“American Idiot,” Green Day’s Grammy Award-winning-platinum album, follows the journey of a new generation of young Americans as they struggle to find meaning in the post-9/11 world. The 2004 album inspired the subsequent musical of the same name with iconic album hits like “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “21 Guns,” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” First produced at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2009, AMERICAN IDIOT soon transferred to Broadway, where it won two Tony Awards in 2010 for Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design for a Musical. Regarding the Berkeley premiere, Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty opined that the show was “kinetically entertaining in a way that intentionally reflects the shallow media-saturated culture the album rails against.” Of the Broadway production, New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood observed that the musical contains “characters who lack much in the way of emotional depth or specificity and plotlines that are simple to the point of crudity…(but) the show possesses a stimulating energy and vision of wasted youth that holds us in its grip.” With book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer, music by Green Day, and lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong, The Center Theatre Group at the Mark Taper Forum, in collaboration with Deaf West Theatre, presents GREEN DAY’S AMERICAN IDIOT in 2024.
The time is the early 2000s, and the place is the U.S. Three disaffected young men – Johnny (Daniel Durant/voice by Milo Manheim), Tunny (Landen Gonzales/voice by Brady Fritz), and Will (Otis Jones IV/voice by James Olivas) – live in suburban Jingletown and dream of escaping the suburbs and parental rules that plague them. Soon they hold bus tickets to the Big City – and freedom – and plan a new and invigorating life. But as Johnny and Tunny depart, Will discovers that his girlfriend Heather (Ali Fumiko Whitney) is pregnant with his child. While his buddies hurry away, Will must stay behind and work on his relationship with Heather.
But things in the Big City turn out to be very different from what Johnny and Tunny have imagined. Johnny soon finds himself turning to the haze of drugs and alcohol – and develops his weird alter ego, St. Jimmy – while Tunny joins the military and goes off to war. As it turns out, life isn’t fair after all, and Tunny comes back wounded and an amputee. Meanwhile, things aren’t going well for Will at home, and Heather takes off with her new rock star boyfriend and Will’s baby. In other words, life intrudes on their youthful dreams, often literally. Let’s hope that things work out in this drug-fueled nihilistic scenario.
The current production of GREEN DAY’S AMERICAN IDIOT was striking for a key newly-added element – the contributions of Deaf West Theatre. Signing was the motion of the day, and each of the three leading characters included an actor who signed and an actor who voiced (and sang) their thoughts and feelings. In fact, the production was a technological miracle – with signing throughout, three double cast characters, captions streaming just about everywhere with artistic abandon, dancing in three dimensions, quick change sets, live orchestra, two tiers of staging – and it all worked like a charm. Clearly, director Snehal Desai had his hands full with this complex show – but was skillfully assisted by an energetic and talented ensemble cast and a creative and hard-working production crew. Congratulations are in order for everyone in the spirited and enthusiastic cast. Kudos to David Murakami’s brilliant projection design, Jennifer Weber’s stylish choreography, Lena Sands’ costumes, Takeshi Kata’s scenic design, Karyn D. Lawrence’s lighting, and Cricket S. Myers’ sound. And let’s not forget Tom Kitt’s music arrangements and orchestrations and the 9-member orchestra conducted by David O. A sizable portion of the audience was hearing challenged and clearly loved every minute of the show. GREEN DAY’S AMERICAN IDIOT is an immensely artistic and inventive show – a must-see blockbuster to mark the return of the Mark Taper Theatre to Los Angeles.
GREEN DAY’S AMERICAN IDIOT runs through November 16, 2024, with performances at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Sundays. The Mark Taper Forum is located at 135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Tickets begin at $35. For information and reservations, call 213-628-2772 or go online.
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