Theater interview with Lead Producer Christian Campbell from 25th anniversary production of ‘Reefer Madness’ currently running in L.A.

Christian Campbell starred as Jimmy Harper in the original production. Beyond Los Angeles, Campbell performed the role Off-Broadway as well as for the Showtime movie musical version. Now, Campbell is the Lead Producer on this production that has been years in the making. In this interview, Campbell shares insight into the show’s history and this current production.

How did this 25^th anniversary production of “Reefer Madness” come about?

Back in 2014 I got it into my head that it was time to bring the show back. What had happened was a couple of young people had approached me and said that they wanted to do a fundraiser concert of “Reefer Madness”, and would I help them pull together some of the original cast? So, I did that, and I didn’t expect much of it. And we did it at New World Stages in New York, and it was oversold, people watching on closed circuit television out in the lobby. That was when it hit us that “Reefer Madness”, from the movie, had become a cult phenomenon and that there was a new generation of theatre lovers, and their gateway musical was “Reefer Madness.” Because it’s very much a popular show. A cool show. It’s clearly got a message that resonates, and it’s sexy and it’s fun and it’s smart and it’s rebellious, and it’s irreverent. It’s got all these things that young people just really tune into. So that’s when the idea to bring it back happened. But there were a lot of bumps along the road, and it just kept pushing it back. But I do feel like this is the perfect time because of the election, what’s going on in the world, everyone’s talking about saving the children these days from trans people and from gay people and all this stuff. So, I think the message is more important than ever.

From the very start of “Reefer Madness”, and certainly the movie, the musical has had a cult classic feel to it.

We’ve always known ourselves to be sort of in the vein of “Rocky Horror Show” and there’s definitely a Venn diagram overlap with those communities now. I really would love to bring those communities together here in L.A.

How did you first get involved with “Reefer Madness”?

My original involvement was that I was not interested at all in doing musical theatre. I was living in Los Angeles. I was a TV and film actor and doing that whole thing. My sister was doing “Party of Five” at the time, and Dan Studney (“Reefer Madness” composer) was working on the set, and they were just hanging out. And he told her, “I’ve got this musical, and I need to find an All-American boy for this role of Jimmy Harper who can sing.” And my sister was like, “Oh, my brother looks all American. You should have him come in.” And so, I went in, and the rest is history.

You started with the original production of the show in L.A. and eventually moved with it to Off-Broadway in New York City, right?

Yeah. We opened three days after 9/11. We had half houses. We were at The Variety Arts Theatre and after 9/11 we still opened. I remember vividly going into the theater on the day of 9/11. Kristen Bell (New York’s Mary Lane and current show producer) had stayed over at my place because it was close to the theater. And we both walked on over to the theatre because we just assumed we had to go to work. When we got there the crew was building the sets as smoke was pouring in through the ventilation shafts. That just shows you “the show must go on” kind of attitude. But we opened and we hobbled along. But it was beautiful because I still have so many people that come up to me and say that they saw that show. They saw it because people needed something. They needed to laugh. People needed to be together at that time. So, as sad as it was, it was also beautiful.

Now it’s the 25th anniversary, which sounds like was just happenstance, because you’d been trying to do this since the 15th anniversary New World Stages reading. It just took ten years to get to twenty-five.

It’s so funny too, because people often talk about musicals taking ten years, at least, to get a musical off the ground. And I balked. I was like, “No chance.” Now, we’re doing it ten years later. I think around year seven I started thinking, do people think I’m crazy? Am I looking like that really pathetic actor who just can’t let go of something? It went through many iterations. At one point, we were thinking of doing it in New York. And at one point, crazy thought, we were going to do it on Broadway and we did a workshop. That’s actually where we met (director) Spencer Liff. So, along the way, it was building towards what we have today. We learned a lot from a workshop we did in 2019. There were a couple of other readings that happened. Prior to that we were experimenting with different kinds of orchestrations and songs. So, there was a lot of learning that was happening. And everything that you see now on this L.A. stage is an amalgamation of all that learning process. These were not wasted years. There were a lot of good lessons in there and I think that really shows in the work. And like I said, we discovered Spencer Liff because he was choreographing the 2019 workshop reading that we were doing in the hopes of bringing it to Broadway. And that’s when it was clear to us, this guy, I think he should be the director.

Obviously, 25 years later, things have changed a lot when it comes to the legalization of marijuana. Have you found there to be a different response from the audience or public?

The thing is, it’s never really been about cannabis. The cannabis is just a way for us to discuss the deeper, sort of more insidious ideas of propaganda and misinformation. You know, power and religion and nation, punching down on vulnerable groups. That’s really what the show is about. Cannabis is just the way we can laugh about it. And I would say it’s now even more absurd. I think there’s even more laughs in it now.

