Photo courtesy of Playbill.comAttention Berkeley residents, this is your chance to get a taste of Broadway! The new musical, American Idiot, based on Green Day's 2004 multi-platinum album of the same name is now holding previews at the Berkeley Repertory Theater (Addison & Shattuck). Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of Green Day, along with Michael Mayer (director of 2007 Tony-Award winning musical Spring Awakening) have adapted the band's "rock opera" into an 85 minute jam-packed musical. Punk rock and musical theater together?! That's right, American Idiot has made it happen.
The young but extremely talented cast is led by John Gallagher, Jr., also of Spring Awakening fame, who won a Tony for Best Leading Actor in 2007. He plays Johnny, or Jesus of Surburbia, a loser of sorts who bums around with his friends Will and Tunny until they decide to venture their separate ways. Tunny enters the war, Will stays behind with his pregnant girlfriend, while Johnny gets into a lifestyle of drugs and girls. All the while, these three men are struggling to live in a post 9/11, pre-Obama America.
There is little dialogue throughout the musical, instead Michael Mayer lets the songs do a lot of the storytelling. The songs come from the American Idiot album, B-sides of the European release, as well as 4 songs from Green Day's new album, 21st Century Breakdown. If you were a fan of these songs, you will love this musical. It's unbelievable to see these songs come to life on stage. Not only is the cast vocally and instrumentally talented, the choreography they perform is intriguing. With "dancing" reminiscent of other rock musicals like Spring Awakening, the movements work well with the songs and they culminate in a montage at the end.
The set is extraordinary and a work of art in itself. A tall set plastered with newspaper articles, media campaign posters, and at least 20 plasma TVs arranged throughout. The images on the TV screens change with each scene, showcasing a lot of the media we've seen in America in the past 10 years. Billie Joe chose to have the musical performed without an intermission as to keep the energy high and the audience mesmerized the entire time.
Overall, it's an artistic piece of work that is perfect for fans of Rent, Spring Awakening, or Green Day. However, if musical theater fans are looking for something new and refreshing, this punk rock musical will be sure to go down in history and pave the way for future musicals to come. Though the storyline may be weak, American Idiot offers a snapshot of America's struggles in the early 2000s with the government, the war, etc. This is definitely not your typical musical.
It's not everyday that you have a show playing down the street where Green Day's members are regular visitors, or high level New York producers for that matter. Many of the cast's former co-stars, including Lea Michele of the new TV show Glee, have stopped by. Be sure to watch this show before it explodes on Broadway, then you can say you saw it first!
For more info about the show, visit http://berkeleyrep.org/season/0910/3634.asp
The young but extremely talented cast is led by John Gallagher, Jr., also of Spring Awakening fame, who won a Tony for Best Leading Actor in 2007. He plays Johnny, or Jesus of Surburbia, a loser of sorts who bums around with his friends Will and Tunny until they decide to venture their separate ways. Tunny enters the war, Will stays behind with his pregnant girlfriend, while Johnny gets into a lifestyle of drugs and girls. All the while, these three men are struggling to live in a post 9/11, pre-Obama America.
There is little dialogue throughout the musical, instead Michael Mayer lets the songs do a lot of the storytelling. The songs come from the American Idiot album, B-sides of the European release, as well as 4 songs from Green Day's new album, 21st Century Breakdown. If you were a fan of these songs, you will love this musical. It's unbelievable to see these songs come to life on stage. Not only is the cast vocally and instrumentally talented, the choreography they perform is intriguing. With "dancing" reminiscent of other rock musicals like Spring Awakening, the movements work well with the songs and they culminate in a montage at the end.
The set is extraordinary and a work of art in itself. A tall set plastered with newspaper articles, media campaign posters, and at least 20 plasma TVs arranged throughout. The images on the TV screens change with each scene, showcasing a lot of the media we've seen in America in the past 10 years. Billie Joe chose to have the musical performed without an intermission as to keep the energy high and the audience mesmerized the entire time.
Overall, it's an artistic piece of work that is perfect for fans of Rent, Spring Awakening, or Green Day. However, if musical theater fans are looking for something new and refreshing, this punk rock musical will be sure to go down in history and pave the way for future musicals to come. Though the storyline may be weak, American Idiot offers a snapshot of America's struggles in the early 2000s with the government, the war, etc. This is definitely not your typical musical.
It's not everyday that you have a show playing down the street where Green Day's members are regular visitors, or high level New York producers for that matter. Many of the cast's former co-stars, including Lea Michele of the new TV show Glee, have stopped by. Be sure to watch this show before it explodes on Broadway, then you can say you saw it first!
For more info about the show, visit http://berkeleyrep.org/season/0910/3634.asp
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