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This entry refers specifically to the 2005 film, Reefer Madness. For other uses of the term "Reefer Madness," see Reefer Madness (disambiguation).

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical
Directed by	Andy Fickman
Produced by	Andy Fickman Kevin Murphy
Written by	Kevin Murphy
Starring	Kristen Bell Christian Campbell Neve Campbell Alan Cumming Ana Gasteyer John Kassir Amy Spanger Robert Torti Steven Weber
Music by	David Manning
Cinematography	Jan Kiesser
Editing by	Jeff Freeman
Distributed by	Showtime
Release date(s)	April 16, 2005 (TV) November 8, 2005 (DVD)
Running time	109 min.
Country
Language	English
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Reefer Madness premiered on April 16, 2005, on the Showtime cable network. It is a television movie version of the 2004 musical, and stars Alan Cumming as the Lecturer, Ana Gasteyer as Mae, and Kristen Bell as Mary. The movie also stars siblings Christian and Neve Campbell as Jimmy Harper and Miss Poppy. Bell, Christian Campbell, and John Kassir reprise their roles from the stage; Robert Torti, who played both Jack and Jesus on the stage, portrays only the latter in the movie version (Steven Weber plays Jack in the movie).

The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It also screened in competition at the 2005 Deauville Film Festival and won the Premiere Audience Award. On the night of April 20, 2005, Showtime aired the musical back-to-back with the 1936 exploitation film that inspired it. The film won the 2005 Emmy Award for Music and Lyrics (for the song "Mary Jane/Mary Lane," which was written especially for the movie). It also received Emmy nominations for Choreography and Make-Up Effects. The movie was released on DVD in November 2005.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Musical numbers 4 Trivia 5 External links

In a high school classroom, The Lecturer (Alan Cumming) tells the assembly of anxious parents about the evils of marijuana (Reefer Madness). With the help of his assistant, he then launches into the tragic tale of one boy's struggles with the demon weed.

Jimmy Harper (Christian Campbell) is a fine upstanding youth, blessed with the love of the fair Mary Lane (Kristen Bell). The two are sure they will live happily ever after ("Romeo and Juliet"). However, across town, the weed-pusher Jack (Steven Weber) and his cronies, Sally (Amy Spanger) and Ralph (John Kassir), are living in the depths of depravity. Jack's moll, Mae (Ana Gasteyer), explains how she came to live in such a state ("The Stuff").

Meanwhile, Jack goes out to recruit new addicts at Miss Poppy's (Neve Campbell) soda counter ("Down at the Ol' Five and Dime"). There, he meets Jimmy, whom he lures back to the house and offers a stick of reefer. After one puff, Jimmy becomes an addict ("Jimmy Takes a Hit/The Orgy"). He forgets about Mary Lane, who sits alone in church for weeks and weeks ("Lonely Pew").

One night, Jimmy and Ralph break into the church in order to steal from the collection plate for drug money. Jesus comes down from the cross and, in a musical revue hosted by Joan of Arc, exhorts Jimmy to kick the habit ("Listen to Jesus, Jimmy"). But Jimmy's too deep into his habit to be saved; he has a new god now. He goes back to the Reefer Den, and to Sally.

One dark night, Jimmy and Sally are driving back to the house, stoned, when their car hits and kills an old man. Sally runs away. Jimmy, scared straight, drives in a panic to Mary's house, where he tells her he still loves her, and that they must go far, far away. Mary happily accepts him back, and everything seems right with the world ("Mary Jane/Mary Lane").

But Jack knows that if the police catch Jimmy, his 'reefer empire' will be shattered. He waits for Jimmy at Mary's house and offers him an innocent-looking chocolate brownie. Jimmy eats the brownie and immediately forgets about Mary Lane ("The Brownie Song").

Jimmy goes back to the Reefer Den. But this time, Mary follows him, planning to rescue him. Instead, Ralph ensnares her with his fraternity jacket and a puff of reefer ("Little Mary Sunshine"). He soon finds out that he has unleashed more than he can deal with, as Mary demonstrates her previously unseen sadistic streak.

Jimmy comes downstairs to find Mary making out with Ralph. He angrily attacks Ralph and the two begin wrestling. Jack comes in and attempts to break up the fight, while Mae reproaches them for corrupting someone as innocent as Mary. During the scuffle, Jack's gun goes off and Mary is shot through the heart ("Mary's Death"). Jimmy holds her but it is too late; she dies in his arms.

The police appear, summoned by the gunshot, and Jack fingers Jimmy as the killer. He is carted off by the officers (who leave Mary's body where it lies). The radio reveals that Jimmy has been sent to death row.

Upon hearing this news, Ralph goes insane, thinking that Jimmy, Mary (who he sees being molested by the devil in hell) and the rest of the youths whose lives have been ruined by marijuana, are stalking him from beyond the grave ("Murder"). Spooked, Jack and Mae go out for food while Sally stays behind to look after the raving Ralph.

