Let 'Toxic Avenger' Rip Your Heart Out At New Village Arts

Speaker 1: 00:00 As we keep our eye on the fire conditions in San Diego, we're hoping for a normal weekend, even though it's the final weekend before Halloween, if it's a little bit of spookiness, you're after San Diego's theater scene has plenty to offer. Right out loud has its final poll Fest performances featuring readings of the Edgar Allen Poe's tales of terror. Then there are a pair of femme centric musicals based on horror films offering a high body count as onstage Playhouse in Chula Vista stages. Carrie, the musical and OB Playhouse presents Heather's the musical. Hey PBS arts reporter Beth Armando invited new village arts to come into the studio to preview its concert reading of toxic Avenger. The musical, Zachary Scott Wolf sings the role of toxi and director a J Knox and music director Tony Houk provide some background on the Troma superhero. Speaker 2: 00:56 New village arts is going to be having a staged reading of toxic Avenger. The musical. Now this is based on the film from traumas studios. So a J why do you guys at U village arts wanna be staging this? Speaker 3: 01:10 First of all, it's Halloween. So it's a perfect show for Halloween. And it's also, it's one of those shows that works really well as a stage reading for us because it's not typically the kind of show we could do for a full run, but for our audiences, I think it's a great chance for them to get to see the show. And actually Tony Houk, who is one of new village arts, is a new artistic associates. He's in charge of all of our music programming. And he came to me a few months ago and said, I really want to do toxic Avenger for Halloween. So it's actually pretty much Tony's kind of brainchild to do this. Speaker 2: 01:44 So Tony, what is it about toxic Avenger that appeals to you? Speaker 4: 01:48 Everything. I love this show. So I was at home and, uh, flipping through my Broadway HD subscription and I saw that they had the toxic Avenger on there and I said, that sounds fun and interesting. Let's check it out. So I watched it and I fell in love with it. The music's fantastic. Uh, so it's a lot of fun rock music and I just loved the themes. It's like a classic love story. But then, you know, the toxic Avengers fighting for the planet and that's very topical right now. It's kind of something everyone's doing. Speaker 2: 02:17 And Scott, you are singing the role of Melvin and toxic Avenger. Melvin goes through a few changes, uh, in this. So what's it like playing this part? Even if it's just a stage reading? You're right, he goes through a lot of, in the show physical and you know, emotional changes. I think it's important to us too because we can't do a whole lot of those physical changes in the concert reading. So I kinda just got to put on my acting pants and make sure that, you know, it, it's, it's clear what we're doing without any of the special effects or the, you know, makeup, costumes in that kind of stuff. But he has a really fun arc and a really cool journey that he goes through. So can you explain to people exactly how toxic Avenger becomes toxic Avenger because he starts out human in this, correct? Speaker 2: 03:04 Correct. Yeah. So he starts out, his real name is Melvin for the third, and he's kind of a leaky. You want to be scientists, activists. Um, and he gets thrown into a toxic VAT of goo by the town bullies and he turns into the toxic Avenger. So Tony, talk a little bit about the music because this is kind of, it's not even a B movie trauma makes kind of Zed movies that are wildly endearing and appealing. And talk a little bit about kind of the emotional points that these songs hit. Cause toxic is kind of a, a character with some heart despite his outward Speaker 4: 03:42 monstrous appearance. Yeah. Toxi has the biggest heart of anyone in the whole show. He has feelings just like everyone else. He falls in love with the librarian and he loves his town and he loves the planet and he just wants to be there for everyone and just be everyone's hero. So the songs really play on those points. So Speaker 2: 04:05 we're going to hear one of the songs, but tell me some of the titles of the songs that he gets to sing. Speaker 4: 04:10 Yeah. All right. The ones I can say on air. There's one that he sings, it's called thank God she's blind. The girl that he likes is blind and he's glad she's blind because she can't see what he looks like. She has to focus on who he is inside. Um, there's hot toxic love. And then there's the one, uh, you tore my heart out where his heart gets broken. Speaker 2: 04:31 You tore my heart out, my human heart out. Speaker 5: 04:41 [inaudible] Speaker 6: 04:43 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 04:45 you left a ho Speaker 5: 04:47 the upper Speaker 2: 04:50 burning holes. Speaker 5: 04:54 [inaudible] I've never Speaker 6: 04:58 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 04:59 I've torn some arm. I've torn some heads. Speaker 5: 05:04 It's off. Speaker 2: 05:06 They're toxic Avenger. The movie was incredibly low budget and the play the musical also kind of addresses the fact that not every company can have a huge cast. And so is that something that's appealing to you as a smaller theater? Speaker 3: 05:21 Yeah, and I think you can do a lot of really wonderful things. The way the show is written is for a five person cast, but it's got about 35 characters. So three of the cast members play multiple characters. In fact, Melissa Fernandez has a duet with herself. And I think there's a, there's a, uh, a joy to watching actors switch between roles instantaneously. Speaker 2: 05:45 All right. Well, thank you all very much for coming in and talking about toxic Avenger. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 4: 05:54 New village arts concert reading of toxic Avenger. The musical takes place on Saturday and Sunday in Carlsbad.