Thursday night at Kicker’s Ron, who’s normally pretty quiet and reserved, pulled me aside to tell me about a musical he’d produced and to ask if I wanted tickets. While telling me about it he lit up like a firecracker, got all animated, big smile, waiving his hands all over the place. I’d seen something about it in the GLT and after all that I couldn’t say “no”. So last night Keith and I headed to Roosevelt Middle School in Balboa Park for an evening of musical theater.
‘Zanna, Don’t!’ was originally produced off-Broadway and is an incredibly well-written, fun show with references ranging from The Rocky Horror Picture Show to A Tale of Two Cities. It takes place in a high school where all the kids are gay and the captain of the chess team is the most popular guy. This allows them to make fun of a lot things, like heterosexual fashion sense, and discuss controversies, such as Straights in the Military. I found it a bit of a cathartic hint to what high school could have been like if I'd felt the freedom to be all of myself.
In the second half the plot gets complicated when one of the guys realizes he really wants to take a girl to the Prom. Zanna, who’s been playing cupid, running around helping the girls connect with girls and guys with guys, decides that facilitating love is what’s really important. But when the straights reject him because he’s gay, he laments that they forget that he’s the one that taught them how to love.
I had a great time and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun evening out. It runs through May 10th. More information is at:
http://www.zannasd.com/.
And Ron, as soon as the economy turns around, you need to quit your day job.
