Birth of a new musical!

I recently sat with Joe DiPietro to talk about the creation of The Toxic Avenger which began previews last night to an enthusiastic audience! Below is an excerpt of my interview.

Q: What was your reaction when first asked to make The Toxic Avenger a musical?

Joe DiPietro: It’s funny, because I get a fair amount of calls about people trying to turn various movies into musicals. I had seen the movie about 20 years ago, so I immediately thought, “Oh My God, I love that idea, it’s so off the wall, and I know the perfect guy to write it with.” So I hung up the phone, so excited and immediately started writing an outline of what I wanted to do, and within an hour I knew it was going to have five people, three of them play many roles, I just had the whole feel of it. It’s a pretty good sign when you can write like that…

Q: What are some of the challenges of adapting the movie to the stage?


JD: When I first watched the movie again, I thought it was a weird, odd, fun movie, but aimed at teenage guys under the influence. I didn’t think the movie would work on stage and wasn’t interested in doing a literal translation. I loved the premise of the story so much, that if Lloyd Kaufman (who is the creator of the Toxic Avenger) would let David and I make up our own story, but stay true to the spirit of the film, then I could do it.

Q: How did you come up with the other characters?

JD: It’s a bit of Charles Ludlum’s “Theatre of the Ridiculous”, and also from my experience with I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change having 4 people playing sixty characters. I love that theatrical conceit, the idea of people playing multiple roles. We obviously have two actors playing 20 characters each, of every gender and age imaginable. The movie was a low-budget movie and I thought this needed to be a fun low-budget musical. Obviously, the subject matter is so over the top, it had to match the feel of that.

Q: What about The Toxic Avenger makes it appropriate for a musical?

JD: Well, I wouldn’t want to go see a “monster play” but a monster musical is much more interesting and I really haven’t seen any of those. Musicals need to have a specific milieu that gives it an environment. The Toxic Avenger is essentially set in a toxic waste dump in New Jersey, which is pretty offbeat for a musical. It’s such a heightened story, with heightened emotions, so there’s a lot of passion to sing about. We really worked hard to make sure that the love story between the Toxic Avenger and the blind librarian he falls in love with remains central to the story.

posted by Scott Goldman, Executive Assistant

Meet Steven Jones

I am unspeakably excited to be a part of this years touring company at George Street Playhouse. I am a recent graduate of Rutgers University where I studied Theater Arts and English and received the oh-so-coveted B.A. Degree in both of those subjects! (This means I am soon to be making the BIG BUCKS)

Born and raised in Trenton NJ, the arts have always been an outlet for me. Always the clown or the showoff at all family events I knew from an early age that a future in performing was inevitable for me. I attended the Mercer Country High School of Performing Arts and it was there where I really fell in love with Acting as a craft and Theater as an art. That love carried me into the B.A. program at Rutgers (the greatest University that was ever established…literally…out of all of them…Rutgers is the best one). I have had the fortune of performing in about 15 shows while at Rutgers; most notably: Ragtime, Once on This Island, Glengarry Glen Ross, Six Degrees of Separation, Line, The Brig, and Suzan Lori Parks’ 365 Plays 365 Days, which was directed by GSP’s very own Dan “Da Man” Swern.

I am having the time of my life working with the amazing people at GSP and I think that this year’s tour is assembled of some of the finest actors and greatest people with whom I have had the pleasure of working. I am looking forward to what exciting things and adventures there are to come.

Hometown: Trenton, NJ

Favorite Thing to do on a day off: Just kick back and relax with a good book and a game or two or six of NFL Madden for PS2

Audition Piece: “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by August Wilson, “Free Will and Wanton Lust” by Nicky Silver

What do you listen to on the way to work: A very eclectic mix but more than likely something by Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, or Musiq Soulchild.

Most embarrassing stage moment: During a performance of Julius Caesar at the Belasco Theater in NYC: Completely zoning out backstage in between entrances and leaving a helpless Denzel Washington on the stage to do nothing else but to yell my character’s name at the top of his lungs, to get my attention. I hauled butt onto the stage and delivered my lines (out of breath), then exited stage left, and immediately proceeded to die a little bit.

First Broadway Show: Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods”

Must See TV: HEROES!!! Top Chef, Inside the Actors Studio

Latest Movie Recommendation: Burn After Reading

Meet Timothy Regan

My name is Timothy Regan and I come from Bogota NJ. It is a very small town in Bergen County with a JR/SR high school with only 500 students. I graduated in 2004 with a class of 85 students. I attended Kean University as a Theatre Education major for two years then switched to a BA Theatre and made it out in four years! And now I am here at George Street Playhouse happier than ever, to be part of such a talented and welcoming group of people.

Hometown: Bogota, NJ

Favorite Thing to do on a day off: Sleep in, watch TV, play poker either online or with some friends.

Audition Piece: I tend to rotate through several...Dramatic: Two Rooms Comedic: The Jerk, Classic: Richard III

What do you listen to on the way to work: Mainly my ipod on shuffle or FRESH 102.7

Most embarassing stage moment: My senior year at Kean during the first act Pirates of Penzance my pants had unhooked and unzipped and slid out from under my belt to around my thighs before I noticed that my boxers were now showing and I still had a lot of dancing to do and not a convenient time to try to exit to fix my situation!

First Broadway Show: Beauty and the Beast

Must See TV: One Tree Hill. Used to be Boy Meets World!!

Movie Recommendation: Boondock Saints

Two For One!

Today we catch up with the Toxie Cam as Nick Cordero continues his adventures in rehearsals for The Toxic Avenger, with not one, but two episodes!

Meet Angela Cucco: Fearless Leader of the Tour

After 5 years in various areas of Pennsylvania, with summers on Martha's Vineyard and at Williamstown, MA, Angela is oh-so-glad to be back in New Jersey. While looking at colleges years ago, she remembers seeing the George Street Playhouse while visiting Rutgers, and even back then she wanted to work here.
A proud Jersey girl at heart, she attended Lehigh University for theatre, and is happy to be the touring stage manager this season. Angela is obsessed with anything "Jersey," so imagine her excitement when she found out GSP was producing The Toxic Avenger! She always believed New Jersey was totally lacking a superhero.... until now!
Angela is looking forward to touring and seeing lots of kids go crazy over the shows and the actors, especially when in their Peacemaker costumes. She is also excited to get acquainted with the city of New Brunswick, discover all ways to avoid taking Route 18, and get back her Jersey accent.


Hometown: I'm a proud resident of the 201 (Bergen County, that is.)

Favorite Thing to do on a day off: Sleep in, read, and be social with people outside the theatre world.

Audition Piece: I carry around a big, overstuffed 3" binder from Inherit the Wind from my senior year at Lehigh.

What do you listen to on the way to work: Shuffle on my ipod. But I'm trying to go through all of my CDs, finding old, forgotten favorites, now that I am commuting an hour each way to work (yes, I'm still living in Bergen County). The most prominent artist on my ipod is Nine Inch Nails.

Most embarassing stage moment: I avoid onstage moments. I work where you don't see me. And I like to keep it that way.

First Broadway Show: The Radio City Christmas Show. But since I don't really count that as Broadway, the real answer is Once on This Island. This show opened in 1990. Which means I was 5 when I saw it. {Although, I will say that when I was younger, I totally wanted to be a Rockette. And I have seen the Radio City Christmas Show numerous times since then. Cause it's awesome.}

Must See TV: The West Wing (I guess that's a must see DVD). How I Met Your Mother.

Latest Movie Recommendation: Does anybody have one for me?