LOGAN — I am not a huge horror fan. I don’t like haunted houses very much, I never watch slasher films, and I don’t read Stephen King books. Yet somehow, I volunteered to see The Toxic Avenger presented by Utah State University Opera Theatre and directed by Dallas Aksoy. I may have had a momentary brain fart, but however it happened, I dragged my comic-book-loving husband up to Logan, and I’m so glad I did.
The Toxic Avenger started as an American superhero black comedy spatter film in 1984, then became the first of four similarly gory films in The Toxic Avenger franchise. The film, with an original screenplay by Lloyd Kaufman, and directed by Kaufman and Michael Herz, was received with a mix of positive and negative reviews, including Rotten Tomatoes writing “A silly and ribald superhero spoof… uninhibited humor hits more than it misses”, Leonard Maltin writes “A funny spoof… not without violence and gore but still entertaining”, and TV Guide “Though it is silly, sleazy, and graphically violent, The Toxic Avenger does hold a bit of warped charm for fans of this sort of thing.” Faint praise, indeed. The stage production of The Toxic Avenger, with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro, and music and lyrics by David Bryan, captures the thrust of the story with a musical theatre twist. My husband and I both found it clever, engaging, and full of pop-culture references, as well as rife with body parts, assault, blood, and redemption. Not one for the littles, to be sure. Heed the R-rating and Content Advisory, if foul language, sexual innuendo, and murder bother you. But those hurdles aside, the show was full of talent, and we enjoyed it nonetheless.
USU Opera Theatre production of “The Toxic Avenger” closed October 31st.
First and foremost, the USU Opera Theatre Program has vocal talent to spare- every one of the lead actors was an outstanding vocal performer. Kae Ra Davis as blind librarian Sarah blended impressive vocal chops with an appealing sort of winsome charm that could easily have been over the top and saccharine, but had enough chutzpah to keep her grounded, instead of annoying. Davis’ performance of “My Big French Boyfriend”, with Taylee Klein and Lily Takemoto as Alisha and Diane respectively, and later “All Men Are Freaks” which added Ma Ferd (Emma Dunster) to the mix, were particularly comical. Other standouts included Ethan Shaw as Professor Ken, a slightly Doc Brown-ish type of wacky scientist, and Emma Dunster who tackled bad-guy Mayor Babs Belgoody (as well as Ma Ferd) with gusto and energy. Their duet “Evil is Hot” was ridiculous in the best way.
Truly, the standout performer in the show was Sam Teuscher as Melvin Ferd the Third/The Toxic Avenger, a nebbish, droopy, sad sack who is secretly in love with Sarah but inhibited by a perceived lack in the looks department. From the moment Teuscher releases his stunning tenor voice in the opening number, he is the absolute star of the show. The dual role of Melvin/ Toxie is challenging and demanding, asking tremendous stamina from its leading actor. And Teuscher delivers. I was so impressed.
Scenic design by Dennis Hassan was a stand-out feature of the production creating a definite mise en scene of a toxic waste dump/town across the Hudson from Manhattan, with oozy green barrels of sludge in an altogether depressing corner of New Jersey. Scene changes and differing locations were facilitated by illustrations projected onto fabric legs, transitioning from the street to the library and then to Sarah’s apartment easily. Audrey Kearl did a great job as Projection Designer, creating a unified whole working together with the scenic design. I especially loved that everything had a comic book style that reminded the audience of the campy, fictional nature of the story.
USU Opera Theatre, “The Toxic Avenger”. Photography: Dycie Jo Photography
Director Dallas Aksoy was skillful in seamlessly blocking Toxie’s transitions from human actor to body prop which would then dismember without a visual hitch. While shocking at first, we laughed in relief when we realized the dismemberment wasn’t real. Hats off (or heads?) to the USU Theatre Arts Prop class for their impressive work. Aksoy also had her hands full as music director and keyboardist, leading the onstage musicians throughout the show. The small yet outstanding pit was placed upstage right where they could see and be seen, but remain unobtrusive throughout the action. I really like having the pit onstage when possible, but I know that others find it distracting and found this staging to be a good balance. Aksoy is to be commended as the director for this show and also the USU Opera Program for, as I mentioned above, the vocalists in this show were impressive. The performers were all strong and harmonized well. The one complaint I had was that although the Folk Singer (Nicole Potter) had a lovely voice, she was very difficult to understand and I caught almost none of her narration as the key events unfolded. While it may just be that I’m hard of hearing, I didn’t have the same issue with other performers.
The choreography by Stephanie White was simplistic and serviceable. White did a good job allowing the cast to shine vocally and not complicate things with tricky choreography. This is not a dance-heavy show, and White succeeded in allowing the dance element to enhance the story, and not compete with it. Costumes (Dennis Hassan) and wigs (Rebecca Ashby) did their job for the most part. For the most part, costumes allowed the actors to really lean into the stereotype of their various characters and helped the audience keep them straight. However, Sarah and one female ensemble member had odd bunches of fake curls attached to the back of their heads without any effort to blend into their real hair and the curls kept falling out which was distracting.
All in all, I am very glad that I saw this production as it was fitting for the Halloween weekend, and very enjoyable. A good blend of great songs, outstanding vocalists, campy storytelling, and lots of vengeful death without being too horrifying. It was fun, campy, and silly, with a touch of ‘probably ought to leave the kids at home for this one’. Thanks, Utah State!
