Get ready to put your tolerance for silliness to the test.
"The Toxic Avenger," a super-animated musical spoof of the trash horror movie has been unleashed at off-Broadway's New World Stages, and your enjoyment of the show will depend on a willingness to surrender to its particular brand of juvenile, often gross-out, humor.
The show is funny in a kind of cheesy, self-deprecating way, filled with a campy excess that requires the actors to deliver the broadest of performances. But when you have a gifted comedian such as Nancy Opel in the cast, you know the mugging will be elevated to high art.
The inexhaustible Opel, who also possesses a formidable musical-theater voice, does triple-duty in the musical. She plays three roles including the mother of our hero as well as the show's villainess, the dastardly mayor of fictional Tromaville, N.J.
For those who don't know the plot, "The Toxic Avenger" concerns the transformation of nerdy Melvin Ferd III into the title character, a mutant superhero who makes war on those trying to pollute New Jersey — well, the part of New Jersey that hasn't already been contaminated with toxic waste.
The Garden State is the butt of a lot of the jokes in the musical, which has been adapted by Joe DiPietro. He co-wrote the lyrics with composer David Bryan of Bon Jovi (and New Jersey) fame, and their score is sort of mock pop-rock — not particularly memorable, but entertaining in its references to another New Jersey icon, Bruce Springsteen.
It's hard to latch onto any of the characters since the entire show is played for laughs. Unlike "Little Shop of Horrors," that granddaddy musical version of monster spoofs, there is no trace of sentiment here.
That includes the portrayal of poor Melvin's blind, would-be girlfriend, the town librarian, played by Sara Chase. Yes, there even is a Helen Keller joke.
But Chase, too, has a powerhouse voice as does Nick Cordero, who is the show's leading man. The actor handles the change from Melvin to Toxie (even monsters get cute nicknames) with considerable finesse. His physical reappearance — after being dunked in a barrel of toxic waste — is kind of monster chic, not particularly scary, but certainly buffed up.
Director John Rando allows the proceedings to drag on a bit too long, and one or two numbers could be cut, especially a salute to Oprah's book club. It seems our blind librarian also writes bodice-rippers.
Special mention should be made of the musical's other performers, Demond Green and Matthew Saldivar, two of the hardest-working, quick-change guys on or off Broadway. They play everyone else in "The Toxic Avenger," including assorted villains, victims and best girlfriends of the librarian. In drag, Green has attitude to spare.
Cartoonish can be entertaining for a while, and "The Toxic Avenger" has its share of laughs. Just remember, those laughs aim very low.
Source: AP News
