Floating Out To See

I’m running about 15 minutes behind schedule as I jump out of my car and run for the door to The Parliament House. Traffic and the beginnings of a head cold may have slowed me down but I nothing will stop me from the mission I am on. It is half past happy hour and although I can hear a small crowd participating in some kind of lighthearted shenanigans down in the video bar there are no friendly faces in the lobby to distract me.

I slip into The Footlight Theatre and spy the three friendly faces that I am here to meet, well, actually the backs of their heads, down in the third row. I hear beautiful voices singing in unison as I shout out a “heeaay” before realizing, to my embarrassment, that two of the three heads are what’s making the joyful noise. My face turns red.

The head-head, the one that is not singing but directing, belongs to my good friend and fellow musical lover Kenny Howard. With a welcoming smile he gives me the one minute sign and motions me forward. The other two heads belong to Shayna Albertson and Anthony Johnson and they continue to sing their duet as I take a seat in the row behind them.

Kenny is directing this youthful duo for the second time in six months in Jonathan Padget’s The Blue Lagoon: The musical. Yes, you read that correctly. The. Blue. Lagoon. The. Musical. Admit it; the concept alone brings a smile to your cynical face. It did mine.

More and more of our beloved books, films and even TV shows are being recycled into theatre that runs the gamut from hilarious to serious shit that gives you something to think about. So, why not The Blue Lagoon? Having not seen the show yet I have nothing to offer in the way of a review…yet. But what I already do know is that these three have one of the most important ingredients for success…talent. Talent, talent and did I mention talent?

Shayna and Anthony finish the song and the four of us settle in for a chat about the show, making a living in musical theatre and the things that we all aspire to. From the start I can see how at ease these three are with each other and it is refreshing. That or the cold medicine has kicked in. or both.

Lagoon is one of the five shows that Kenny directed in New York last summer and as luck would have it both Shayna and Anthony were available this month to reprise their roles here in Orlando. Kenny and Michael Wanzie first introduced us to Anthony during the summer of 2008 when they brought him here to do his cabaret show From YouTube to You. And not only is Shayna a local girl who graduated from Winter Park High but she is also somehow related through marriage to Kenny and his husband Barry Miller.

Let me see if I can get this right. Kenny’s husband Barry’s sister is married to Shayna’s mother’s brother. Whew. Say that five times fast. So although they are technically not blood related they are legally related through marriage in the handful of states where same-sex marriage is legally recognized.

Shayna is doing Lagoon during a break from the national tour of Fiddler on the Roof where she is performing alongside our very own Frank McClain. Anthony was on tour through early last summer with Hairspray where he played IQ, one of the “nicest kids in town.” When they are not touring the world or dropping in on family and friends in Central Florida both Shayna and Anthony call New York City home.

The three of them reminisce about the fun they had putting the show on in New York last summer and laugh about dropping the fake baby into the pool and having to wring it out.

Me: Oh oh. The last time this guy directed something with a baby in it was a bloody fetus in a garbage can on the edge of the stage for the entire show.

Kenny: (Laughing) Oh yeah!

Shayna: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Kenny: It was Dragness of God. Wait, you saw it in New York!

Shayna: (Laughing) I do know what you are talking about.

Anthony: Kenny doesn’t have a good reputation with babies.

Shayna: He has baby issues.

Kenny: And this show won’t do anything to change that.

(Everybody laughs)

Look for part 2 of my revealing chat with the cast of Blue Lagoon: The Musical next week and in the meantime come out and see the show that everyone will be talking about next week.

The Blue Lagoon: A Musical! With opener by local comedian Jeff Jones in The Parliament House’s Footlight Theatre. Saturdays, January 9 and 16 at 8PM.

And don’t forget Sunday evening’s special cabaret show Anthony Johnson On Love at 6PM in the Footlight Theatre Lounge.

Both these shows will surely sell out so get over to www.wanzie.com right away to purchase tickets. Right. Now.