Book, Music and Lyrics by Scott Miller
Nov. 30-Dec. 16, 2023
Grandel Theatre, Grand Center Arts District

JESUS & JOHNNY APPLEWEED'S
HOLY ROLLIN'
FAMILY CHRISTMAS

Nov. 30-Dec. 16, 2023
Grandel Theatre

What happens when a family’s secrets are all revealed on one outrageous, pot-fueled Christmas Eve in 1959?

Poor Harry Goodson is about to find out, as he’s visited overnight by his dead brother, Jesus Christ, Sandra Dee, and Johnny Appleweed, and he finally learns what his family already knows, that the answer to all his problems is marijuana!

A wacky companion piece to the unintentionally hilarious 1936 scare film Reefer Madness, this new musical is a tongue-in-cheek response to the War on Drugs, a comic look at what a little pot and a little truth can do to a normal, average, Midwestern, American family at mid-century, just as America plunges into the chaos of the 1960s. Songs include "The Elves Get Stoned," "Heteronormative," "Love Doesn't Suck With My Dick," "Hoo-Hoo of Steel," "That Stick Up Your Ass," "Better Living Through Chemistry," "The Ballad of Harry Anslinger," and other future classics.

New Line will present a full production of Jesus and Johnny Appleweed's Holy Rollin' Family Christmas in fall 2023 at the Grandel Theatre. More details to come...

Want to explore more?
We recommend:

The published script, and the piano-vocal selections for Miller's other stoner musical Johnny Appleweed, which New Line produced in 2006.

The original 1936 scare film Reefer Madness.

The excellent book Reefer Madness: A History of Marijuana by Larry "Ratso" Sloman.