Random Acts turns propaganda into comedy in 'Reefer Madness: The Musical'

“Reefer Madness: The Musical” explores the life-destroying effects of a mind-altering, addictive hallucinogen … propaganda. 

It’s the latest Random Acts production, staged in the intimate space of The Starlite Room. The issues are ripped from headlines. That equally applies to today’s newspapers—or a yellowing tabloid from the 1930s.

The 1998 musical satirizes the manipulative scare tactics of an infamous educational/exploitational film from 1936 — “Reefer Madness,” of course. This exposé of the scourge of marijuana was black and white, in more ways than one. Lurid posters proclaimed “America’s newest narcotic menace!” “The deadly scourge that drags our children into the quagmires of degradation!” “The burning weed with its roots in hell!”

The film itself followed a brace of high school kids on their road to perdition. First a hit. Then a hit-and-run accident, manslaughter, a rape attempt, feverish hallucinations, addiction and lifelong madness.

Reefer is the Grim Reaper’s drug of choice, kids. Take that first puff and your life will go up in smoke.

That was the message. Delivered with a straight face.

During the 1960s, that message gave college kids everywhere a big laugh at midnight showings across America. In 1998, Kevin Murphy (writer and lyricist) and Dan Studney (composer and playwright) turned the madness into a sharp, subversively satirical musical. Director Kelly Woodland saw the 2005 movie version, and it was love at first sight.

“The musical was edgy, risqué, funny and beyond over the top,” she says. “I instantly knew I had to put it on stage.” In 2009, she did — in a hit production at Venice Theatre. In 2018, she’s doing it again — in a flashback performance at the Starlite.

“It’s going to be a totally new experience,” she says. “We have such an amazing cast this year. As a director, I feel like a kid in a candy store.”

Along with portraying the humorless, fear-mongering Lecturer, Brian Finnerty is creating the intricate tour de force choreography.

“This has been one of my all-time favorite choreography experiences,” Finnerty says. “Our incredibly talented cast can handle basically any dance style I throw at them—and that includes swing, tap, African, tango and classic Broadway. I have two amazing Dance Captains, Amanda Heisey and Tahlia Chinault. This would have been impossible without them.”

Along with her dance duties, Heisey plays an innocent teen —sadly lured down the wrong road by the demon weed.

“I’m having a blast,” she says. “The show’s smart, way too much fun and very challenging. As Brian said, the song and dance numbers are all in different styles, so you’re constantly shifting gears as a performer.”

Steve O’Dea, the musical’s producer, also doubles as the sleazy pusher, Jack. He loves the musical. Not only for the belly laughs it brings on stage, but for the minds it can change in the audience.

“This project means so much to me personally. I’ve contributed a lot of my own capital that helped start the production and secure the rights. We’ve been working on this for so long it’s somewhat surreal that it’s opening. We actually pulled it off, and I still can’t believe it.”

OK. So why would a musical satire of a half-forgotten, anti-pot shocker from the 1930s inspire so much loyalty? According to Woodland, the laughter’s only part of it.

“It’s a hilarious musical,” she says. “You can see it, turn off your mind and get a big laugh. That’s cool. But behind the laughs, it’s really about the use of propaganda to create fear and manipulate people into doing what you want.”

According to Woodland, what the manipulators want could be political, economic, cultural — you name it. “Propaganda works,” she says. “And it helps to have the money to pay for it.”

The original film was a textbook case of how to cloud men’s minds. An obscure church group had originally created it. Its exposé got national exposure, thanks to a gaggle of odd bedfellows: William Randolph Hearst, America’s leading yellow journalist; Harry J. Anslinger, the founding commissioner of the Treasury’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics (and a shameless racist); and Lammot du Pont of the DuPont chemical company, which had just launched a new class of synthetic fibers (including rayon and nylon) and wanted to get hemp-based fibers off the market.

They succeeded. The 1936 movie helped. Along with a national scare campaign.

Woodland says she’d like to say that’s a thing of the past. “I can’t say it, because, unfortunately, it’s not true.”

She hopes “Reefer Madness: the Musical” will inoculate contemporary audiences on the addicting, mind-altering effects of well-funded propaganda.

“This kind of thing works,” Woodland says. “That’s the real shocker. ‘Fake news’ is not a recent invention. If you see a bunch of fat cats getting their message straight — and doing their best to push that message? The best you can do is just say no.”