A poster for the musical, “The Toxic Avenger.”
Continuing in the broadly humorous vein of yesterday’s 350 Jersey Songs selection, The Consensus Bureau’s “New Jersey, New Jersey,” we turn our attention to the Jersey-set musical, “The Toxic Avenger,” and specifically its opening, stage-setting ensemble number, “Who Will Save New Jersey?”
The musical is set in the fictional town of Tromaville, located right off the New Jersey Turnpike and beset by monstrous toxic waste problems. “If the pollution doesn’t get you, the aroma will,” the characters sing, adding, later: “There’s no hope in New Jersey/We’re hanging by a thread/We’re choking in New Jersey/We might as well be dead.”
Hope does eventually come, of course, in the form of the gruesome superhero, The Toxic Avenger.
Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan, who knows a thing or two about New Jersey, wrote the music, and collaborated with Joe DiPietro (also a native Garden Stater). The musical, which is based on the cult-classic 1984 movie of the same name, was first produced at The George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick in 2008, Tand later played in New York, and many other cities.
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday in 2014. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we marked the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, from September 2014 to September 2015 — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. To see the entire list, click here.
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