Paul Daigneault to Direct New England Premiere of Hit Off-Broadway Musical
August 28, 2007

(BOSTON) – From September 14 – October 13, 2007, SpeakEasy Stage Company will proudly present the New England premiere of the hit Off-Broadway musical ZANNA, DON’T!

Set in an alternative world where gay is the norm, ZANNA, DON’T! follows the misadventures of Zanna, a match-making teen, who turns relationships upside-down, challenges everyone’s point of view, and changes the world forever after his friends Steve and Kate fall in love and “come out” as heterosexuals.

New Jersey native Tim Acito, a former dancer with an MFA from Yale’s Playwrighting program, wrote the show’s book, music and lyrics. New York playwright Alexander Dinelaris later added to the book and lyrics for ZANNA’s Off-Broadway transfer in 2003.

The show, which features a high-octane pop score tinged with funk, rock, and R&B, was nominated in 2003 for both a Lortel and Drama Desk Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical.

That same year, the musical also received a GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Award for its “fair, accurate and inclusive representations” of the gay community and issues that affect their lives.

Recent Elliot Norton Award nominee and Boston Conservatory fourth year student Stephanie Umoh (Ragtime, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin) will head the Boston cast, which includes Boston Conservatory senior Jordan Fife Hunt in the title role.

SpeakEasy Producing Artistic Director and Elliot Norton Award-winner Paul Daigneault will direct. Paul S. Katz will serve as the music director; David Connolly will choreograph.

The show will performed in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End.

For tickets or more information, the public is invited to call the BostonTheatreScene.com
box-office at 617-933-8600 or go online to www.SpeakEasyStage.com

In an interview with BroadwayWorld.com that came out around the time of the show’s Off-Broadway premiere, Tim Acito acknowledged that he was inspired to write ZANNA, DON’T! after hearing a song called “Something That We Do” by country singer Clint Black.

“It is a very masculine song and also very vulnerable and honest and willing to take a look at the complexities of relationships and love,” Acito explained. “I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to hear a song like that sung from one guy to another, without camp, or irony or disclaimer?’ ”

“Then, on a larger level,” Acito added, “I started thinking about all the simple things in life that gay people never get to experience – hearing a pop song about them, or seeing a sitcom, or going to a prom together…”

So in a way, ZANNA, DON’T! is “a childhood experience no gay person ever gets to have,” he told the national gay newsmagazine The Advocate.

The composer-lyricist-librettist also said that part of his hope in creating the show was so that “gay people or anyone who feels like an outsider could experience what it’s like to not have to worry about defining yourself as an outsider, to be just be able to take for granted that everyone is like you.”

“To me,” commented Acito, “ the most important underlying theme is that even the most innocuous pop culture is not always so innocent, because chances are it excludes some segment of the population….”

The Off-Broadway production of ZANNA, DON’T! ran for 119 performances, from March to June 2003, shuttering early to prepare for a Broadway transfer that ultimately never happened. Jai Rodriguez, who went on to star in Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” television program, played Zanna in this critically embraced production.

Currently Tim Acito is readying a musical version of the Gloria Naylor novel “The Women of Brewster Place” for a September 5, 2007 World Premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

For more information on ZANNA, DON’T or on any of SpeakEasy’s 07-08 shows, the public is invited to call the BostonTheatreScene.com box office at 617-933-8600 or go online to www.BostonTheatreScene.com.

Press inquiries should be directed to SpeakEasy Marketing Director Jim Torres:

Office: 617-482-3279 Cell: 617-529-1670 Email: JimTorres@SpeakEasyStage.com

The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is an urban cultural village, incubating and showcasing the performing and visual arts and artists of our time. Occupying a city block in Boston’s historic South End, the BCA provides a creative “home” for artists, a welcoming destination for audiences, and an arts connection for youth and community. For more information, visit www.bcaonline.org.