The 77th annual Tony Awards were this past weekend, which means that musical numbers from New York City were broadcast across the nation. But, theater-loving Angelenos, there’s no need to feel like you’re missing out. In a recent interview with How To LA about the revival of Reefer Madness: The Musical on Hollywood Boulevard, actor and producer Kristen Bell noted that “people, when they think of theater and musical theater, they always think of New York,” but that “there is this undercurrent of people performing here in Los Angeles that just has not gotten enough attention.
” Reefer Madness premiered as a 1936 black and white film, originally financed by a church group to warn parents about the “danger of marijuana” to their teens. Eventually cut in the style of an exploitation film, with its over-the-top style, it became a cult classic and favorite midnight movie. That campy status led to an off-Broadway musical adaptation in 2001 starring Kristen Bell as Mary Jane, the all-American squeaky clean lead, who is accidentally tempted by a joint.
“I really can identify [that production] as the fork in the road that changed my life,” Bell says. Her director pushed her to move to L.A.
, and she reprised the starring role in a 2005 Showtime film adaptation of the show. “I would not have my career, I would not have met my husband, I would not have had my kids if it hadn't been for the sort of love and affection and family energy that was thrown at me by this group.
