New York - April 28, 2003

Over the Rainbow

"Zanna, Don't!"

“What kind of high school would this be if the captain of the football team wasn’t in the musical?”

The musical Zanna, Don’t! envisions an alternate universe where the captain of the chess team is the big man on campus, the cool girls ride for the rodeo team at the I’m OK, You’re OK Corrall, and the varsity jackets are yellow with pink glitter. The boys love the boys, the girls love the girls — and Zanna, the most popular boy of all, is the matchmaker behind it. (His assistants are a magic wand and Cindy, a gossipy little birdie.) Crisis befalls when forbidden love comes to plague the happy town of Heartsville, U.S.A. How ever will Zanna fix it so that everyone can stay in love?

Zanna, Don’t!, the theatrical equivalent of a Saturday morning cartoon, is vibrant, fun, and charming — and slap-yourself-silly smart. It’s on its way to achieving cult status.

A warning: The show is contagious. You just might start spiking your coffee with sparkles.

Zanna, Don’t! is playing at the John Houseman Theatre, 450 West 42nd Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. For more information and tickets, go to zannadont.com.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

  Film Buff