Dirty jokes, rock music and heart: 'Toxic Avenger' is outrageously fun Players Guild show

CANTON − Even while rehearsing out of costume, the Players Guild Theatre cast of "Toxic Avenger" made it immediately clear the musical is irreverent, raunchy and humorous while also being intermittently heartfelt.

Set in the fictitious city of Tromaville, actors sang along to what amounts to a satirical tourist pitch for the Garden State.

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Unafraid to break from theatrical convention, "Toxic Avenger" features a full-blown rock band blasting away above the stage, a mutant antihero protagonist, a blind librarian love interest, a pro-environment ethos, sexual innuendo and campy comedy.

"It's no holds barred," said director Mavis Jennings.

"We will go to any length possible to eek out a laugh, and the laughs are usually of a sarcastic nature," added Jennings, who performed as an actor and singer with Cirque du Soleil on world tours of "Quidam" and "Varekai."

"The Toxic Avenger" opens Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Kent State University at Stark and returns for a second run March 10-12. Friday and Saturday shows are at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday performances are at 2 p.m. in the Mary J. Timken Theatre in the Fine Arts Building at 6000 Frank Ave. NW in Jackson Township. Parking is free.

Single tickets, $34 to $45, can be purchased at https://playersguildtheatre.com/the-toxic-avenger. Student tickets are $10. The box office can be reached at 330-244-3224.

'Toxie' is the anti superhero

Cartoony, freewheeling and gratuitously violent, this isn't your by the numbers superhero. "Toxie," the lead character played by Jordan Potter, doesn't adhere to the timeless orthodoxy of Spider-Man, Batman and Superman.

The story centers on Melvin Ferd the Third, who is mercilessly abused by bullies before he accidentally lands in a vat of toxic waste and transforms into a benevolent monster. Boasting superhuman size and strength, Toxie wages a battle against corporate pollution and a corrupt mayor while trying to woo Sarah, the librarian beauty.

"Come ready to laugh and party," said Jennings, who is also theatre director at KSU Stark. "It's almost like going out to a comedy club with dancing, and even the dancing, a lot of it is funny on purpose; it's going to be an amusing night for a lot of folks — it's going to rock."

Winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical, the production is based on the 1984 cult classic movie and black comedy "The Toxic Avenger" released by Troma Entertainment.

Filming began in 2021 for a "Toxic Avenger" cinematic reboot featuring Kevin Bacon and Peter Dinklage, according to online movie news website Collider.

'I read it and my jaw hit the floor.'

"Toxic Avenger the Musical" marks the Players Guild directorial debut of Jennings.

The Stow resident wasn't familiar with the movie version before helming the local production, admitting with a smile that watching the first 20 minutes of the film was cringe-inducing and tested his sensibilities.

Jennings past directing credits include "Once" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" for Kent State University at Stark's theater program before the Players Guild Theatre relocated from downtown Canton and became the resident theater company on campus.

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"I read it and my jaw hit the floor," he said of "Toxic Avenger's" script. "It made Hedwig seem like a tea party. It's very much an irreverent piece; it's a sarcastic take on greed and the corporate abuse of the environment, so everything in the show is meant to be farcical."

Jennings said the rock musical features adult content and is not a family-friendly variety superhero tale.

"Toxic Avenger" is also steeped in New Jersey attitude, Jennings promised. "We even kick that off the cliff," he said. "It's a playful piece, and the piece isn't mean-spirited. It has a very large spectrum of moral acceptance, and pretty much everything is OK."

Non-stop entertainment

With three individual actors playing a total of 20 characters, the musical is a blur of costume and set changes.

Potter, meanwhile, plays one character in two incarnations − the nerd and a hideous freak with a good heart.

"It's definitely different than most of the other roles I've played," said Potter, whose Players Guild stage work includes "Ghost" and "Million Dollar Quartet."

"The character has quote, unquote normal moments," he said of Toxie. "But for every normal moment, there's one that's over the top."

At the heart of the story is a romance of the unseen, he explained, referring to Toxie and the blind librarian.

"Just because someone doesn't fit the normal attraction mold doesn't mean that they're not someone who doesn't deserve to be loved," Potter said.

Sharing a story outside the mainstream is what makes "The Toxic Avenger" appealing, he said.

"When it comes around, people should jump at the chance," Potter said. "It will keep you entertained from beginning to end."

Toxic Avenger's message: 'It kind of shows the beauty within.'

Skylar Miller said she's been so immersed in the role of the librarian that "I cannot see most of the time when I'm up there (on stage), even though I can see."

Portraying Sarah has been both physically and mentally demanding, said Miller, whose previous roles have included "The Witch" in "Into the Woods" at Theatre 8:15 in Green.

"I think that the biggest message to be told is it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside," she said of "Toxic Avenger." "It kind of shows the beauty within, which I really think is a powerful message because (Toxie and Sarah are) both considered freaks."

Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com

On Twitter @ebalintREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Cult classic "Toxic Avenger" reborn as rock musical with Players Guild