The Toxic Avenger Musical
Personally, I think it’s kind of ridiculous that SO many movies are getting converted to musicals these days. For every Hairspray or The Producers, you’re just as likely to end up with the next Carrie or Lestat (both of which closed within a month of opening). And I bring up those last two examples up for a reason: because it seems especially unlikely that a musical based on a genre movie/novel should work at all.
So color me pleasantly surprised that when I saw The Toxic Avenger musical at the George Street Playhouse here in New Jersey this weekend, I pretty much LAUGHED MY ASS OFF. Obnoxiously so. And for all the right reasons — because it was actually good, not because it was laughably bad (refer back to Carrie). It really was a great show, even better than the Evil Dead musical that I saw and enjoyed the hell out of back in 2006.
