Beck Center’s ‘City of Angels’ missing its wings Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, International Association of Theatre Critics “Three million people in the City of Angels,” says Stone, the hard-boiled private eye in the film noir screenplay being written by a novelist-turned-filmmaker named Stine. “Easily half of them up to something they don’t want the other half to know.” It’s the 1940s in the Tony Award-winning musical “City of Angels,” currently on stage at the Beck Center for the Arts, and Stone’s voiceover observation reveals as much about his dark and sinister celluloid world as the sleazy Hollywood industry young Stine is now a part of. Both worlds unfold in alternating spurts in this intriguing musical, as both Stine (the immensely charming Jamie Koeth) and Stone (played with just the right amount of gumshoe cynicism by Rob Albrecht) fight their respective demons and eventually draw from each other’s’ strengths to persevere in true Hollywood ending fashion. It’s a clever conceit and one well executed by the immense talent on and behind the stage. And yet, this telling of “City of Angels” unfolds as if its wings were clipped and never quite takes off. For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.