Original Los Angeles Cast, 1999 (Madness Records) (2 / 5)  Musicals don’t come much sillier than the Kevin Murphy (lyrics-book) and Dan Studney (music-book) adaptation of Reefer Madness. This wacky show based on the legendary 1938 “masterpiece” of film propaganda was a big hit in Los Angeles, but an Off-Broadway production that opened shortly after 9/11 ran for only three weeks. It would seem that the tale of teenagers whose lives are corrupted and ultimately destroyed by “the green menace” of marijuana would be a natural for musicalization; the songs, though well crafted with cleverly rhymed lyrics, are largely devoid of sincerity, and the whole thing eventually gets tiresome. A few moments stand out, including the catchy title number, a strong first-act finale, and one truly great song, “Listen to Jesus, Jimmy.” The cast is uniformly terrific: Christian Campbell and Jolie Jenkins as the doomed teens Jimmy and Mary, Robert Torti as both Jack (the villainous dealer) and a Tom Jones-esque Jesus Christ, the hilarious Harry S. Murphy as the Lecturer and other roles, big-voiced Lori Alan as Jack’s pot-addled mistress Mae, Erin Matthews as self-described “reefer slut” Sally, and John Kassir as a couple of colorful characters. David Manning and Nathan Wang lead the strong six-man band. The recording ends with a pair of bonus tracks; one of them is a nice ballad from a work in progress called Valley of Kings (which, as of 2025, has not yet progressed), the other is a song cut from Reefer Madness early in its run. — Seth Christenfeld

Television Movie Soundtrack, 2008 (Ghostlight) (2 / 5) Murphy and Studney were (and still are) primarily television guys, so there’s something logical about Reefer Madness making its way to the small screen in an adaptation for Showtime. The film is surprisingly sumptuous and supplied with a powerhouse cast: Campbell, Kassir, and Torti reprise their primary stage roles from the original L.A. production, Kristen Bell from the ill-fated Off-Broadway run returns as Mary, Alan Cumming chews the scenery as the Lecturer, and bad girls Mae and Sally are sung to the rafters by Ana Gasteyer and Amy Spanger. (Steven Weber appears in the movie as Jack, but is barely present on the soundtrack.) The material is still what it is, albeit with a few songs cut or switched out, but it’s fun to hear it all with a big orchestra and chorus. Note that two versions of the soundtrack album exist. A promo CD distributed at the time of the film’s 2005 broadcast has some alternate edits, while the eventual commercial release on the Ghostlight label — which includes five karaoke tracks as bonuses — was only available as a two-disc set, Disc II being a reissue of the 1999 album, and is now difficult to find. The physical edition included a booklet that is omitted from the digital version. — S.C.

Los Angeles Cast, 2024 (Yellow Sound Label) (2 / 5) Thanks to a producing team led by its creators and the leading performers of the TV movie, Reefer Madness made a grand return to Los Angeles in 2024, in a 25th anniversary production staged environmentally in a former nightclub. This version is condensed to one act and incorporates many of the changes made for the film. The recording sounds phenomenal, and the performances are top-notch — especially Darcy Rose Byrnes as Mary and Nicole Parker as Mae — but the songs are still only solid enough to make you wish they were better. Bryan Daniel Porter was apparently spectacular on stage playing the roles originated by both Murphy and Torti, but he doesn’t have enough voice to make much of an impression on the album. A pair of cut songs, different from the one on the 1999 recording, are included as bonus tracks. The booklet is gorgeous, with fabulous cover art by cartoonist Justin “Squigs” Robertson, a detailed synopsis, full lyrics, and some two dozen production photos. — S.C.