I'm still singing the title song from "Reefer Madness." The chorus is just the words, "reefer madness, reefer madness," but they're sung in a spooky singsong that's incredibly catchy. My sister and I left the theater singing it, and then burst into laughter when we heard a big group behind us singing it, too.

The song also provides my favorite visual moment of the show, when innocent little Jimmy (Brian Matthew Hague) and Mary (Ashley LaRue Grant) were warned against the dangers of smoking marijuana by a grimacing ensemble that popped up out of nowhere behind them.

Gamyr Worf's lighting was a stand-out feature of the production; the campiness of this musical based on a 1936 cautionary film was enhanced by sudden shifts to red and green lighting and frequent drifts of hazy fog. I also loved the device of having a Placard Girl (the stunning Kalyn West) who held up silent-film style signs to deliver the film's morals at key moments. A favorite was one that said "Marijuana gets you raped," which she then flipped over to read, "and you won't even care." As she displayed her signs, she also gave meaningful looks to the audience that would be worthy of any silent film comedy starlet.

Choreographers JC, Shannon Musgrave and Phillip R. Lowe crafted some exciting swirls of motion, particularly on the ensemble numbers like "Reefer Madness" and "Down At the Ol' Five-And-Dime."

There were plenty of stand-out songs; two favorites of mine were the hilarious "Listen to Jesus Jimmy" and "Lonely Pew," both of which reveled in gleeful sacrilege.

Jennifer McGrew's costumes were impressive in their range of style, from the vintage pinup look worn by West to the choir of angels featured in "Listen to Jesus Jimmy" to the sharp suit worn by Jack the marijuana pusher (Danny Tarasevich). In a number called "The Orgy," I loved the comedy of having large marijuana leaves covering everyone's nether regions, but the flesh-colored body suits could have been better fitted and more opaque for a more flattering look.

All the lead cast members gave strong performances. Hague was appropriately wide-eyed, then crazed as the boy who gave in to the temptations of marijuana, while Grant had a lovely little-girl singing voice, and drew the best applause of the night when she finally transformed into someone decidedly less innocent.

Dame Stefanie Dean gave my favorite performance as Mae, the concerned den mother of the reefer den. She struck the perfect balance between sincere and campy with her concern, and evoked real pity as a woman enslaved by her addiction. She had two particularly great moments, one when she was offering a mock prayer behind Tarasevich's back, and one when she belted out the word "rape" when she was singing about his treatment of her during the number "The Stuff." Making the idea of rape into comedy is a very delicate thing, and she struck just the right note to pull it off.

Kerstin Davis was also fun as Sally, a reefer den denizen, and Scott Tuckfield was hilarious and displayed a wonderful singing voice both as Sally's baby and as her wild-eyed reefer denmate, Ralph.

Christopher Glade's direction often found the right tone of parody to reveal the ridiculousness of fearmongering, but I would have liked to have seen the campiness played up even more. In particular, the performance of The Lecturer (Justin Olsen), though good, would have been funnier if it were more over-the-top.

A freeze-frame lighting effect was used brilliantly to portray a car accident and a fist fight. That helped make up for the fight scenes between Tarasevich and Dean, which were too out-of-sync to be realistic, but not enough to be really funny.

Weaknesses aside, however, I had a grand time at "Reefer," and the rest of the near-capacity audience on opening night seemed to as well. This is a production that would be enjoyed not only by musical theater buffs, but by any lover of camp film classics. And once again, I must mention how refreshing it is to have Dark Horse Company Theatre bringing interesting new musicals to Utah.