'Reefer Madness' Provides a Puff of Camp
2007-07-26
Expect to get high on the talented cast of “Reefer madness” not playing at TheatreWorks in New Milford.
The outrageous “anti-everything” musical is based on an educational film that went to “pot,” when it seriously tried to dissuade youngsters from the use of marijuana. Because of the film’s exaggerated seriousness, it was perfect fodder for parody.
And so “Reefer Madness” is now an exaggeration of an exaggeration and yet another addition to the cult musical family that includes the likes of “The Rocky Horror Show.”
The fun begins when straight “A” student Jimmy Harper (Matthew Koenig) meets up with his innocent high school sweetheart Mary Lane (Keilly Gillen McQuail). Mary Lane is having a ball dancing up a storm at the “Ol’ Five-and-Dime,” but Jimmy can’t dance.
That’s when the evil weed-toting Jack shows up promising to help Jimmy dance and a whole lot more. She takes him back to his den of inequity where he meets Mary Lane’s alter ego, Mary Jane, who is fast and loose and always high as a goose.
Just one puff of a “joint” and Jimmy has an immediate Dr. Jeykll-Mr. Hyde transformation. That first some leads Jimmy to murder and mayhem, sex and orgies and, of course, the loss of his true love and a ruined future.
Directed and choreographed by Sharon A. Wilcox, the fast-paced musical never skips a beat. Wilcox puts her high-energy, highly professional signature on the production. If anybody who saw the original film “Tell Your Children,” made by a church group were to come upon the TheatreWorks production in New Milford, they would most likely be shocked and dismayed. After several transformations, films and productions this presentation is as naughty as it is entertaining.
Be forewarned that there is plenty of material here that could easily offend those who don’t have a great sense of humor and a penchant for parody. It’s not only the scenes depicting orgies that can make some attendees cringe, but there’s a scene when a jazzy Jesus Christ comes down from the cross to save a lost sheep high on marijuana that can easily flutter a few Christian feathers. Nothing is sacred in this musical that lampoons “an unspeakable scourge…turning kids into hooligans and whores.” Why it’s absolutely “Reefer Madness.”
Joe Harding, who plays the deadpan lecturer as well as other roles, manages to keep a straight face while he solemnly and ominously preaches the wickedness of Cannabis. Harding sets the pace and drives a lot of the action. He’s got a strong radio announcer-type voice and can be kind and charming or mean and threatening by simply change the look in his eye.
Koenig does a great Jekyll-and-Hyde routine and has one of those scary monster laughs that cracks up the audience.
Keilly Gillen McQuail is a showstopper. Remember the name of this young lady, you’ll be seeing this name on Broadway or in films one day. Ralph Colon, Jr. is a sexy dancer who may not convince you to take a drag of the weed but he’ll convince you to buy to ticket to the show with his outstanding performance.
It’s a large cast and every member of this cast did a knockout job. The set works well, and the costumers are a riot. With book by Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney and music and lyrics divided up by the two of them, this show is a big radical winner.