Sure, marijuana has shown up in a couple New Line shows over the years (Hair, Reefer Madness, Smokin' Santa, The Ballad of Little Mikey, Bat Boy, The Nervous Set, and yes, even Jesus Christ Superstar), but this time we're serious!

Fiercely funny and outrageously original, New Line opened its 2006-2007 season with the world premiere of JOHNNY APPLEWEED, a ballsy political satire of America in the new millennium, at its heart a show about making your mark, about dedicating yourself to something bigger than you. With songs like "Cannabis Dei," "I Tapped That Ass," "What Would Jesus Do?", "A Prayer for Wal-Mart," and "Fucking Up America," this is truly a musical like none other you've ever seen...!

With book, music and lyrics by Scott Miller, it's the first musical ever to make a serious case for the spiritual, existential, and psychological properties of marijuana. Through the lens of this pot-friendly worldview, the show takes aim at issues like American party politics, the War on Terror, the (undeclared) war on America's poor, our American culture of violence, gay marriage, the legalization of marijuana, sexual oppression, and increasingly rabid (and insincere) American religious fanaticism, all through the eyes of the laidback, neo-mythic purveyor of pot, Johnny Appleweed, an itinerant philosopher-stoner, who argues that only through the mind-expanding properties of marijuana can we truly see the Larger Truths, so that we can finally solve our problems and move our civilization forward. A heady mix of Hair, The Daily Show, the films of Kevin Smith, Waiting for Godot, and The Wizard of Oz, this is a show guaranteed to outrage while it's got you rolling on the floor laughing.

Johnny -- a kind of Obi-Wan Kenobi for the modern stoner -- is on his way to Washington D.C. to tell the President he's screwing up our country and has to stop that! Over the course of the first act, Johnny meets up with a Christian-Republican closet-case, a lesbian performance artist, Jesus Christ himself, and a perky former televangelist. In Act II, this gang of five finally meets the President and they set about trying to convince him to change his political ways.

Johnny Appleweed has one central agenda as a political document, insisting that American democracy only works if its citizens are thoroughly and thoughtfully engaged in the business of the nation. American government is indeed of the people, by the people, and for the people, and too many of us forget those first two parts, that we all have work to do in keeping our democracy healthy and alive. Like many artists, poets, and philosophers who've gone before him, Johnny believes that marijuana is both a facilitator and catalyst for political and social understanding and change. Though marijuana is not the only concern of Johnny Appleweed, the show does suggest that the plant can, in many cases, open users' minds to new ways of thinking and perceiving, new revelations, new and deeper understanding of ourselves and our world, which can in turn help us solve the other problems facing us. It’s no accident that some of the greatest art of the 20th century was created under the influence of marijuana, opening up new, important, insightful visions of our world and existence.

But the roots of Johnny Appleweed go way back. The stage has forever been a place where political issues have been examined. The ritualistic and social significance of the earliest Greek performances in central arenas brought relevance to many controversial topics, a pattern that has not subsided to this day. Like the musicals Hair, Viet Rock, Sarafina!, Cabaret, The Threepenny Opera, The Cradle Will Rock, Pins and Needles, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and many others, Johnny Appleweed is a piece of agitprop theatre (short for agitational propaganda). Back in the 1930s, during the height of the Depression, mainstream theatre got intensely political, with shows like Waiting for Lefty, The Cradle Will Rock, Power, One Third of a Nation, It Can’t Happen Here, Pins and Needles, and many others. Once America entered World War II, rabid patriotism overpowered political dissent, and agitprop faded away. But when the 60s arrived with its renewed political and social unrest, theatre returned to fiercely political drama and satire, with shows like Hair, Viet Rock, Cabaret, McBird, US, Futz, and many others. But the materialism of the 80s and the dot-com prosperity of the 90s lessened the public appetite for political theatre once again. Then came the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Bush administration. Now, political theatre is back again, and it’s healthier and fiercer than ever.

The cast of this world premiere production included Aaron Allen (as Mark), Brian Claussen (President Birch), Ember Hyde (Suzanne), Alice Kinsella (Carla), Matthew Korinko (Jesus), Kimi Short (Fannie Mae), and John Sparger (Johnny).  Johnny Appleweed was part of the first St. Louis Political Theatre Festival.

For inquiries about future productions, please email us at NewChaz64@aol.com.