Kristen Bell And Christian Campbell Are Creating A Cannabis “Community” On Hollywood Blvd With ‘Reefer Madness: The Musical’s 25th Anniversary Revival
'Reefer Madness: The Musical' stars Kristen Bell and Christian Campbell have reunited to produce the 25th anniversary stage revival in Los Angeles Glenn Garner; Andrew Patino
Nearly a century later, the panic around William Randolph Hearst’s manufactured “Reefer Madness” still has a hold on parts of culture.
When actor and producer Christian Campbell attempted to promote his 25th anniversary Los Angeles stage revival of Reefer Madness: The Musical on Facebook and Instagram, Meta flagged the word “reefer” for reasons that seemed a little too meta. (As a result, be sure to check in at “The Victory Garden” when you come to Hollywood’s The Whitley theatre, where the show opened May 31.)
“The Victory Garden is the outdoor dining and drinking and other post-show experience. We’ve basically created an oasis on Hollywood Boulevard,” Campbell tells Deadline. “It’s a beautiful green, lush space. Come on in, relax.”
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In 1999, Campbell first starred as Jimmy Harper in Reefer Madness: The Musical when it debuted in L.A. A parody of the 1936 propaganda film (turned-exploitation film-turned-stoner cult classic), the musical by Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney has returned home as it celebrates its 25th anniversary with a revamped immersive stage production and cannabis lounge.
Campbell is joined by fellow Reefer alums Kristen Bell and Alan Cumming in producing the new adaptation, which is directed and choreographed by Spencer Liff. Anthony Norman and Darcy Rose Byrnes take the reins from Campbell and Bell as star-crossed lovers Jimmy Harper and Mary Lane, along with a new cast that also includes Thomas Dekker, Nicole Parker, J. Elaine Marcos and Bryan Daniel Porter.
Nicole Parker as Mae Coleman in the 25th anniversary Los Angeles revival of ‘Reefer Madness: The Musical’ Andrew Patino
Dekker, who gives an inspired performance as hopped-up college dropout Ralph Wiley in the revival, was 9 when he first starred in the Disney series adaptation of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1997-2000). Showrunners Murphy and Studney had just begun writing their cannabis musical at the time.
“It’s so wild. They’ve both been in my life ever since. … And so the musical has been in my life, and I’ve known it and known every song since it was first happening,” says Dekker, adding, “It was surreal when I went in for the final read for this. I called my mom afterwards because I can’t believe, at 9 years old, I was going to a room in Burbank to audition for Dan and Kevin, and now at 36, I’m back at a room in Burbank, auditioning for Dan and Kevin. It just feels odd.”
Campbell also happened upon the show through Studney, who was working with Christian’s sister Neve Campbell on Party of Five at the time. For Bell, it was one of her first major productions after graduating NYU and paved the way for her breakout role on Veronica Mars a few years later.
Darcy Rose Byrnes as Mary Lane and Thomas Dekker as Ralph Wiley in ‘Reefer Madness: The Musical’ Andrew Patino
“Coming back to this, for me, was a no-brainer,” says Bell. “I owe so much of my life to these people and this show.”
Now 25 years later, they’ve re-created “The Reefer Den,” a term of endearment for the café next to the original musical’s venue in Los Angeles where the cast would congregate after each show. This time around, it’s a fully functioning lounge with live performances for a new community of reefer fiends to enjoy.
Following this month’s opening, Deadline spoke with Campbell and Bell about the past, present and future of Reefer Madness: The Musical.
DEADLINE: What are your first memories of each other and working on the show?
KRISTEN BELL: When I joined the cast, I was asked to audition in New York, and I didn’t show up to my first audition. And some of the New York producers, the Nederlanders who were doing it at the time, said, “Well, hold on. She’s worked for us before. Let’s just have her at the callbacks.” And I don’t think I showed up for my callback either. And then finally at the second callback, I showed up, and I still can’t believe that they hired me.
CHRISTIAN CAMPBELL: That’s pretty much accurate, yeah. She really knows how to create desire by being standoffish, so she definitely increased that desire.
BELL: Looking back, this show, in all honesty, is the reason I have the life that I have. Because after meeting these people, Christian and the writers, they convinced me to move to Los Angeles. And if they hadn’t done that, I would not have met my husband, had my kids, had my career. So, coming back to this, for me, was a no-brainer. I owe so much of my life to these people and this show.
CAMPBELL: My first memory is a very awkward audition for [director] Andy Fickman and Kevin and Dan, because I wasn’t really a lover of musical theater. I kind of had a bad experience in college with an ex-nun vocal teacher, and that just turned me off from any kind of singing and musical theater. And so this was my first kind of foray back on into it as an audition. And it was really just because Neve was working on Party of Five at the time, and one of the 3rd ADs was Dan Studney of all people. And Dan Studney said, “I’m looking for an all-American boy for my musical Reefer Madness.” My sister said, “Oh, my brother is Canadian and he looks all-American.” And so, they put us together and I came on in for the audition because I read the script and heard some of the music, poorly sung by Dan and Kevin. And I just really loved it. I loved the lyrics. I loved what it was about and what it was saying. And so I said, if this is musical theater, I can do this. And so I came on in and apparently I did a good job.
Christian Campbell and Kristen Bell in the 2005 movie adaptation ‘Reefer Madness: The Musical’ James Dittiger/ Showtime / Courtesy Everett Collection
DEADLINE: What’s it been like getting to step into the producer role this time around?
