Reefer Madness, The Musical!
Oct. 4th, 2010 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsThe Burien Little Theater, a classic small-town theater in my home town, is putting on a presentation of the comedy musical Reefer Madness, a hilarious send-up of the 1936 movie.
We got there after our dinner at The Mark, knowing very little about the presentation. The theater is in the old city auditorium, but the amount of technical set-up was quite impressive. The seats were comfortable, the lighting rig was extensive, the sets looked well set-up, and the band had a good set-up stage left.
The play follows the movie. An official-looking man at a podium addresses the audience, where he introduces and then tells the story: Jimmy meets Mary, who wants to take Jimmy to the dance. Jimmy meets a guy who promises he can make Jimmy a dancer, but instead gets Jimmy hooked on marijuana. Jimmy tries repeatedly to break away, but can't. At the "reefer den" where he gets his weed, Jimmy watches as the tragic inhabitants smoke their lives away, prostitute their bodies, sell their babies, escalating with incidents of manslaughter, murder, cannibalism, and Aztec human sacrifice.
Which is all the harder to take when, at Jimmy's first puff, an orgy scene complete with brightly colored harem costumes breaks out around him, and Jimmy is slowly stripped down to a furred loin cloth.
And when Mary gets hers, the men are paraded around in boxers and the women in dominatrix outfits. Had me wondering where one of the women got that fabulous mop flogger she was weilding.
The star of the show is undoubtedly actor Russ Kay, who plays the narrator, and ten more roles throughout the show, including arresting cop, Jimmy's mom, train conductor, soda jerk, and the Greek God of Desire. We were impressed, moreso because Omaha spotted in his biography that he'd worked at Little Red Studio, too. It's hard not to giggle when, after the first orgy scene, you know he's spending the rest of the show in these uptight, well-constructed suits when you know just how much body paint he's wearing under there...
But the rest of the cast is awesome. Nathaniel Jones plays Ralph, but his best moment is as Sally's baby boy. That's a hard voice to nail, and nail it he did.
The cast was seriously on that night. It's obvious that they're having a lot of fun. The band was surprisingly restrained, and managed not to get in the way of the play; I've seen that happen far too often in musicals with live music. But this was absolutely delightful, although you could kinda see the guitarist wincing at having to hold back.
If there's a problem, it's the audio. A converted town auditorium doesn't have the acoustics for a musical, and the sound was muddy during some of the louder musicals. One of the characters had her mic kick out on her in the middle of her solo, which also detracted.
And Johnny Patchmalta, the actor who plays drug dealer Jack, can't sing. I mean, he hit the one octave he knows perfectly well, but outside that range he just kept hitting a wall.
The concession stand sold brownies. That was a nice touch.
The script is supposedly a riff on how officials and communities use paranoia about something new to scare up loyalty and obedience, but it can't quite carry the day. The first "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy" set piece is far too earnest, as is much of the rest of the film, and tacking on a lecture at the end, even a sung one, doesn't do much for that lack of carriage. If you want to talk about paranoia, you have to pump up official condemnation of many absurd things to be paranoid about, but Reefer Madness concentrates on one thing, pot, and so lacks that essential absurdity. This is why Stephen Colbert is funny: he makes everything seem scary, and we laugh when we realize just how stupid being scared of bears, sushi making robots, and cuff links really is.
If you like community theater, this is an excellent show to hit. It's really worth the time and effort.
We got there after our dinner at The Mark, knowing very little about the presentation. The theater is in the old city auditorium, but the amount of technical set-up was quite impressive. The seats were comfortable, the lighting rig was extensive, the sets looked well set-up, and the band had a good set-up stage left.
The play follows the movie. An official-looking man at a podium addresses the audience, where he introduces and then tells the story: Jimmy meets Mary, who wants to take Jimmy to the dance. Jimmy meets a guy who promises he can make Jimmy a dancer, but instead gets Jimmy hooked on marijuana. Jimmy tries repeatedly to break away, but can't. At the "reefer den" where he gets his weed, Jimmy watches as the tragic inhabitants smoke their lives away, prostitute their bodies, sell their babies, escalating with incidents of manslaughter, murder, cannibalism, and Aztec human sacrifice.
