Photos: First Look At JESUS & JOHNNY APPLEWEED'S HOLY ROLLIN' FAMILY CHRISTMAS At New Line Theatre

Find out what happens when a typical, mid-century American family’s secrets are all revealed on one outrageous, pot-fueled Christmas Eve in 1959.

To open New Line's 32nd season, the New Liners bring you the world premiere of the new adult stoner musical comedy, Jesus & Johnny Appleweed's Holy Rollin' Family Christmas, with book, music, and lyrics by Scott Miller. Poor Harry Goodson learns his lessons the hard way, as he’s visited overnight by his dead twin brother, Jesus Christ, Sandra Dee, and Johnny Appleweed, and he finally learns what his family already knows, that the answer to all his problems is marijuana!

A wacky companion piece to the unintentionally hilarious 1936 scare film Reefer Madness, this new musical is a crazy mashup of A Christmas Carol, Reefer Madness, and 1950s musical comedy, a tongue-in-cheek response to the War on Drugs and the Culture Wars, a comic look at what a little pot and a little truth can do to a normal, average, Midwestern, American family at mid-century, just as America plunges into the chaos of the 1960s.

Miller's score includes future classics like "The Elves Get Stoned," "Heteronormative," "Mary Jane and Mary Jane," "Love Doesn't Suck," "Hoo-Hoo of Steel," "Don't Look at Me! I'm Sandra Dee!", "(Take Out) That Stick Up Your Ass," "Have Another Toke and Have a Merry Christmas," and many more!

The New Line cast includes Terrell Thompson (Harry), Kay Love (Bess), Tai Davis (Chip), Marlee Wenski (Tammy), Tawaine Noah (Uncle Hugh), plus Robert Doyle, Matt Hill, Stephanie Merritt, and Lauren Tenenbaum as the stoner carolers outside. The production is directed by Scott Miller and Tony L. Marr Jr., with choreography by Marr, music direction by Mallory Golden, costume design by Lauren Smith Beardon, scenic design by Rob Lippert, lighting design by Matt Stuckel, and sound design by Ryan Day.

New Line presented the world premiere of Johnny Appleweed in 2006, and the regional premiere of Reefer Madness the Musical in 2004.

Scott Miller (book, music, lyrics) is a musical theatre composer, lyricist, bookwriter, historian, consultant, fanboy, and the founder and artistic director of New Line Theatre. He holds a degree in music and musical theatre from Harvard. He has written eleven musicals, two plays, and more than a dozen books about musical theatre. He also writes the Bad Boy of Musical Theatre blog. For fifteen years, he co-hosted the radio show Break a Leg: Theatre in St. Louis and Beyond, and now he hosts the periodic theatre podcast Stage Grok, available on iTunes. He lives in South St. Louis with this two cats, Hamilton and Macheath.
 
New Line Theatre is a professional company dedicated to involving the people of the St. Louis region in the exploration and creation of daring, provocative, socially and politically relevant works of musical theatre. New Line was created in 1991 at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre just starting to take hold across the country.

New Line has given birth to several world premiere musicals over the years and has brought back to life several shows that were not well served by their original New York productions.

Altogether, New Line has produced 94 musicals since 1991, and the company has been given its own entry in the Cambridge Guide to American Theatre and the annual Theater World. New Line receives funding from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and the Regional Arts Commission.

New Line’s 32nd season continues with Sweet Potato Queens in March, and Dracula in June.

For other information, visit New Line Theatre’s full-service website at www.newlinetheatre.com. All programs are subject to change.

To post a comment, you must register and login.