The Toxic Avenger The Musical

Properties Design by Laura Merrill

Los Altos Stage Company (Los Altos, CA) June (2026)

by Joe DiPietro

Music and Lyrics by David Bryan

Directed by Doug Brook

Dive into the delightful chaos of The Toxic Avenger, where love, laughter, and a little bit of environmental heroism come together in a splash-tastic way! Winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical, this zany tale features an unlikely hero who’s more than just a little green! Follow the misadventures of our charming lead, his stunning girlfriend, a not-so-innocent New Jersey mayor, and a couple of guys who play everything from mobsters to stiletto-wearing backup singers. With a rockin’ score, this is a feel-good show that promises barrels of laughter and a monster of a good time.

I was really excited to be apart of this show. Comedic musicals are a lot of fun for me. Often the props get to showcase a lot of jokes. To be fair any time I get to make some sort of puppet I get really excited and this show didn’t disappoint!

Some notable pieces created for this production include:

• Fake foods

  I made a stack of French toast out of premade fake toast slices, paper clay (butter pat), and colored epoxy (syrup). I also made a plate of French fries that had to be dropped by the actor every night. Those were individually cut out of foam clay, airbrushed, hot glued together, and then coated in 2 layers of clear epoxy to keep them from breaking over the run of the show.

• Cast iron pan

  I made a large cast iron pan out of 1” foam glued together with contact cement, coated in a rubber spray, and painted with acrylic.

• Baby Toxie

  As mentioned I love making puppets and had the opportunity to make a baby Toxie for the end of the play. He was made from 1” foam, glued together with contact cement and skinned with green polar fleece.

• Fake body parts

  I rigged up some arms and legs we already had to facilitate Toxie’s dismemberment of the bullies. I can also now add “making a fake foam butt and spleen” to my resume. The butt was made from 1” foam, glued together with contact cement, skinned with some beige nylon stockings, and then painted with acrylic for more definition. The spleen base was a fake heart reshaped with stuffed nylon stocking parts, smoothed out with latex, and painted with acrylics.