Sex, drugs, and Rock & Roll. This past Saturday, I went with She-Who-Is-Named-TMMITU to see American Idiot at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. It was breathtaking, no, it was heart-thumping, head-swinging, wild, crazy ... The opening number had me leaning forward in my seat (partially b/c I could barely see over the raised bar on the Mezz), feet tapping along, head rocking. What I really wanted to do was jump up and down, but they had warned us to stay in our seats. The play was a non-stop performance of grit, dirt, sex, drugs, rock and roll...
Green Day won two Grammys for its multi-platinum album American Idiot, which sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. Now those searing songs seize the stage with the director behind Spring Awakening, the groundbreaking musical that earned eight Tony Awards and enthralled audiences around the world. American Idiot follows working-class characters from the suburbs to the city to the Middle East, as they seek redemption in a world filled with frustration. This high-octane show features every track from the album, plus several new tunes from Green Day’s newest release, 21st Century Breakdown. With an on-stage band and a cast of 19, American Idiot will take you on an exhilarating journey borne along by Green Day’s electrifying songs.
The three characters, Johnny (John Gallagher, Jr.), Will (Michael Esper), and Tunny (Matt Caplan) were amazingly portrayed on the stage. Watching the scenes unfold, I could not help but ponder how it is that such young people could harbor so much talent, angst, passion, devotion, hurt -- all wrapped up, stapled together, bursting forth, spewing over, in a trundle of laissez-faire attitude.
music by green day
lyrics by billie joe armstrong
book by billie joe armstrong and
michael mayer
choreographed by steven hoggett
directed by michael mayer
The setting was incredibly well-done: T.V. sets embedded into the walls on the stage from top to bottom; Musical instruments used as furniture and props; Windows appearing and disappearing behind the mask of virtual graffiti blanketing the stage walls.
At one point, I realized that the cellist was hidden under the stairs, a stage detail that I didn't notice until the 19-member cast wheeled the stairs around the stage and proceeded to climb all over the contraption.
What I am amazed by:
+ The artistry of weaving Green Day's music into a story, a narrative that begins in, departs from, and returns to Jingletown, America
+ The fusion of incredible beat and rhythm, melding rock and roll with sex and drugs with politics and war
+ The subtle questions of relationships, commitment, sacrifice that undergird the loud, broiling, boisterious definitions of self, identity, nation
+ The not-so-subtle defiance (re-writing) of identity narratives, communal history/histories, justice, apathy, authenticity
What I wonder about:
+ How did Michael Mayer write that story out of a bunch of songs on a Green Day album?
+ How can I use my own talents, my own writings to inspire such passion and devotion?
+ Why did I never join a rock band? Would anyone take me?
It was a wonderful adventure into a completely different world. As I watched the play, along the journey, I felt like an idiot, totally green, totally naive to what things might have been. What is my version of Jingletown, I wonder?
Song List from the Play
American Idiot
Jesus of Suburbia
City of the Damned
I Don't Care
Dearly Beloved
Tales of Another Broken Home
Holiday
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Favorite Son
Are We the Waiting
St. Jimmy
Give Me Novacaine
She's a Rebel
Last Night on Earth
Too Much Too Soon
Before the Lobotomy
Extraordinary Girl
When It's Time
Know Your Enemy
21 Guns
Letterbomb
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Death of St. Jimmy
East 12th Street
Nobody Likes You
Rock and Roll Girlfriend
We're Coming Home
Whatsername
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