning score,<SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"> the yellow
brick road traverses sacred ground.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>In the lavish, </SPAN>highly reverent adaptation created by John Kane for
the Royal Shakespeare Company, </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">the
dialogue and structure of the classic film is recreated nearly verbatim.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As performed on </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial'>national
tour, which came through Cleveland in 2015, this production reminds us that
there’s no place like homage.<SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">
</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333>But given Pierre-Jacques Brault’s proclivity
for playfulness on a limited budget, his Mercury Theatre Company has opted to go
in a decisively different direction – one that celebrates the work but, under
his direction, imbues the RSC script with the company’s signature impishness and
resourceful reinvention.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT color=#333333
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>For
more of this review, go to: </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>