Zanna, Don't!
Sep. 18th, 2007 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidAlso this weekend, I went to a performance of Zanna, Don't! (Jim Acito, also Alexander Dinelaris), put on by the SpeakEasy Stage Company at the BCA. It's described as "a musical fairy tale," which is pretty accurate, as long as your fairy tale world includes heterosexuals as deviants, chess players as school heroes, football misunderstood, and a girls' mechanical bull-riding team. Plus a teen-aged guy with a magic wand, of course.
It's a funny musical with a serious message underneath, wrapped in humor and subtle cultural references. Zanna tries to fix everyone in town up, since love is of course the most important thing. Luckily, he has a magic wand and a little birdie to keep him up to date on the whole social scene, both in Heartsville High and in the rest of the town. All is well, modulo random mismatches, of course, until the drama club decides to put on a radical musical about straights in the military (with a song titled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," of course). Which brings the two leads to realize that, horror of horrors... they're straight! Troubles ensue, of course. A little world-shifting makes it all better... sort of.
On the whole, a lot of fun, tons of laughs. But two of the later songs are too heavy for this show. I don't know how I'd change it, exactly, but they feel grafted on, not part of the whole that came before. This production had a few glitches as well (a couple of lighting things that I think will likely change, at least one costume that needed work), but on the whole, enjoyable, and a set that was pretty impressive, including school lockers, a football field, one corner of a huge chess board, a radio announcer area, and more.
I didn't realize until afterward that almost all the performers are students at the Boston Conservatory; I should pay more attention to performances there.
It's a funny musical with a serious message underneath, wrapped in humor and subtle cultural references. Zanna tries to fix everyone in town up, since love is of course the most important thing. Luckily, he has a magic wand and a little birdie to keep him up to date on the whole social scene, both in Heartsville High and in the rest of the town. All is well, modulo random mismatches, of course, until the drama club decides to put on a radical musical about straights in the military (with a song titled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," of course). Which brings the two leads to realize that, horror of horrors... they're straight! Troubles ensue, of course. A little world-shifting makes it all better... sort of.
On the whole, a lot of fun, tons of laughs. But two of the later songs are too heavy for this show. I don't know how I'd change it, exactly, but they feel grafted on, not part of the whole that came before. This production had a few glitches as well (a couple of lighting things that I think will likely change, at least one costume that needed work), but on the whole, enjoyable, and a set that was pretty impressive, including school lockers, a football field, one corner of a huge chess board, a radio announcer area, and more.
I didn't realize until afterward that almost all the performers are students at the Boston Conservatory; I should pay more attention to performances there.