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Antony Zioni - Tales of the Ancient East

Musicals & Operas · Antony Zioni · Ages 10+ · United States of America

Family Friendly Multi-Lingual Performance One Person Show
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antony zioni - tales of the ancient east

Review by SCOTT HALLER

June 09, 2025 certified reviewer
tagged as: atmospheric · spooky

What I liked

The concept of presenting familiar biblical stories as otherworldly horror tales is intriguing.

The atmosphere created by the smoke, costumes, props, and lighting is great.

What I didn't like

Granted, I saw a preview performance, but there were a lot of occasions where Zioni ducked behind the curtain to prepare for the next scene and a great deal of time passed. This pacing challenge should improve with more production experience — though having a backstage assistant might help as well.

The biggest problem was the sound balance. There is an active prerecorded music track that he sings to that buried his voice. This show is storytelling — evoking ghost stories told at a campfire — and we couldn’t hear a lot of the words. Ideally, the music level should be ridden to stay under his voice. Perhaps reducing the heavy stylized accent might help increase the comprehension as well.

My overall impression

Has a lot of potential. Needs tighter transitions and better sound balance.

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antony zioni - tales of the ancient east