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The Story

Once upon a time, there was a land where the majority of the inhabitants were gay and heterosexual people were shunned and discriminated against. In a place called Heartsville, U.S.A., there lived a magical matchmaker named Zanna who spent his days at Heartsville High School matching up those who had extra love to share. Using his magical powers, Zanna “facilitated” romance, matching up the boys with the boys, and the girls with the girls. All was good in Zanna’s world, until one day, Steve and Kate discovered that they had feelings for each other; feelings of the heterosexual kind! With the town in an uproar, Steve and Kate went to Zanna for help. Can Zanna make the world safe for heterosexuals? Will they all live happily ever after?

Show History

The book, music, and lyrics for Zanna, Don’t! were written by Tim Acito, with additional book and lyrics by Alexander Dinelaris. After a developmental run at Theater Row in 2002, Zanna, Don’t!, subtitled “A Musical Fairy Tale”, opened off-Broadway on March 20, 2003, at the John Houseman Theater, starring Jai Rodriguez as the “Magical Matchmaker” Zanna. The run closed after three months playing 17 previews and 119 performances. It was originally produced off-Broadway by Jack M. Dalgleish in association with Stephanie A. Joel. Devanand Janki directed and choreographed.

After its Off-Broadway run, the show was slated to move to Broadway in the summer of 2005 and then the move was re-scheduled to the summer of 2006. The title of the musical would have been changed from “Zanna, Don’t!” to simply “Zanna!” After workshops with “Avenue Q” star John Tartaglia, revamping of the script and score, the run was postponed. There currently are no plans to take the show to Broadway.

Zanna, Don’t! has been performed regionally in Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Article in Playbill

Awards

Zanna, Don’t! was nominated for and won several theatrical awards.

• Drama Desk nominations:
  • Best Musical
  • Best Music
  • Best Book
  • Best Lyrics
• Lucille Lortel nominations:
  • Outstanding Musical
  • Winner – Outstanding Choreography, Devanand Janki
  • Outstanding Featured Actress, Anika Larsen
• Outer Critics Circle Award nomination:
  • Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical
• Zanna, Don’t! was awarded 2003 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theater Production.
• Voted Favorite Off-Broadway Musical in the Broadway.com Audience Awards.

The above content is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Zanna, Don’t!”.

Author’s Notes

“In the summer of 2000, I was in my apartment listening to a country/western love song when I started daydreaming about how great it would be someday to turn on the radio and hear such a beautiful song sung from one man to another. I quickly started imagining every genre of pop music in a gay context, and the world of ZANNA, DON’T! was born.

“Admittedly, the project began quite shamelessly as personal wish fulfillment—to revisit my 1970’s adolescence, but in a world where the normalcy of being gay was reconfirmed by every sitcom, Saturday morning cartoon, and top-40 hit. It was a joke, of course, and I was having a great time with it.

“But then I wondered, ‘Why is it a joke to ask for the same simple experiences everyone else can take for granted?’ It was disturbing to me that even I had been conditioned to laugh at the thought of equality. I felt compelled to include some more sobering thoughts within the goofy exuberance of Zanna’s world, as a reminder that there can be profound psychological and societal consequences when popular culture fails to include all of the population.

“Over the past three years, I hope ZANNA, DON’T! has grown beyond its personal origins into something much more universal. It is for anyone who grew up feeling different, which as far as I can tell means just about everyone. And who among us hasn’t struggled with identity, prejudice, friendship, and love, only to have their hearts broken along the way? And who among us hasn’t turned to music and laughter to help us put the pieces back together?”

—Tim Acito

Author Interviews

Also check out Tim Acito’s interviews with San Diego media:

• In the San Diego Gay & Lesbian Times, April 9, 2009
• In the San Diego Union-Tribute, April 16, 2009

Press information – Contact: Ron Tov

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