8-Foot Jersey Devil Takes Center Stage at NJ’s Hottest Theater Ticket

A Jersey Devil-centric play is selling out theaters across the Garden State. Its eight-foot-tall puppet graced the cover of Weird N.J. magazine, beloved chronicler of New Jersey oddities. Famed writer Joyce Carol Oates called it "riveting and one-of-a-kind."

The Devil and Daisy Dirt, billed as a bluegrass tall tale of the legendary New Jersey cryptid, has become a must-see for cultural locavores.

The play's co-creators Alex Dawson and Dan Diana had worked together on previous productions. While these joint efforts were successful, The Devil and Daisy Dirt built a buzz that quickly surpassed those after it launched in 2024.

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"When we collaborate, we typically get enthusiastic responses from the audiences, but then it started to move into audiences comprised entirely of people we don't know, people who had found out about it either from us being on WNYC or reading about it in Weird N.J.. And some of them were traveling two or three hours to come see the show," said Dawson, who wrote the script. "I think we're onto something that's more than us, that's connecting to people."

The play has also drawn praise from horror writers Stephen Graham Jones, who called it "Very cool and all kinds of fun," and Clay McLeod Chapman, who said "Dawson is the Chuck Norris of storytelling."

READ MORE: 5 Things You Don't Know About the Jersey Devil

The Devil and Daisy Dirt Atmosphere: Gothic, Rural Setting and Haunting Music

The play follows Daisy Dirt, a beleaguered waitress working in her family's diner and often serving a roguish clientele of hunters. On the night of the diner's "I 8 the Devil" food eating contest, Daisy finds a strange creature wounded and hiding behind a dumpster. Daisy takes it upon herself to rescue the creature from one of the hunters.

The gothic atmosphere of the spare set is heightened by a dark Americana score by musician Arlan Felles.

Diana designed the wearable Jersey Devil puppet to loom large next to Dawson, who narrates with a booming voice and, at over six feet tall, is a towering figure on the stage. The Devil has large wings, a deer skull and antlers for a head, and thick brown fur. Diana operates the suit during the play.

READ MORE: Tracking the Top 10 Jersey Devil Sightings in NJ

How The Devil and Daisy Dirt and Weird N.J. Collaboration Happened

The puppet's appearance at a paranormal convention caught the eyes of Weird N.J. co-founders Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman and led to a cover shoot.

"Weird N.J. saw the puppet and were fascinated and came over and talked to us," Diana said.

The puppet was featured in the magazine's Fall 2024 issue, and Weird N.J. signed on as a presenting sponsor of the play for a recent performance in Montclair. They are also sponsoring the production's appearance at Kevin Smith's Smodcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands in September.

Capturing the Spirit of the Pine Barrens on Stage

One of the most rewarding parts of The Devil and Daisy Dirt for Dawson, an Alabamian who moved to New Jersey in college, has been when people from the Pine Barrens compliment his rendering of the rural location.

"What I really love is when a local says, 'man, you got it right' or 'where here do you live?' I had someone come up to me at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance barn show: 'I grew up in the Pinelands,' he said, 'and I've studied it, the flora, the fauna, the history, the lore, and dude, you nailed it,'" Dawson recalled. "I was raised in Alabama not New Jersey. But when you get deep enough in the woods, the shadows look the same."

Fall 2025 Schedule of The Devil and Daisy Dirt

The Devil and Daisy Dirt has several performances lined up for the fall:

• Saturday, Aug. 16 - Citizens Bank Theater, Succasunna
• Saturday, Sept. 20 & Sunday, Sept. 21 - Whitesbog Historic Village, Browns Mills
• Saturday, Sept. 27 - PhilMOCA, Philadelphia
• Sunday, Sept. 28 - Smodcastle Cinemas, Atlantic Highlands (presented by Weird N.J.)
• Sunday, Oct. 5 - Avenel PAC, Avenel
• Saturday, Oct. 11 - Old City Hall, Bordentown
• Thursday, Oct. 30 - Rancocas Creek Farm, South Hampton (presented by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance)
• Saturday, Nov. 8 - Arthur Laurents Theater, NBPAC New Brunswick

What's next for The Devil and Daisy Dirt? Dawson and Diana are mulling a higher production value version of the production but are happy selling out venues in the Garden State with the current iteration.