A boy knows a girl that he has been in love with for a long time and wants his love to be reciprocal.  Sounds normal and simple, right?  What if the main character were a geek turned superhuman mutant, because he was dumped into a barrel toxic waste?  Or if a blind girl loves him because she believes he is a big French man she nicknames “Toxie”?  What?  Don’t worry, although slightly disturbing, it’s laugh-out loud hilarious.  Adding to that rock and roll and drag queens and you’ve got The Toxic Avenger: The Musical.

The storyline is that there is toxic waste in New Jersey and Melvin Ferd the Third is on a mission to stop the toxic waste, in an even bigger goal to stop global warming. Although the basis of this musical may seem like it would be influencing others to save our planet, it is only a creative way to introduce certain characters.

Melvin is the nerd turned green monster when two bullies push him into toxic waste. When he comes out he has stringy and slimy hair, bumps on his head and his left eye ball is falling out of his eye. He decides he is going to destroy all the polluting people in the world and demonstrates this by tearing the bullies’ limbs apart. I don’t think this is the message of “save our planet”. But the scene where he rips his enemies apart is raw humor in itself. This is a type of humor that was presented in the musical. There’s something funny for many audiences: inappropriate jokes that an older audience might enjoy and for a different audience, it’s the randomness of the characters that make the story entertaining or just how the characters interact. As mentioned before, in this story a boy loves a girl and that boy and girl are Melvin and Sarah. Did I mention Sarah is a blind? Well, you will be hit with a whole slew of blind jokes that would seem offensive, but they are delivered in a hilarious manner. She is a lovable character and demonstrates confidence by singing about being on Oprah, and at one point, wandering off-stage while still singing, but then returning as if nothing happened while Melvin looks at her bewildered.

The story between Melvin and Sarah could be called a love story, but the relationship did not go deep enough for the audience to feel a deep connection between the two characters. Maybe it’s because most of the relationship was focused on her not being about to see his mutated face. Or maybe it’s because the other characters stole the show with their crazy antics. There was the seducing evil mayor and the crabby but caring mother, both played by Nancy Opel. Her booming voice gave her stage presence and one memorable number was when she played both characters at the same time on stage. My favorites were the two men, played by Demond Green and Nicholas Rodriguez, who played a whole range of characters. Two characters they came out as were Shinequa and Diane, Sarah’s friends, and they started to dance in dresses. They danced with Sarah and “Single Ladies” popped into my mind, which made me laugh even harder. Other characters they played were the two bullies who dumped Melvin into the toxic waste. The unexpected and random characters they played made the musical surprising. All three supporting actors have excellent comedic timing that made the audience laugh harder and harder.

In the end, I would definitely recommend this musical. The songs titles and their lyrics are funny in themselves and the characters are the epitome of entertainment. I guaranteed anyone who watches it will laugh at least once.

Here’s the promo video for the show….