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There’s a kind of theme-park gratification to the practical stage effects involved in each murder, from explosions to electrocutions to falling chandeliers.

A sweet stage effect embroiders the evening’s final moments, as Celie’s happiness reaches full flower.

“Jefferson ran away with the stage effect,” Adams lamented, “and all the glory of it.”

But while Dorrance dancers are exquisitely skilled tappers, their stage effects are not limited to percussive footwork.

The theater, especially the technologically sophisticated Paris Opéra, offered aspects of both — heightened moments of great dramatic conflict and sumptuous visions of landscape in its backdrops and stage effects.