There's a new lusty, flighty and spunky heroine to be found in
The Toxic Avenger, now at New World Stages: American Idol finalist Diana DeGarmo has joined the cast as the blind town librarian Sarah, and she is turning in a performance that is often as funny as it is adorable -- which is a perfect fit for this giddy guilty pleasure of a musical.

Sarah has gotten the unlikely gig because the mayor of Tromaville, New Jersey, Babs Belgoody (Nancy Opel), wants to make sure that certain records about toxic waste being dumped in the hamlet don't come to light. Belgoody's assumption about her hire is wrong, though and Sarah ultimately reveals the documents to local nerd Melvin Ferd the Third (Nick[...]

Boy meets blind girl, turns toxic after exposure to hazardous waste, saves the environment, and gets the girl. That's the basic scenario of the rollickingly funny new musical The Toxic Avenger now at New World Stages, in which bookwriter Joe DiPietro and composer David Bryan take the senseless violence and over-the-top gore of the 1984 movie of the same name and morphs them into campy fun.

The tone is set from the opening moments of John Rando's expertly directed production, when a guy appears at the top of a huge pyramid of grimy oil drums (the main element of the consistently and surprisingly clever scenic design by Beowulf Boritt), and before he can sing his first notes, he starts chokin[...]