I'm with emg_sound, having also seen the show at Berkeley Rep.
It's an effective opener -- which is what makes this such a terrific teaser -- but it's just not sustained throughout the piece. The high energy singing continues relentlessly, the use of video and lighting is first-rate and the music, if you're a Green Day fan (as I am), is fantastic as expected.
That said, the choreography, such as it is, does get quite old quite fast. And perhaps even more to the point, it's an incredibly alienating piece -- almost Brechtian in that respect. Perhaps the very thing -- the angst, the anger, the frustration -- that makes it so appealing to those aged 15-30 is what made it ultimately an unsatisfying show for me in California. Quite simply, I just didn't care about anyone on the stage. Even in "Spring Awakening", whose score I liked far less then AI, I felt somewhat vested emotionally in the story and seeing it through to some sort of resolution, even if tragic. It's what kept me "in" the show even as I wasn't enjoying it all that much.
Conversely, AI felt like a bunch of pissed-off kids yelling at me for a couple of hours. They scream and complain and rebel but they don't ever make me, as an audience member, feel their pain, empathize, or want to join their cause. It felt like mountains and mountains of sound and fury signifying nothinh and after about 30 minutes, I just wanted to tell them to "stop whining!". Perhaps I am showing my age. Clearly this show does speak to a different type of person and/or a younger demographic. I'll probably still see the show in its NY incarnation to see what's changed, but honestly, I'd rather just pop in the CD and crank the surround sound in my living room.
"No matter how much you want the part, never let 'em see you sweat." -- Old Dry Idea commercial