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‘Reefer Madness: The Musical’ Review: This L.A. Revival of the Weed-Themed Spoof Doesn’t Bogart the Show-Biz Razzle-Dazzle
Revived in L.A. after 25 years, 'Reefer Madness' at the Whitley turns out to be a dance extravaganza with razzle-dazzle virtues alongside the satire.
Eventually the costuming and dancing become ludicrously anachronistic, and a leading lady who is Lindy-hopping in the initial scenes will inevitably end up bumping and grinding in contemporary bondage gear by the time all is said, done and smoked. Obviously everything is so over-the-top that it won’t be hugely detrimental to this basically cartoonish show if you don’t get too emotionally invested in the two “romantic leads.” But doggone it if Darcy Rose Byrnes isn’t so winsome as Mary Lane that I didn’t find myself getting angry at Anthony Norman, who plays the all-too-corruptible Jimmy Harper, for betraying her adoration. The visual gag about Ralph is that he continues to wears a letterman jacket throughout the show, as if he’d succumbed to drugs so quickly at some point in the past, he never had a chance to take it off, even though he’s now about as twitchy and servile an assistant to the villain as Dracula’s Renfield.
Or read this on Variety
