REVIEW: MUSE Presents "Reefer Madness: The Musical"

By Jamie Weiss

America has always had a complicated relationship with marijuana. While many states today have legalised weed, thousands remain incarcerated for marijuana-related drug offences, victims of the ‘war on drugs’. The stigmatisation of recreational marijuana usage has its roots in anti-Mexican sentiment, and minorities continue to be unfairly targeted and punished for the possession and consumption of pot. To interrogate the conservative demonization of marijuana is to interrogate the deep-rooted prejudices that have permeated American society for centuries. Like many moral crusades, the fight against weed has more sinister undertones.

The 1936 film Reefer Madness is a campy piece of propaganda that even at the time was recognised as being laughably clumsy and inaccurate. It quickly gained a reputation as one of the worst films of all time, and was widely recut and enjoyed on the exploitation film circuit, and later still as a satire, screened to show how weak the arguments against cannabis use are.
MUSE’s 2019 production of Reefer Madness dials the camp and satire up to 11. It’s a fantastically fun, tongue-in-cheek reefer romp that takes the source material and cleverly translates it to a comedic, musical context.

Framed as a school-hall moral lecture about the dangers of marijuana, Reefer Madness explores the ill-fated romance between Jimmy Harper (Jared Pallesen) and Mary Lane (Rosiey Rodrigues). Yes, there’s a lot of weed jokes in this production. Pallesen and Rodrigues were perfect as the high school sweethearts who become corrupted by the insidious reefer. Jayden Castle took us through the tale as the omniscient school lecturer, narrating the ‘moral decay’ of the characters partaking. Castle excelled in this role, also popping in and out of scenes in roles as various as a milk bar owner, car accident victim and even Satan himself. Premising the narrative as a sort of school production was a clever gimmick – facilitating wonderful touches such as the moralising placard girl (Gabrielle Rawling) and reflecting the educational tone of the filmic source material.

It’s hard to pick a favourite character or scene because everyone was so damn good. Jack (Eamon Moses), Mae (Erin Bogart), Sally (Georgia Vella) and Ralph (John Robles) were great as the denizens of the reefer den, John Tsakiris was hilarious as the all-American Jesus, and the supporting cast were truly incredible. Every cast member played multiple roles, seamlessly transitioning between school kids to teeny boppers to cherubim.

Katie Miller’s choreography direction was impressive, too. The sheer number and quality of dance numbers was a pleasure to see – the marijuana dance during Jimmy’s first hit was a real highlight. Reefer Madness also benefits from a fantastic live score, courtesy of Thomas McCorquodale.

Reefer Madness nails the balance between having fun, being funny as well as having something to say. It’s easy to laugh along with the ridiculous premise, pot references and the cavalcade of camp that makes the production such a joy, but Reefer Madness also reflects how absurd the American tendency for moral outrage can be. And it’s not just America, too – in the context of the ACT relaxing their laws around marijuana use and possession, as well as our relatively recent experience of the same-sex marriage postal survey, we need to be critical of moral crusaders and their dog-whistling.

Reefer Madness is hard to describe without giving too much away. It’s hilarious, it’s polished, it’s never been more relevant. My only real criticism of the production is that some of the American accents were a little bit dodgy, and the quality of the performance was let down a little bit by a few technical issues out of the hands of the cast and crew. It’s clear however that MUSE have invested huge amount of time, energy and care into Reefer Madness, and I strongly suggest you go see it whilst you still can. I cannot applaud Robert Meek and Britt Spry (director and producer respectively) enough – I’m still riding that high from Reefer Madness.