When they return, they find that Ralph, in the throes of reefer-induced hunger pangs, has murdered Sally and cannibalized her body. Jack shoots and kills him. But now Mae is having visions of Jimmy, Mary, Sally and Ralph, all accusing. To regain her sanity the only way she knows, she hacks Jack to death and kicks the habit once and for all ("The Stuff (Reprise)").

When she reads in the daily paper that the president will be coming to town to judge a dance contest, she becomes determined to talk to him and gain a Presidential pardon for Jimmy. They burst into the electrocution chamber at the last second and free the doomed boy, who joins them in their crusade to tell the world about the evils of marijuana. They travel back to the reefer den, where Jimmy torches the crop. Mary appears, haloed and freed from hell by his heroic destruction of property. She promises to wait for him in heaven ("Tell 'em the Truth").

The Lecturer's presentation ends. The entire audience joins the suddenly-real movie cast to explain how they will join the fight against things they don't understand. As the film ends, the galvanized townsfolk hold a huge anti-reefer protest and bonfire, and the Lecturer drives away with a smirk. ("Reefer Madness (Reprise)").

• Kristen Bell as Mary Lane
• Christian Campbell as Jimmy Harper
• Neve Campbell as Miss Poppy
• Alan Cumming as Lecturer / Goat-Man / President Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Ana Gasteyer as Mae Coleman
• John Kassir as Ralph Wiley / Uncle Sam
• Amy Spanger as Sally DeBains / Statue of Liberty
• Robert Torti as Jesus Christ
• Steven Weber as Jack Stone / George Washington
• Kevin McNulty as Mayor Harris MacDonald

1. "Reefer Madness" - Lecturer and Cast
2. "Romeo and Juliet" - Jimmy Harper and Mary Lane
3. "The Stuff" - Mae Coleman
4. "Down at the Ol' Five and Dime" - Mary, Miss Poppy, Lecturer, and Cast
5. "Jimmy Takes a Hit" - Sally DeBanis, Jack Stone, Mae, Ralph Wiley, and Cast
6. "The Orgy" - Sally, Jimmy, Jack, Ralph, Mae, Lecturer, and Cast
7. "Lonely Pew" - Mary and Lecturer
8. "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy" - Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, and Cast
9. "Mary Jane/Mary Lane" - Mary, Jimmy, Miss Poppy, Jack, Ralph, Jesus, and Cast
10. "The Brownie Song" - Jimmy, Mae, Sally, Jack, and Ralph
11. "Little Mary Sunshine" - Ralph and Mary
12. "Mary's Death" - Jimmy and Mary
13. "Murder" - Jimmy, Ralph, Mary, Sally, Jack, Mae, and Cast
14. "The Stuff (Reprise)" - Mae
15. "Tell 'Em the Truth" - Mae, Lecturer, Jimmy, Mary, Jack, Sally, and Cast
16. "Reefer Madness (Reprise)" - Mary, Jimmy, Lecturer, Mae, Sally, Ralph, Jack, and Jesus
17. "Mary Jane/Mary Lane (End Credit Edit)" - Mary, Jimmy, and Cast

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The high school that Jimmy and Mary attend is named after Harry J. Anslinger, the United States' first "drug czar".
• Kristen Bell, Christian Campbell, and John Kassir all reprise their Off-Broadway roles. Robert Torti only reprises his role as Jesus, all of his other roles are played by Steven Weber.
• This is one of the most complicated musicals filmed for television. The movie contains sixteen musical sequences, several complex large-scale dance numbers, and cast members that are proud to display their actual singing voices.
• Had its world premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
• The more than 800 costumes were created by a dedicated team of 12 dyers, sewers and cutters, in addition to a group of seamstresses in Lithuania that worked on costumes for several weeks.
• The number 420 can be spotted several times in the film. It appears as a house number, on a sign in the church, as a time of day in the Reefer Den (when Mae and Jack go out for Chinese) and on the town sign.
• The credits list "Dead Old Man" as a production studio in conjunction with Apolloscreen. "Dead Old Man" is the name of a song in the original stage production.
• In 1997, writing partners Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney, who had met while studying at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, were driving from Oakland to Los Angeles and listening to Frank Zappa's "Joe's Garage", when they heard a line about Catholic school girls smoking reefer behind the rectory. "So I started picturing it in my head," Studney recalls. "Frank Zappa's concept of a musical and then it just hit me. I turned to Kevin and said 'What about doing Reefer Madness as a musical?'" By the time the creative duo reached Los Angeles, they had already written the first song.
• The process of creating the dances was elaborate, complex and highly collaborative, involving everyone from the director to the production designer, costume designer and director of photography. Styles of dance ranged from swing to Bob Fosse-inspired jazz, Bollywood, hip-hop and Las Vegas-type show dancing. More than 400 dancers were auditioned in order to find the 30 used in the final production.
• The projectionist is named Blumsack. Gary Blumsack was one of the original producers of the stage production.
• Harry S. Murphy (Warden Harrah) originated the role of The Lecturer in the Los Angeles production.

• Official site
• Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical at the Internet Movie Database
• Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical at All Movie Guide