Local community theater group to hold show in B'ham

Ashley Morrison, The Anniston Star, Ala.
·2 min read

Aug. 4—A local community theater group has transformed an old rhyme about a famous crime into a musical titled "Lizzie: The Rock Musical."

Actors Community Playhouse owner Annslynn Pilkington said she and the theater company thrive in the strange and bizarre.

"We really just wanted to bring weirder material to the area that the other community theaters aren't really putting on. We like the weirder, the scarier," said Pilkington.

Lizzie Borden was a woman who was accused, tried and acquitted of killing her father and stepmother in the 1890s in Fall River, Mass., after the couple had been found brutally axed to death.

The incident was immortalized in the children's rhyme:

"Lizzie Borden took an ax, gave her mother 40 whacks.

"When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41."

The play will center around Borden's upbringing and the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, Pilkington said. Because historical records differ on who actually killed Borden's parents — some speculate perhaps the uncle did it — the play will be Pilkington's interpretation of what could have happened.

"Lizzie just kind of gets pushed to a breaking point and she just ... well we know what happens there," Pilkington said with a laugh. "Her father just drives her further than she can handle."

Pilkington recently graduated from the University of Montevallo with a bachelor's degree in fine arts, where she said she put on her first show.

"We turned the movie Flatliners into a stage musical. We worked with Sony Pictures and Peter Filardi [the movie's screenplay writer] to make that come to life," Pilkington said.

Pilkington said working with that show was what made her fall in love with the idea of "putting on things that are a little weird."

The show will be performed live at the Birmingham Festival Theatre at 1901 1/2 11th Avenue South in Birmingham on Aug. 10-13.

Pilkington said the decision to move the show to a Birmingham theater was made due to a former show of the group being canceled after a bout of COVID ran through its cast members. The theater's owners graciously allowed ACP to reschedule their paid reservation.

For more information on tickets and showtimes, visit eventbrite.com/e/lizzie-the-rock-musical-tickets-678583239737.

Staff Writer Ashley Morrison: 256-236-1551. On Twitter: @AshMorrison1105.