The Toxic Avenger ........ a musical ........... My review

Well, what would you say if I told you it had been more than 10 years since my last visit to "live" theatre?? If you know me at all, you'd be like "really? aren't you the guy always singing Les Miserable or Phantom of The Opera at all hours NO MATTER where you are?? YEP, that's me:) Even theatre based stuff like Rocky Horror Picture Show and movies like Grease have me singing up a storm ........It's just too bad that I can't sing:) You see I suffer from this common malady known as "tone deafness", but I guess it's better that than colour blindness ..... orange and pink do NOT go together:)

Now onto my review, but remember than I may be a little giddy because of the length of time since my last live event.

The Toxic Avenger ............80% ......... do not confuse with movie rating, they are different

Taken from The Toxic Avenger website(link above)

"Melvin Ferd the Third wants to clean up Tromaville, the most polluted town in New Jersey (just off Exit 13B on the Turnpike). Foiled by the on-the-take mayor’s bullies, Melvin is dumped into a vat of radioactive toxic waste, only to reemerge as THE TOXIC AVENGER, New Jersey’s first superhero.

THE TOXIC AVENGER, affectionately known as Toxie, is a seven-foot mutant freak with superhuman strength and a heart as big as Newark. He’s out to save New Jersey, end global warming and woo the prettiest blindest librarian in town, in a toxic love story with an environmental twist. He’ll leave you laughing in the aisles as he rocks the house and saves the earth for all of mankind. "

Sounds pretty silly right:) Sure, and it is, but it's also very funny, NOT politically correct in any way, and the music is pretty darn good. Basically it makes for a good night out with friends.

Now we come to to a little annoyance ........ NONE of my close friends had any interest in this musical, actually only one person even felt a need to reply to my email(even though a few people seem to like the theatre).... wonderful:(It's too bad for them). I certainly won't be afraid to go to a play/musical by myself, I've never felt the absolute need to be with somebody I know for any event that I wanted to attend.

The Musical/play was held at The Music Hall on the Danforth in Toronto. It's capacity is 1150 seats, and it has a balcony.

The cast includes;

Louise Pitre, Canada's first lady of musical theatre, will play the dual-role of Mayor Babs Belgoody, the evil Mayor of Tromaville, and Ma Ferd, mother of Melvin Ferd the Third.

Brittany Gray is ready to tear hearts out as Sarah, the sexy blind librarian. Brittany, a working professional since her debut in the film Chicago at the age of 15, can also be seen in the upcoming film Amelia starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere.

Evan Alexander Smith will perform the role of Melvin Ferd the Third, a bullied weakling turned fast and fierce hero. A recent graduate of the George Brown Theatre School, Evan’s credits include Tony in West Side Story, Marius in Les Misérables, and Younger Brother in Ragtime.

What's funny is 2 of the guys Jamie McKnight and Daren A. Herbert play a combined 26 roles between the 2 of them ..... way too many to list, ALL very funny and very non PC, but you'd know that when you read the cast listing and they are marked as "The White Guy", and "The Black Guy":) I hope you're OK with guys wearing fishnet stockings:) How secure in your masculinity are you!

OK, I really liked this show, the songs were a little shorter than I was used to, when you come from epics like Les Miz and Phantom, you get spoiled. What's funny is both Louise Pitre and Evan Alexander Smith some from Les Miserable, one of my favourite plays.

I loved Brittany Grey as Sarah, I like funny people, and she's great in her role. She's also hot as the blind librarian. Maybe I'm a sucker for a hot chick that doesn't know it, and a blind librarian IS about as far from outwardly hot as you can get:)

Now the real showstopper was Louise Pitre in multiple roles, boy O boy is she great, and she steals the show. She does this really cool ..........hhmmm ....... nope, go see it if you want to know. I just say that by the end of this "Piece Du resistance" people were cheering loudly.

OK, so there goes, chances are I'll go again before Christmas, since it makes an inexpensive night at the theatre.

Was it perfect? NOPE! I don't know if it was me hearing, but some of the singing seemed poorly EQ'd, I had trouble understanding what they were singing on occasion, but maybe that's the difference between a $120 play VS a $50 play, and in all honestly it wasn't that bad, usually a sentence or two.

What was worse was my inability to focus clearly on the actors, I think it's because I tend to stop blinking and just stare, trying to see every little facial expression that it try my eyes out and they never recover ....maybe I'm just getting old ... maybe it's time to see an optometrist?

OK, now one thing I wished they changed, was The Toxic Avenger's "roar", it was really annoying, but I can't explain it other than to say it's a recorded bit that is played at certain moments, and it's "over the top" loud.

Anybody else interested, just show up, I'll post a date here and if you decide to come GREAT, but no more emails about this show.

OK, I'm HUGELY disappointed in one thing. Sure it's been a bunch of years since I've been to the theatre, and SURE, this would be considered an "off Broadway" production, but WHY IN THE HELL are people think wearing JEANS to the theatre?????? Now I've seen some jeans that look OK, and I've seen some nice expensive jeans, that you could argue, are "dressy" BUT.... what's worse than those jeans being worn by tons of people, were the ones that made NO ATTEMPT to dress up, I actually saw a few people wearing crappy, holey jeans, worn out high top sneakers, crappy T-shirts, and raggedy jackets TO THE THEATRE!!! .............Why oh why is this considered acceptable?? My stomach turned every time one of these MORONS decided it was OK ....UGH!

Goo

There was NO dress code, I think there should always be a dress code, it's not a movie, it's a theatre production, PUT ON SOME Khaki's at least, even I did that:)