If you were unhappy with your high school situation growing up, then have no fear. Tim Evanicki, the new artistic director for the Footlight Theatre at the world famous Parliament House, wants to give you a new, happier experience with the show Zanna Don’t! A Musical Fairy Tale playing Fridays and Saturdays at the Footlight Theatre from April 15-30.
“See, most people think this is going to be a show on Xanadu but it’s not,” Evanicki says. “I think the original concept was to have everyone on roller skates in New York, but that didn’t go so well.”
Zanna Don’t takes place at Heartsville High, in a world where almost everyone is gay. It’s a world where gay is the norm and being straight makes you an outcast. The students of Heartsville want to put on a show (so you get a show within a show; how very meta!) called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” to raise awareness for heterophobia and to highlight the atrocities that straight people in the military go through. In the course of doing the play, two of the students fall in love (one of them a boy and the other a girl! Scandalous!!!)
In order to make the world a more accepting place for them, Zanna—the guy from the show’s title who also has magical powers—casts a spell that doesn’t go quite right (Zaaaaannnnaaaaaa!). The spell is supposed to make the world more accepting, but instead goes a bit wonky and drama and hilarity, as it often does, ensues.
“It’s really a heartwarming story about acceptance and loving who you love, and don’t worry about being accepted for it,” Evanicki says. “It also has great music that is very wordy. It’s basically dialogue on pitch.”
The show, written by Tim Acito, opened off-Broadway in 2003 and starred Jai Rodriguez as the title character of Zanna. You remember Rodriguez; he was the “culture” one from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
The Footlight Theatre’s version features a cast of local performers including Alexander Browne as the magical matchmaking fairy Zanna, Matthew Walker and Noa Carmel as the closeted straight students Steve and Kate, as well as Kayla Alvarez, Luis Diaz, Adam DelMedico, Mike Van Dyke and Marissa Volpe as the gay students of Heartsville High. Fun fact: Alvarez is only 17 years old and is possibly the youngest person to perform on the Footlight stage.
John T. Gardner is the musical director for the show and will lead a live four-piece band for the production, which features dance numbers choreographed by Keith Wilson. Evanicki is producing and directing the show himself, the second since he took over the Footlight Theatre in January.
“I was producing Bathhouse the Musical here last October, and the job for the artistic director became available and they asked me to take over,” Evanicki says.
Evanicki hopes to expand on the kinds of shows that they typically do at the Footlight Theatre starting with more traditional musicals.
“It’s a chance [for people] to come to the Parliament House and see things that they haven’t done before,” Evanicki says. “They haven’t done a lot of book musicals, and that’s something that I’m taking on as a challenge as the new artistic director and doing book musicals and bigger shows—bringing the theater community here and opening up the types of shows people can see here.”
In other words, it can’t be all about drag shows and glorious debauchery.
“This is a little, regional theater now,” Wilson says. “That’s good for Orlando, good for the community and good for the Parliament House. There have been shows here, but now we have big, legit musicals. It’s a great thing that will bring people to the Parliament House that might normally not come here. They see this show and after the show they can hang out and experience what they just saw on stage.”
More information:
What: Zanna Don’t!
When: Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m., April 15-30
Where: Footlight Theatre at Parliament House
Tickets: $20, parliamenthouse.com or phouse.ticketleap.com
