"American Idiot" @ Berkeley Rep (a review)

[Holbee]

Posted: 9/12/09 at 12:15am

I love Green Day. I especially love American Idiot. (A Green Day opera? I was SO there.) And when I heard Berkeley Rep was producing it, helmed by one of my top three favorite directors, I was very excited. The piece has elliptical lyrics and an unclear storyline but when I heard that director Michael Mayer and Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong were writing a book for the opera, my hopes were high¦ I had been trying to stage it in my head for years but a concept had eluded me. It apparently did the same to Mayer. His book consists of a half dozen or so monologues for Jesus of Suburbia (here dubbed Johnny) and a series of story-telling "stage pictures"(the style made most famous by Des McAnuff's staging of Tommy). But OH what stage pictures. Mayer uses a backdrop of multi-layered TV sets, propulsive lighting effects, actors and musicians in windows ,doors and on steel stairs that go up and up. There's an air ballet so gorgeous I may have cried if I'd understood what was going on. He is helped a great deal by choreographer Steve Hoggett, of the wonderful Black Watch. Somewhat reminiscent of Mayer's Spring Awakening choreographer Bill T Jones in its organic punctuations, it's almost totally original (though a "Doing Heroin Dance" is quite similar to Awakenings' sex scene ballet, rising set piece included). The dances are post-mosh pit, not messy slam dancing, but with that sort of heft. If I were to choose my favorite thing about Berkeley's American Idiot (besides the songs) it would be the choreography. Standing ovation to Hoggett! Mayer has divided the concept CD's single protagonist into three friends: Johnny (John Gallagher Jr.), Will (Michael Esper) and Tunny (Matt Caplan). Grown tired of the perceived hypocrisy of their small town Johnny and Will (or is it Tunny?...I cared that much...) head out for the big city leaving Tunny to attend and presumably marry his pregnant girlfriend, Heather (the wonderful Mary Farber). Will has a mystical revelation (I think) and joins the Army and heads to Iraq leaving Johnny to hang out with Saint Jimmy the drug pusher (Tony Vincent) and the golden voiced Rebecca Naomi Jones playing a character named Whatshername (they cared that much...). The boys and their stories are cliches, which is probably for the best as the songs reflect situation and character only about sixty percent of the time. The rest is left to Mayer's aforementioned stage pictures, which sometimes aren't enough. By sheer force of talent Gallagher almost turns Johnny into a real character (he really is a very, very good actor) and, as always, that pop/theatre voice of his is amazing. (On a purely puerile note, in one scene Gallagher is called upon to flail about in a pair of boxer briefs. Let's just say the boy is gifted in MANY ways. I'm not kidding. Straight men would be distracted). Tom Kitt has done a terrific job in reorchestrating and arranging these songs into theatre pieces. Absolutely thrilling. Is the show good theatre? I don't know. But I have to say, with all my reservations, I had a great time head banging with the rest of the mixed crowd at the Roda Theatre. The CD and the show's epilogue "Whatshername" shouldn't be as filled with pathos as it is; it isn't earned. But for the first time in the show, real feeling is espoused (again, thank you Tom Kitt) and its stirring beauty sorta makes you forget the head scratching you did before. Confusing in its ambition, there IS power in that music, and whether or not it belongs on Broadway, I have a feeling it's going to have a life outside of Berkeley.

Updated On: 9/14/09 at 12:15 AM

[viola13]

Posted: 9/12/09 at 12:19am

Thanks for the review. I'm pretty sure Tunny's the one that goes off to war.

[sundaymorning6am]

Posted: 9/12/09 at 11:42am

Hey - do you have a song list for the show? Thanks!

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 9/12/09 at 12:21pm

Rebecca Naomi Jones' character is "Whatshername" because that's one of the tracks from "American Idiot".

[little_sally]

Posted: 9/12/09 at 12:40pm

Paragraphs, please.

[exedore]

Posted: 9/12/09 at 2:07pm

Second "paragraphs please"

And it sounds like Mayer went the same route as the Quadrophenia stage tour, in that it's more about the image and the zeitgeist and the characters than trying to coherently express the plot. Fortunately it seems that, like Quadrophenia, he does so brilliantly.

[singalongsong2]

Posted: 9/12/09 at 2:19pm

sundaymorning, there was a song list posted on page six of the other thread.

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?page=6&thread=993837&boardid=1

Holbee, thanks for sharing your review. I'm a huge Green Day fan as well. I can't wait to see this! I hope they transfer to New York ASAP.

[proptart101]

Posted: 9/12/09 at 7:17pm

paragraphs are so last year....