My introduction to the original propaganda film the musical is based on, was through the musical. I wasn’t familiar with it before the musical. Did people know of it, or did they feel like “Reefer Madness” the musical was an original idea? 25 years ago, if people saw the musical and found out it was based on a propaganda film, it’s like, “Well, where do I see that?” But now, I’m sure you can just type it into YouTube and find it.

Yeah. They’ve got the old original version. They’ve got the colorized version up there. It gets a lot of watches. But that’s a really good point. Yeah, YouTube does allow people to access it. I would say that 25 years ago there were still a lot of people around that this PSA was something they saw in school. That it was known to them. Just recently, I had a wonderful story told to me by someone saying he remembered when his teacher showed the movie. This must have been in the 1970s or 80s. Everyone just laughed their way through it. Then the teacher turned it off and said, “You know what? That is the dumbest movie ever. I am not for drugs, but that’s propaganda. That’s misinformation, and that does not do anyone any good.” And it turned into a whole conversation for the class about that. A great teacher, clearly. So, 25 years ago, it was pretty recent.

At one point you were thinking about Broadway, which is a very traditional proscenium stage sort of production. But now you’re in a really unique venue. I’d love to know how your brain went from Broadway proscenium traditional production to what you have now.

In terms of the venue selection and why we chose to do this, it was born from the fact that when we did it at the Hudson Theatre in 1999, there’s a little kind of cafe next to it that sold muffins and coffee during the day and wine and beer at nighttime. And the cast would hang out there afterwards as cast members often wind down. And the audience would hang out with us, and it just got to be that a lot of people started coming back. It does have that “Rocky Horror” thing. We ran for two years. It created a community effect in that people were coming back. Yeah, they were coming back for the show, but also for the people that they were meeting. Like-minded individuals. And we lovingly called that little cafe the Reefer Den at nighttime. That was important to me for today’s show. One thing that I don’t like about theatre in New York, or a lot of places, is you get put into these theaters. You watch, hopefully, what is a great show. And then you get quickly thrown out of the theatre so that they can stop paying their ushers. You’re kind of left out on the street dazed and unable to really connect with anyone about what you just saw, or maybe meet some similar like-minded people.

So, the idea was, how do we create another space that people can hang out in afterwards? Where we create more moments, more entertainment, but where community and like-minded individuals can just kind of be all together again. I look at theater as a way for us to bring people together. Especially right now, together in real life. That was impossible to do in New York. And that’s why we pivoted to L.A. Because New York, as a business model, is just so shattered. The prices are just so expensive that it’s near impossible to find any space like this.

By being able to capture food and beverage and other revenue streams, that, to me, was the business model I wanted to do. So, in a way it could help to subsidize the show. So, we started hunting for a space, and we found the Whitley and it was just a nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard. We went and transformed it into what it is now. And it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, building that space out.

I was not familiar with the space prior, but it was evident the second I walked in. You all clearly made this a destination for your production. Was it a restaurant before, or did you have to build all of that?

We built a kitchen out in the Victory Garden. It was hard. What we accomplished was miraculous. We did it in a very short time because there were a bunch of hiccups that happened with the venue operators that prevented us from getting into the space when we needed to. So, we had to build fast and we made it all happen.

The cast was into it 110% the whole time. It’s crazy and wild. What was the casting process like and how did you find this extremely talented ensemble?

The casting process was local hire only. We wanted to make sure that all the talents, all crew, everything, would be just L.A. And we got a lot of appreciation for that. Just in the process of interviewing people, the amount of love we got from the L.A. theatre community was big. With the actors, there’s just a ton of people who have amazing musical theatre talent that are here in L.A. because they’re pursuing film and television careers or they’re pursuing the nice weather here. So, they’re all frustrated musical theatre people who just jumped on it. 2500 people auditioned for this. It is the perfect cast. They’re really smart. They understand the show. They understand the tone.

During the audition process, riding that razor blade of camp/satire and in a way that doesn’t wink to the audience, is not easy. That’s what that cast is doing. They’re just fantastic. They’re committed in terms of taking you on the ride through the show. It’s a funny thing. The show surprises you. I call it the dumbest show and the smartest show I’ve ever done, all at the same time. But it also has moments that catch you off guard, where you get emotional. It’s funny that way, but it requires that type of committed actor, and that’s what we’re getting out of all of them.

“Reefer Madness” is currently running at 6555 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. Arrive early to dine in the Victory Garden, enjoy the musical in the 1930s speakeasy venue, then stick around after to make new friends and enjoy live music. Get your tickets now to this one-of-a-kind production.

Jeff DePaoli is an event producer and host living in Los Angeles. He graduated from Emerson College where he received a BFA in Theatre. He can be heard as the voice of Disney Trivia on Alexa as well as the host of “Dizney Coast to Coast” podcast, where he and his special guests share honest opinions on all things Disney. Get your FREE gifts of “America’s Hidden Mickeys,” “On the Rohde Again,” “Theme Park Comfort Kit” and more at DizneyCoastToCoast.com. DePaoli’s opinions are his own and do not necessarily represent Attractions Magazine.