Which is all the harder to take when, at Jimmy's first puff, an orgy scene complete with brightly colored harem costumes breaks out around him, and Jimmy is slowly stripped down to a furred loin cloth.
And when Mary gets hers, the men are paraded around in boxers and the women in dominatrix outfits. Had me wondering where one of the women got that fabulous mop flogger she was weilding.
The star of the show is undoubtedly actor Russ Kay, who plays the narrator, and ten more roles throughout the show, including arresting cop, Jimmy's mom, train conductor, soda jerk, and the Greek God of Desire. We were impressed, moreso because Omaha spotted in his biography that he'd worked at Little Red Studio, too. It's hard not to giggle when, after the first orgy scene, you know he's spending the rest of the show in these uptight, well-constructed suits when you know just how much body paint he's wearing under there...
But the rest of the cast is awesome. Nathaniel Jones plays Ralph, but his best moment is as Sally's baby boy. That's a hard voice to nail, and nail it he did.
The cast was seriously on that night. It's obvious that they're having a lot of fun. The band was surprisingly restrained, and managed not to get in the way of the play; I've seen that happen far too often in musicals with live music. But this was absolutely delightful, although you could kinda see the guitarist wincing at having to hold back.
If there's a problem, it's the audio. A converted town auditorium doesn't have the acoustics for a musical, and the sound was muddy during some of the louder musicals. One of the characters had her mic kick out on her in the middle of her solo, which also detracted.
And Johnny Patchmalta, the actor who plays drug dealer Jack, can't sing. I mean, he hit the one octave he knows perfectly well, but outside that range he just kept hitting a wall.
The concession stand sold brownies. That was a nice touch.
The script is supposedly a riff on how officials and communities use paranoia about something new to scare up loyalty and obedience, but it can't quite carry the day. The first "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy" set piece is far too earnest, as is much of the rest of the film, and tacking on a lecture at the end, even a sung one, doesn't do much for that lack of carriage. If you want to talk about paranoia, you have to pump up official condemnation of many absurd things to be paranoid about, but Reefer Madness concentrates on one thing, pot, and so lacks that essential absurdity. This is why Stephen Colbert is funny: he makes everything seem scary, and we laugh when we realize just how stupid being scared of bears, sushi making robots, and cuff links really is.
If you like community theater, this is an excellent show to hit. It's really worth the time and effort.
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-04 04:37 pm (UTC)The director is my monologue class teacher, and a friend.
I passed your review onto him; hope that is OK.
-denise
P.S. Call me sometime :-)
no subject
Date: 2010-10-11 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-12 08:21 am (UTC)Oh, and I was mistaken. I thought that Zack had directed this show; He is my monologue teacher. It was actually directed by Steve Cooper, who I had the pleasure to be directed by myself, in the LRS Erotic Shorts, Adam and Eve.
Zach does open this Friday night with Zombie late night (10:30, Fri and Sat's) at the Burien Theater. A one man show that is supposed to be really scary. He stars in this one and I am really excited to see it.
If you want to see it let me know, maybe we could meet up there.
-denise
no subject
Date: 2010-10-12 08:23 am (UTC)Oh, and I was mistaken. I thought that Zack had directed this show; He is my monologue teacher. It was actually directed by Steve Cooper, who I had the pleasure to be directed by myself, in the LRS Erotic Shorts, Adam and Eve.
Zach does open this Friday night with Zombie late night (10:30, Fri and Sat's) at the Burien Theater. A one man show that is supposed to be really scary. He stars in this one and I am really excited to see it.
If you want to see it let me know, maybe we could meet up there.
-denise
Flogger
Date: 2010-10-07 04:07 pm (UTC)As for the flogger, it was created by the husband of the costume designer. If you'd like more information, or to have one custom made, I'm sure you could contact DodiRose here: http://twitter.com/DodiRose
Thanks again!