NewsPHOTO CALL: The Toxic Avenger Opens Off-BroadwayThe Toxic Avenger, the new musical by Joe DiPietro and Bon Jovi founding member David Bryan, opened at Off-Broadway's New World Stages April 6.
By
David Gewirtzman
April 08, 2009
The production — directed by Urinetown's John Rando — stars Nancy Opel, Sara Chase, Nick Cordero, Demond Green and Matt Saldivar. The campy and gory rock musical, based on Lloyd Kaufman's 1985 cult film of the same name, "is set in the mythical town of Tromaville, Exit 13B off the New Jersey Turnpike. An aspiring earth scientist, Melvin Ferd the Third, is determined to clean up the town's burgeoning toxic waste, until he is tossed into a vat of radioactive goo and emerges as a seven-foot mutant freak and New Jersey’s first superhero. Armed with superhuman strength and a heart as big as Newark, he's out to save New Jersey, end global warming and woo Sarah, the prettiest, blindest librarian in town."
The new jukebox musical featuring the songs of Huey Lewis and the News follows a Chicagoan whose failed band leads to him returning to corporate America.