Dan Studney served as Screenwriter, Executive Producer
and Composer for "Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical," starring
Alan Cumming, Steven Weber, Kristen Bell, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Spanger,
John Kassir, Robert Torti and Christian & Neve Campbell. "Reefer" premiered
in February at the Sundance Film Festival, then went on to the Sarasota
and Berlin Film Festivals, and will debut on Showtime in April. The movie
is based on the stage musical, which Dan also co-wrote and -produced,
and which has enjoyed runs in L.A., Cleveland, St. Louis and New York
City. For his work on the original production, Dan won various Ovation,
Garland and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for writing, composing
and producing. Not to mention a High Times Magazine "Stony" Award!
Dan grew up just a short train ride from New York City, in the suburbs
of northeastern New Jersey (the "Off-Broadway State," he prefers
to call it). A self-taught pianist, he had written his first score by
age 14 - fairy songs, wedding marches and incidental music for "A
Midsummer Nights Dream" - for Princeton's prestigious McCarter Theatre,
as part of a Shakespeare summer youth program. Studney and lyricist Kevin
Murphy began collaborating as a songwriting team shortly after they met
at Drew University. Both musicals the pair wrote while there were given
full productions on Drew's main stage: a rock opera version of "Antigone" (which
Dan also directed), and an Indiana Jones-style "action-adventure
musical" called "Valley of Kings."
Studney's professional credits as writer and/or producer include television
shows like "Weird Science," "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," "Sabrina:
The Animated Series," "Phantom Investigators" and "Big
Brother Jake." He co-wrote the Disney movies-of-the-week "Genius" and "'Twas
the Night," the latter winding up in the TV Academy Hall of Fame
as representative of Disney's MOW work. Dan has worked for Matt Groening,
penning issues of "The Simpsons" comics and Simpsons-themed
commercial ads for Australian TV. He has also developed pilots for ABC,
FOX, Disney Channel, Sony and NBC, and early in his career, Dan wrote
episodes of a somewhat naughty late night pay-cable show under a humorous
female pseudonym.
Along the way, Studney has pursued interests outside of writing, composing
and producing. He has worked in production on such films as "Forrest
Gump," "Strange Days," "Species," "Nixon," "Mixed
Nuts" and TV shows like "Party of Five." He has served
as First Assistant Director on several films, most recently Michael Goorjian's
upcoming feature "The Illusion," starring Kirk Douglas. Studney
sometimes winds up on the other side of the camera, and can be spotted
in such unusual places as the subway in "Seinfeld" (fighting
with Kramer over a newspaper), "The Mask" (as a Viking on the
DVD's "deleted scenes"), doubling for John Goodman's feet in "The
Flintstones," and singing "Obsession" in "Reefer" director
Andy Fickman's upcoming teen sex comedy "Who's Your Daddy?"
Dan is currently Executive Producing and Composing the music for the
short film "Simple Joys," starring Barry Dennen and Thomas
Dekker |
Kevin is a graduate of Drew University in
Madison, NJ. REEFER MADNESS, which Kevin co-produced in Los Angeles,
is Kevin's third stage collaboration with Dan Studney, and the first
to be professionally produced. Kevin won Ovation, Garland and Los Angeles
Drama Critics Circle awards for writing and producing the original production.
Kevin's work on the Off-Broadway production earned him a Drama Desk Award
nomination for Outstanding Lyrics.
Along with Dan, Kevin wrote and executive produced the Showtime movie
adaptation of REEFER starring Alan Cumming, Neve Campbell, Ana Gasteyer,
Kristen Bell, Christian Campbell and Steven Weber. The film premiered
at the Sundance Festival and screened subsequently at the following festivals:
Deauville (Premiere Jury Award), Berlin, Sarasota (Best of the Fest Award)
and True West. Kevin and Dan won the 2005 Emmy Award for Outstanding
Music & Lyrics, for the song "Mary Jane/Mary Lane," written
especially for the movie.
Kevin also has a long list of writer/producer credits for television,
including ED, GET REAL, JACK & JILL and MARTIAL LAW. He also co-created
and served as showrunner for the syndicated television series HONEY,
I SHRUNK THE KIDS. He currently works as head writer on the ABC series
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, for which he received an Emmy nomination. Kevin
is also the shared recipient of number of other awards for his work on
HOUSEWIVES, including the Golden Globe, People's Choice, Satellite, Prism
and TV Land Awards.
Kevin provided lyrics and special material for the 2004 LES GIRLS charity
cabaret revue where his work was performed by Allison Janney, Christine
Lahti, Eric McCormack, Faith Prince and David Hyde Pierce. He is also
providing book and lyrics for a stage musical adaptation of the beloved
comic strip DENNIS THE MENACE. |
As anyone who has ever been to college can attest, Reefer
Madness is the Rosetta Stone of midnight movies, the standard by which
all others are judged (with the notable exception of Rocky Horror). Reefer
Madness is a morality tale of how Reefer Addiction ruins the life of
its young protagonist and gets a lot of other people killed, sexually
compromised and committed to lunatic asylums. In the black-and-white
world of Reefer Madness, one puff of the Demon Weed instantly transforms
the smoker into a horny, violent, cackling weed freak, twitching insanely
with the spastic abandon of Crispin Glover on a pancake griddle. It's
a bad movie, but a gloriously bad movie -- thus the long-term appeal.
Reefer Madness began its cinematic life as a 1936 cautionary film entitled
Tell Your Children. It was financed by a small, earnest church group,
and was intended to scare the living bejeezus out of any parent who viewed
it. Soon after the film was shot, however, it was purchased by the notorious
exploitation film maestro Dwain Esper (Narcotic, Marihuana, Maniac),
who took the liberty of cutting in salacious insert shots and slapping
on the sexier title of Reefer Madness, before distributing it on the
exploitation circuit. Esper was notorious for his chicanery. He would
often steal unattended prints of studio films out of projection booths
and film exchanges, and then physically drive them from small town exhibitor
to small town exhibitor until the authorities finally caught up with
him. A delightful, poignant portrayal of Esper is featured in Dave Friedman's
autobiography, A Youth in Babylon, which is a must-read for any cult
movie or pop culture enthusiast.
After a brief run, the film lay forgotten for several decades. There
was no concept of "after market" in those days, especially
for films that existed outside the confines of the studio system, and
were therefore considered "forbidden fruit." For this reason,
neither Esper nor the original filmmakers bothered to copyright the movie,
and it eventually fell into the public domain.
Enter Keith Stroup, founder of NORML (Nation Organization for Reform
of Marijuana Laws). In 1971, this enterprising gentleman up bought a
print of Reefer Madness for $297, cleaned it up and started showing it
at pro-pot festivals. It was gigantic hit. Distributing Reefer Madness
to college campuses of the 1970's helped bankroll the burgeoning film
company New Line Cinema, which is now a major player in the Hollywood
film industry. Today, the film is a cult phenomenon dwarfed only by The
Rocky Horror Picture Show, and "Reefer Madness" is a bona fide
catch phrase.
And now it's a musical.
NOTE: Much of the historical information above was culled from conversations
with actress Thelma White (the original Mae) and documentary filmmaker
Ray Greene, whose excellent film Schlock! deals with the subject of
exploitation cinema. Boundless thanks to them both. |