It’s 988 AD, and Emperor Basil II is the heroic ruler of Byzantium. However, his sister isn’t happy as she’s just agreed to marry Vladimir the Great, the Grand Prince of Kievan Rus.
Princess Anna of Byzantium: The Rock Musical unfolds at Astoria’s Thespis Theater on Saturday, May 10, at 6:30 pm.
To add to the emotions, this retelling of a true story is related through Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, and a Greek Folk orchestra.
General admission is $35.
Princess Anna had it pretty good. The daughter of Emperor Romanos II and Empress Theophano at birth, her brothers, Basil II and Constantine VII, later inherited the throne. Put simply, she was the most sought after bride of the 10th century. In fact, Prince Vladimir converted to Eastern Christianity just to marry her.
Nevertheless, Princess Anna had no desire to form a family with this dude. (We don’t want to ruin the plot, so we’ll stop here.)
Thespis Theater has 172 seats. It’s part of the Hellenic Cultural Center at 25-02 Newtown Avenue in Astoria.
The show is presented by the Porphyra Foundation, which promotes cross-cultural education through scholarships and productions that range from theater to film to seminars. Thea Gibbs and Christos Alexandrou and the directors of Princess Anna of Byzantium: The Rock Musical. The sound engineer is Aaditya Pandit, and the narrators are Despina Chrissochos and Robert Sulea. The rest of the cast includes Elaine Tuttle, Christos Alexandrou, Dorit, and Demetris Karais on vocals; Vassilios Chrissochos on guitar; Mike “Risko” Savvas on guitar and tzoura; David Gibbs on bass; John Themelis on violin; Vassilis Vassiliadis on laouto; Sophia Theodorou on flute; Richard Khuzami on percussion; Rex Rossbach on drums, and some special guests.
Images: Vassilios Chrissochos