A power-hungry, moneygrubbing New Jersey mayor, a beautiful, blind librarian, and a bespectacled nerd turned hulking green superhero give bad taste a good name in The Toxic Avenger, the outrageously funny (and very politically incorrect) off-Broadway musical now earning an abundance of “I can’t believe they actually said/sang that!” laughs at Santa Ana’s Grand Central Theatre.

Joe Stein stars winningly (and within short order unrecognizably) as Jersey nerd Melvin Ferd the Third, whose efforts to rid the state of poisonous pollutants soon finds the environmental scientist thrown into a vat of toxic poisonous waste, from which he emerges the titular Avenger, bent on taking down nefarious Tromaville mayor Babs Belgoody (Natalie Giannosa) while winning the hand of bodacious blonde librarian Sarah (Madison Stirrett), no matter that said librarian rejected him the second she felt his face and found him esthetically lacking, and seems even less likely to fall for him now that the aforementioned toxic waste has turned him into a hideously deformed mutant with inner beauty, i.e., the kind that doesn’t count for our looksist leading lady.

Cody Bianchi and Justin Crawford complete the show’s multitalented 20something cast as White Dude and Black Dude, each of whom embodies multiple gender-bending roles, from Sluggo and Bozo (the bullies who throw Melvin into the toxic sludge), to crazy Professor Ken and deranged Doctor Fishbein, to swishy hairdressers Lorenzo and Lamas, to girl group backup singers Shinequa and Diane.

If it’s not already obvious, book writer Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; All Shook Up) has thrown any semblance of propriety to the wind, and if blind or gay jokes bother you, The Toxic Avenger may be a bit too line-crossing to suit your tastes.

If, on the other hand, you simply want to laugh, laugh, and then laugh some more, that’s precisely what you’ll be doing throughout The Wayward Artist’s latest.

It helps enormously that Bon Jovi drummer (and native Jersey Boy) David Bryan has written one catchy ’80s-style rock tune after another, a mix of Metal and Motown and Tango Argentino, featuring some of the most outrageously tasteless (and downright hilarious) lyrics in town (by DiPietro and Bryan, who won a Tony for their previous musical collaboration, Memphis).

And it helps even more to have director Craig Tyrl and choreographer Keenah Armitage operating on all cylinders, eliciting one sparkling, risk-taking performance after another while interspersing dialog and song with just enough dance to make the most of one of the wild-and-craziest musicals ever.

Stein makes for the most loveable of good guys, a comedically gifted “average Joe” whose power vocals come as a mind-blowing surprise, and the equally big-voiced Stirrett is a hilariously un-PC hoot (and downright adorable) as perhaps the only blind woman in New Jersey for whom looks do absolutely matter.

Giannosa, whose spectacular pipes I raved about in CSUF’s Children Of Eden a few years back, outdoes herself as both fire-haired Mayor Babs and Melvin’s geriatric Ma, and just wait till both characters appear onstage together and tangle to tour-de-force effect.

Bianchi and Crawford are double dazzlers as a nasty couple of bullies, a flamboyant pair of stylists, a Dreamgirls-ready duo with a bit of Tina Turner’s Ikettes thrown in for good measure, and quite a few more loonies to boot.

Under Stephen Hulsey’s expert musical direction, there’s not a weak vocal link in a cast who perform to prerecorded tracks expertly amped and mixed by sound designer Tyrl.

The Toxic Avenger looks fabulous too, scenic designer Kristin Campbell’s city dump filled with garbage cans oozing with the greenest of green slime, Marci Alberti earning top marks for the most imaginative and fanciful of costume designs, Natalie Silva providing a stunning array of props, and Harrison Haug’s lighting design bathing all of the above in one saturated hue after another.

Sydney Fitzgerald is production manager. Thaies Quezada is stage manager and Aung Khine Min is assistant director and assistant stage manager. Kylie Baumbucsh is assistant scenic designer. Hayley Trittin is assistant choreographer.

As night-and-day different from The Wayward Artist’s previous musical smash (the deeply moving, transformative Next To Normal) as two shows can get, but every bit as sensational in execution, The Toxic Avenger is an irresistibly infectious delight.

CSUF Grand Central Art Center, 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana.
www.TheWaywardArtist.org

–Steven Stanley
April 24, 2022
Photos: Francis Gerard Gecad

Tags: David Bryan, Grand Central Theatre, Joe DiPietro, Orange County Theater Review, The Wayward Artist