Book and Lyrics by Joe DiPietro
Music and Lyrics by David Bryan

Directed by Tracy Lynn Olivera
Music Direction by Jake Null
January 31, 2020 – March 1, 2020
Silver Spring Black Box (next to AFI)

“Save the Earth. Kick a little ass. Rip out a spleen (or a spine). And do it all with a power-pop ballad in your heart. That is The Toxic Avenger: The Musical, and, in Rorschach’s hands, it is in-toxic-ating, exuberant fun. It’s hard to believe this is Rorschach’s first musical production, given how practically perfect it is…spit-out-your-food, laugh-til-you-die fantastic.”
– DC Theatre Scene

“Ridiculous, raunchy and giddily gruesome…Tracy Lynn Olivera has assembled a sidesplitting ensemble to join her on this trip to Tromaville.” – The Washington Post

“Olivera and company have produced something beautiful out of toxic sludge, and this should be just the first of many Rorschach musical productions.” – MD Theatre Guide

“A night of wicked fun… This is the musical you didn’t know you needed in your life.” 
– DC Metro Theatre Arts

A first class production from start to finish. Here’s hoping Rorschach Theatre continues producing musicals because their debut one certainly hit a grand slam. – Broadway World

“Perhaps there will come a day when our elected leaders and political pundits return to a greater degree of civility in their discourse. Until then, the subversive parody of Toxic Avenger: The Musical and its mutant monster, serve as a much-needed antidote.” – DC Theatre Scene (Feature Article)

Rorschach Theatre’s first musical follows Melvin Ferd the Third, who is dumped into a vat of radioactive toxic waste, only to reemerge as The Toxic Avenger, a superhero hell-bent on cleaning up America. A seven-foot mutant freak with superhuman strength and a heart as big as Newark, he’s out to end global warming*, woo the blind librarian in town, and save the world.

Based on the cult classic Troma film, THE TOXIC AVENGER, and directed by Helen Hayes Award Winner Tracy Lynn Olivera, this show takes Rorschach’s one-of-a-kind aesthetic and spins it in a whole new direction.

All Photos on this page: Ryan Maxwell Photography

Classic B-movie tropes of monsters-run-amok, star-crossed lovers and comically evil politicians collide with an 80’s Hair Band Rock aesthetic to tell a tale that’s both gruesome and glorious.  With a set design by Pointless Theatre Company’s Patti Kalil and video design by 9:30 Club VJ and American University professor Kylos Brannon, audiences will be immersed in the sights and sounds of the most polluted town in New Jersey: “If the pollution doesn’t kill you, the aroma will.”

* We won’t make you think about actual global warming in this comedy about global warming. We might make you cheer when the arms are ripped off of climate change deniers, but we promise we won’t make you think. Unless, you know, that’s your thing. We are what you see after all…