CAMPBELL: It is an entirely different experience, and it’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It’s great. I mean, I believe in this show. Clearly, I’ve been doing this for 25 years. That I do the insane thing of looking to produce it now says a lot about what I believe in. All the world’s a stage and we play many parts. And so I’m playing a different part right now and I’ve really enjoyed the learning curve on it. But what I’ve really loved is seeing how many people from the original cast, from the original creative team, that have come aboard because we all feel the same way. We love this piece of property. I’ve even kind of thought about it from a historical perspective. I mean, how many times in human history has a show and a theater cast gotten back together again 25 years later in theater to do a show again? That’s probably very rare in the history of theater. And I think that’s just remarkable.
BELL: I’m not gonna say there’s not been blackmail, ok? (laughs) I’m gonna leave that up to you and your journalistic integrity to lean into that. What I will say is, I definitely echo what Christian says. There was a joy I experienced and a freedom I experienced in this production the first time around that helped form me as an artist. There were deep friendships made. We were also together on September 11th. I had slept on Christian’s couch that night because we were in tech. We went through a lot together. That alongside with the fact that this production always seems to be relevant, its satire is important. I agree with Christian when I say, this show makes you want to come back to it because of the people and because of the show.
So, when Christian called me and said, “We’re thinking about doing Reefer again. Do you want to be involved?” I had exactly zero follow-up questions and the answer was yes. I know how important the show’s message is. I know how wonderful these people are and I know how much I owe to them. And all those things combined make this kind of magic fairy dust that is the Reefer experience. And the reality is we have formed the community, and our desire is to share that. There’s a lack of community spaces currently. We’re very isolated. Very few things we do together anymore. Sometimes people will see a movie together, sometimes they’ll see a show but shows come and go. We want the Reefer experience to become a community like we’ve experienced it because it never lets you go. It’s always there for you.
(L-R) The ‘Reefer Madness: The Musical’ cast: Darcy Rose Byrnes, Andre Joseph Aultmon, Jane Papegeorge, Bryan Daniel Porter, Nicole Parker, Anthony Norman, Alex Tho, Claire Crause, Thomas Dekker and J. Elaine Marcos Andrew Patino
DEADLINE: What are the long-term hopes for the show?
CAMPBELL: The way that I’ve been modeling it is, first of all, just to create an experience of, you come to the show, but you stay for the community. That’s the idea, and you come back for the community. And so, it’s more than just a show. … It’s about creating basically a one-stop shop. One thing when I lived in Los Angeles, I hated the fact that you had to constantly be getting into a car, out of a car, into a car when you went on a night out. This is just, you park once, you go for the night at the Reefer Den and the Victory Garden, and you’re done.
And so that concept is something that I would love to port to other cities. Vegas seems like a no-brainer for Reefer Madness in that Vegas is looking to create a kind of a place where everyone comes in and just stays put, and it’s all there for you. And not only that, Nevada has become very cannabis-friendly. I think also the fact that we are a sexy comedy now under Spencer Liff’s direction, I think that’s really great for Vegas. And the fact that we would have this nice little message that just tweaks in right at the end, I think would be great for Vegas, not just fluffy entertainment but fluffy entertainment with a little medicine, so to speak. So I’d love to do that. I’d love to see the show go to D.C. And if the right situation were to come to us for New York, I would say yes to that as well. The obvious question is always New York, but New York has become a very difficult place to do Off Broadway theater, especially for something like what we do. So it would have to be a very special situation to get us back there. I’m open though.
BELL: Also, what I love about starting it in L.A., regardless of where it goes, we will go where the community wants us, the community will show up where this show is needed. This show offers something so specific. I mean look, it’s 24 years later, I can’t and don’t want to get away from it. There is a lack of high-quality musical theater in L.A., outside from touring companies that come and go. And this is something that’s going to offer you an experience, but also a community to come back to, which I think people in L.A. have a desire for even if they don’t know it yet.
(L-R) Darcy Rose Byrnes, Bryan Daniel Porter and Anthony Norman in ‘Reefer Madness: The Musical’ Andrew Patino
DEADLINE: What’s your most memorable reefer experience?
BELL: To be honest, I have not partaken in cannabis minus maybe a gummy or two in the last 15 years. But that’s because I spend every night with my children, and we’re high on cartoons. But I smoked a lot of reefer in college. I can’t and don’t drink, it gives me too much of a hangover. When I discovered reefer, I remember getting stoned in my college dorm room one night, and after my friends left, I was shuffling a deck of cards and I had an enlightenment moment, and I made up the most brilliant card game ever imagined. Better than Spades, better than Hearts, anything. I put different marker numbers and shapes on all the cards and I wrote down the rules. I went to bed. The next morning I said, “Oh my God, didn’t I do something with these cards last night?” And it was absolute nonsense. But the night before, nothing had ever made more sense to me. So, the world just won’t get to experience this brilliant card game because I can’t interpret it. It’s been too long and I’m probably not going to smoke anytime soon. But I remember feeling very enlightened.
CAMPBELL: For me, the most entertainment I’ve had from cannabis is actually a story that happened when I was younger. My mom is from Amsterdam, and so my mom has been a cannabis smoker pretty much all of her adult life. But we lived in Canada and I completely bought into the whole Nancy Reagan “just say no” bullsh*t of the 1980s because that message permeated out of the borders of the United States, around the world. And my mom would hide it from us because she would go out and smoke a doob’ with her girlfriends out on the front porch. And then the first time I smelled it, I said, “What is that?” And she turned to me and she said, “Oh, this is American tobacco, honey.” So that was the pretty much most entertainment I’ve had off of this stuff, just from my mom’s perspective because she loves to tell that story. … She’s the “Reefer Mama.” She saw the show like 27 times during the original 1999 production, so she’s beloved by the cast. She’s our mascot.