Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – CANNABIS! A VIPER VAUDEVILLE, an energized one-sided spectacle, equates the legalization of of marijuana with revolution

• By drediman
• August 5, 2022
• No Comments

Last weekend, I was thankfully able to catch the final performance of Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville, a HERE production performed at La Mama’s Ellen Stewart Theatre. The brainchild of hip hop cum performance artist Baba Israel, the energized spectacle – originally scheduled to be performed earlier this year at the adventurous Prototype Festival (which was unfortunately cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic) – chronicles the history of marijuana, aligning it with a more general history of oppression and revolution.

In short, Cannabis! is a polished, high octane musical revue that isn’t afraid to wear its heart and intentions on its sleeves. If its history lesson is lopsidedly one-sided and agenda-driven, so be it. I had a jolly good time at the show, as did the like-minded members of the sold out audience around me. I found the production to be at its most potent, urgent, and relevant in calling out the “War on Drugs” as a veiled propagation of racism. The rollicking, jam-heavy music was composed by Grace Galu, who also appears in the show as Santina Diva alongside Israel’s Magical Mystical (Israel also penned the libretto) MC and Jonathan “Duv” Zaragoza’s Trickster Hipster.

Cannabis! has been co-directed by Israel and dramaturg Talvin Wilks, whose staging – which features small ensemble of talented dancers – amps up the crowd-pleasing factor. The “environment design” is by Nic Benacerraf, who has outdone himself with a set that transforms the Ellen Stewart Theater into an immersive cabaret. Suffice to say, the guiding performances by Galu and Israel are larger-than-life. The big-voiced Galu, in particular, is magnetic.

RECOMMENDED

CANNABIS! A VIPER VAUDEVILLE
Off-Broadway, Musical
HERE / La Mama Experimental Theatre Club
2 hours (with one intermission)
Closed