After 25 years, every generation of Reefer Madness: The Musical gathered this week in Hollywood to celebrate the show’s milestone anniversary and a new age of cannabis.
During Tuesday’s Reefer Madness Legacy Concert in Hollywood, the cast and creators of the cult stage musical performed some beloved songs from the show, as well as some cut numbers, and revealed some hilarious behind-the-scenes secrets.
According to OG director Andy Fickman, who served as the evening’s emcee, Mary Lane star Kristen Bell chipped her tooth on a pullout couch in her trailer while filming the 2005 Showtime movie musical adaptation. Although the actress wanted to repair the tooth with superglue and continue filming, Fickman insisted she go to a professional.
Fickman also revealed that movie was made under the caveat that they film on the same Vancouver, Canada set previously used for the pilot of The L Word (2004-2009). The director also thanked then-Showtime president Robert Greenblatt, who was in the audience Tuesday.
Writer Dan Studney hinted that he was getting high with Neve Campbell in their Party of Five days, when he first told her his idea for the musical. That’s when she recommended her brother and fellow actor Christian Campbell for the all-American leading role of Jimmy Harper (even though Christian is Canadian).
Additionally, Fickman recalled actress Thelma White — who starred as Mae in the original 1936 propaganda/exploitation film Reefer Madness — attending one of the musical’s early performances before her death at age 94 in 2005. He said a fire dancer came dangerously close to White’s front-row seat, where she was hooked up to an oxygen tank and feared for her life.
Tuesday’s event featured performances of some of the musical’s most beloved songs, as well as some tunes that never made the show. Campbell graced the audience with ‘Dead Old Man’, which Studney said was the first song he wrote for the musical.
Rachel Bloom, who is unaffiliated with the show, also made a guest appearance. She performed another cut tune, ‘The Monkey Song’, with Campbell and OG stars Aukai Cain, Samantha Harris and Stacy Sibley. Bloom admitted she was “thought I was doing the song with real monkeys” as an early production actually featured a monkey in the number.
Bell treated the audience to a surprise performance of ‘Suddenly, Seymour’ from Little Shop of Horrors with Anthony Norman, who currently stars as Jimmy in the 25th anniversary production at the same venue, The Whitley at 6555 Hollywood Blvd.
Produced by Bell, Studney, Amirose Eisenbach and David Lamoureux, the Reefer Madness Legacy Concert also featured cast alums Harry S. Murphy, John Kassir, Lori Alan, Paul Nygro and Elijah Myles Breckel, as well as stars of the current production, Darcy Rose Byrnes, Thomas Dekker, J. Elaine Marcos, Bryan Daniel Porter, Andre Joseph Aultmon, David Toshiro Crane, Claire Crause, Natalie Holt MacDonald, Jane Papageorge and Alex Tho.
The evening benefitted 40 Tons Foundation, which brings more diversity to the cannabis space by providing second chances to those with past convictions and fighting to release those currently serving time on non-violent marijuana offenses. 40 Tons founders Loriel Alegrete, Anthony Alegrete and Corvain Cooper were also in attendance, thanking the show’s producers for their contribution.
Campbell and Bell are joined by fellow Reefer alum Alan Cumming in producing the new adaptation at The Whitley, which is directed and choreographed by Spencer Liff.
“Coming back to this, for me, was a no-brainer,” Bell previously told Deadline. “I owe so much of my life to these people and this show.”
Now 25 years after the original show debuted in LA, they’ve re-created ‘The Reefer Den,’ a term of endearment for the café next to the OG musical’s venue where the cast would congregate after each show. This time around, it’s a fully functioning lounge with live performances for a new community of reefer fiends to enjoy.
Tickets for the Reefer Madness: The Musical are available at ReeferMadness.com.