Photo Flash: BroadwayHD Premieres THE TOXIC AVENGER at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo

BroadwayHD premiered The Toxic Avenger Musical at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) to a packed auditorium. The comic musical is based on the 1984 film created by Troma Entertainment. As with many cult films, the original release was not a critical success, but midnight screenings in NYC and around the country propelled the campy low budget movie to become a cult classic.

The BroadwayHD digital capture is a multi-camera shoot of the award winning stageplay with book and lyrics by Tony winner, Joe DiPietro, and music by Tony winner, David Bryan. The film and musical tell the story of an aspiring environmental scientist, Melvin, who vows to clean up his home state of New Jersey from chronic pollution. The townspeople doubt Melvin's ability to find a solution to hazardous chemicals, throw him into a vat of toxic waste, which turns him into a superpower avenger, he finds a girlfriend and you guessed it, he ends up saving the planet. DiPietro and Bryan took the original campy elements, added hysterical lyrics and hum along tunes and created a new musical destined to become its own cult classic.

The screening included a question and answer panel with Troma Founder and creator of the Toxic Avenger movie franchise, Lloyd Kaufman, and Pat Swinney Kaufman, who in addition to being Lloyd's wife of 40 years, is executive director of the New York State Governor's Office for Motion Picture and Television Development and the deputy commissioner of Empire State Development. Tony Award winning producers and BroadwayHD founders, Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley were also on the panel.

Lloyd Kaufman who peppers his speech with inventive language injecting "toxic" and "toxi" into his vocabulary called the BroadwayHD film adaptation fantoxic entertainment. He encouraged the audience to subscribe to the service at www.BroadwayHD.com so they could watch the intoxicatingmusical, again, at home with their friends. Pat Kaufman, referring to the exploitive and raunchy nature of the Troma canon of films joked that, "BroadwayHD's Toxic Avenger Musical may be the only Troma creation I can watch with my friends."

The Tony Award winning composer and lyricist team of Joe DiPietro and David Bryan were not able to join the C2E2 panel but sent their regards and a statement from DiPietro claiming, "BroadwayHD did a great job with filming it. It is a gorgeous, elegant filming of a tasteless, ridiculous show, and a must-see for anyone who loves musical theatre or toxic waste or New Jersey. Both Joe DiPietro and David Bryan grew up and still live in New Jersey. The Toxic Avenger Musical is now streaming on www.BroadwayHD.com

In 2015, Comley and Lane launched BroadwayHD, a subscription streaming service with a catalog of over 220 full length stage plays and musicals bringing theatre to you anywhere you can access internet streaming content-including your computer, your phone, your tablet, and your TV.

Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) is a fan convention dedicated to showcasing comics, graphic novels, tv, movies and video games. The first C2E2 was held in 2010, this year's event was attended by more that 80,000 people.