'Reefer Madness' Is a Great Show Enhanced by Impressive Talent in New Milford
2007-07-26
Last year, I described TheatreWorks New Milford’s production of Urinetown as a kind of “mixture of Footloose and Marat-Sade” with perhaps a touch of Three Penny Opera thrown in, and a heavy does of The Simpsons.
This summer it’s Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney’s Reefer Madness that is being presented in New Milford, a “hit” musical based on the late night cult movie, originally produced by a fundamentalist church as a cautionary tale for parents about he horrendous consequences of marijuana (along with swing music, foreign books and Darwin). All of the above applies, plus a strong helping of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Clearly present are the firm hand and vision of Sharon A. Wilcox, who directed and choreographed both shows, ensuring a fast-paced entertainment, marked by boundless energy, wacky sight gags, joyful dancing and exaggerated contortions representing the downtrodden denizens of the lower depths.
If you liked Urinetown you’ll love Reefer Madness.
With all the parallels, it’s simply a better show, enhanced by some really impressive talent. Begin with Joe Harding as the lecturer, the high school principal, who narrates, for his 1936 audience, the high school drama club’s “re-enactment” of “true events” that took place in “this very town.” Using as his sources the Hearst newspapers, FBI accounts, and a report by an expert on the drug menace, he tells the story of how two pure young high-schoolers, Jimmy Harper and Mary Lane, are seduced and destroyed by a single puff of the evil weed.
With the promise of dancing lessons, Jimmy is lured into the reefer den by Jack, the sinister pimp and dealer who is always on the lookout for new customers to enslave.
The 12 young people who inhabit the den, including May (Jack’s goodhearted but abused girlfriend), Sally (who will sell her baby for dope), and Ralph (the ex-college boy reduced to a giggling moron), form the ensemble who change costumes every five minutes to become angels, pot plants, convicts, preppies, and teenie boppers by turns.
Mr. Harding fills in by playing all the adult roles: the “kindly” soda jerk who is really in Jack’s pay; the devil; the poor old man who is run over and killed by a stoned Jimmy Harper (leading to the song “Dead Old Man”); the police detective investigating the killing; Franklin D. Roosevelt, and more.
An impressive new addition to the TheatreWorks family is Ralph Colon, Jr., who plays the double role of sleazy wicked Jack, and also an Elvis-like Jesus, who comes down from the cross during Jimmy’s reefer-induced confusion and begs him to turn his back on the weed and get high on God instead.
James Hipp gives an over-the-top performance as giggling Ralph, and Matthew Koenig and Keilly Gillen McQuail do a bang up job as the Romeo and Juliet couple. She’s a little dim (she thinks the play is going to have a happy ending), but she’s full of enthusiasm, and they both have lovely voices.
There’s a moral of sorts. As the principal happily ends his lecture with a vigorous demonstration of books that need to be burned – Freud, Marx and Darwin – he sings of how it’s important to stir up lots of fear as a motivator, because, after all, the ends will justify the means. After all, that’s what got so many people willing to tolerate Guantanamo and “Extraordinary Rendition.” But mostly, the show is just fun. It’s cleverly done, beautifully paced, and filled with lively talent.
If you aren’t offended by Jesus sauntering up the aisle offering you samples of the Host (“Oh, you don’t want one? What are you, Jewish? So am I…”) you should really get a kick out of this one. And it won’t be illegal.