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Oh yes. My favorite thing in the world, Broadway, combined with something I'm passionate about, homosexuality and equality. Apparently, you see, RENT, albeit my favorite musical and movie of all time, is NOT the literally-speaking gayest musical of all time as I previously assumed. I'm speaking about the 2oo3 Off-Broadway musical, Zanna, Don't! starring Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Jai Rodriguez. By the way, did you know he could sing? I didn't know he could sing. But damn, that boy's got a voice on him; so beautiful.

Anyway. Okay, so basically, I'm a Broadway junkie. I mean, I don't claim to have a wide-ranging knowledge of Broadway musicals, but there is a small handful that I am just so attached to I'm practically glued to them, and recently, I heard about one I hadn't looked into, Zanna, Don't! I was immediately interested once I learned Jai was in it, seeing as how he was once in RENT, and he did a fantastic job there. I looked into it, and, well, for musical and Broadway lovers, here's a pluggy-plug:
Wiki article.

In my own shortened (but not really) words, the world is... Flipped. Football players are kind of nerds, chess champions are sex symbols, and the entire world is homosexual. The town that the story is set in, heterophobia runs wild there. I quite enjoyed the stereotypical play on those books entitled "So-and-So has Two Daddies," replaced by "Heather has One Mommy and One Daddy." Zanna is the central focus, the play being named after him. Don't lose me here, but... Well, this is nicknamed A Musical Fairytale, and Zanna (Jai Rodriguez) is the magical matchmaker of the school who is always trying to complete love.
Zanna's good friend is Tank, who goes unnoticed most of the show, but is hopelessly in love with Zanna, who claims that helping everyone else, he himself doesn't have time for it.
One of the main characters is Mike. He is influenced by Zanna, of course, as well. Mike is the chess champ of the school, and he has a crush on the new football quarterback, Steve.
Steve is your typical... Not-like-our-world quarterback: he has never fit in anywhere, and he gets fumbly and surprised around people like Mike, especially when he showed up at his football game.
Mike introduces himself to Steve, and through Zanna's pursuading, they become an official couple.

Roberta and Kate are the other side of the story. Roberta seems unlucky in love, as all of her girlfriends have "dumped her the next day" and end up cheating on her. However, she doesn't give up on love, especially when through Zanna's magic, she's introduced to Kate.
Kate is antisocial when it comes to love. She immerses herself in APs, GPAs, SATs, etc., and claims she "doesn't have time for love's trivialities." Of course, this changes when she meets Roberta, and the two become a couple.

Typical love story, except gay. Except... What's in it for the other crowd? There is a twist in this story so as not to lose the appeal of the straight population, as well.

Roberta and Mike are best friends, and so are together a lot. Through their partners, Kate and Steve are introduced. They find that they fall in love, and in a mistake that devastates all four, share a kiss in front of the entire crowd of Mike's chess game, which throws the town into chaos.

Through Zanna's meddling, to try to allow their love to be accepted, the world is accidentally turned heterosexual. Um... Yeah that's where it turns weird, I suppose. So much so Zanna himself becomes forgotten and ostrocized.
At prom, however, the students hear Zanna's reflecting song, that one day "you might love me." They realize that although they don't have memories of the other world, they do know that they are mistaken, and resolve with the last dance beginning with what I thought was sweet, "guys grab a girl; girls grab a guy; or girls grab a girl, and guys grab a guy/grab anyone, whatever feels right."

Zanna is invited to an after-prom party, but declines, deciding to reflect on life. He is just leaving the party, leaving a dropped shoe, when Tank rushes back onto the scene, to return Zanna's shoe true to fairytale rule. Zanna at first is confused as they had never been more than friends, but through Tank's pleas "I'm a sorta charming, somewhat handsome, not-so-princely guy, who wants desperately to be with you," and "sometime do you think, we could fall in love?" he joins in, and the two become a couple, Zanna still upset and reflecting on his mistakes, and Tank reveals that he alone still retains memories from the other world.


So... Yeah! I figured I'd share that with people. Um, if you're interested, there are some GOOD videos on YouTube. I don't think I should link them, since they aren't mine, but if you search Zanna, Don't!, you get some AWESOME video of two songs, entitled "I Think We Got Love," and the adorable Zanna/Tank scene, "Sometime Do You Think, We Could Fall in Love?"

I've ordered the CD, and I can't wait to get it. heart It's so catchy.

So what'cha think? Homosexuality in Broadway, now as well.

Actually, I believe the book is "Heather has Two Mommies" I've never head of any daddy ones, thus why the parody of it is so funny.

Am I the only one afraid of the backlash this is going to recieve? I'm quite interested in this, but I can't imagine anyone who would go with me..

Well, along the stereotypical "[name] has two of the same parents" books. I thought that was great.

I dunno, sure, it ends up turning it around against homosexuality at the end... But that kind of makes it more devestating. I myself am straight, but I find myself listening to the male character proclaiming his secret love for a girl and how he knows it's not supposed to be that way and he can't help it, and, well, it makes me think that homophobic people (or just straight people) could listen to that, and think of it in reverse, and it kind of makes sense or helps them understand. It really isn't wrong, but how some troubled teens coming out go through that stage in time, wondering if everything s/he's doing is wrong, and even though it's... Well, obviously, backward, I think that could be an eye-opener for the real, generally-heterosexual world. I dunno, I guess it just seemed like they put it into words (and SONG) so well, the feelings and doubts one would have.
I would SO want to see this musical, but I can't seem to find anything on it. So I don't know if it's closed or if it's moved to Broadway or what. I think I found an uncomfirmed article saying that it was going to be re-opened on March 24th - tomorrow - but I'm not sure.

@Moocat: Yeah, there's a song called "I Could Write Books." It is a good song. All of the upbeat songs of Zanna are so catchy, and all the slower songs are meaningful, and it's just very touching. I love it.

YES YES YES! There is a song called Ride 'Em. I LOVE that one! It's, like... Really catchy. I find myself randomly humming it, and, well... Anika Larsen and Shelley Thomas (Roberta and Kate respectively), their voices are so... I dunno, I love the way they sound in that. They have cute voices.

I couldn't find the CD ANYWHERE, and so I finally ordered it offline. For like four or five days, I was moping around 'cause I couldn't find hardly any of the songs anywhere and I really wanted to get into the music.