American Idiot
American Idiot, directed by Michael Mayer, sounds great and looks dazzling, but fails at something essential: it lacks a heart. Or, rather, it has a fake heart. It pretends to be an edgy punk rock musical with edgy punk rock themes--war, sex, politics and heroine abuse--but it really has the bite and depth of "High School Musical."
The curtain goes up and there it is: a giant wall with windows and several flat screen TVs, metal stairs and the tip of an old car hanging from above--impressive. Bright lights give the wall different moods, depending on the song.
Green Day’s hit "American Idiot" is followed by another hit, "Jesus of Suburbia." Both songs, and several others from the same album, have been overplayed on the radio. Still, the "American Idiot" band (Green Day does not play in the musical) manages to freshen up the sound.
Except for a couple of slow songs, the sound is big, well-amplified and layered. Whereas Green Day is a trio with a straight-forward sound, the "American Idiot" band employs 8 musicians in total. The use of a keyboard, and 2 guitars might turn off punk minimalists, but in all fairness, the musical stays true to Green Day’s songs. There aren’t any disruptive changes in tonality or tempo. In short, "American Idiot" succeeds in one of its most important aspects: rocking out.
The same can’t be said about the acting or even about the choreography. Both are well-executed, but characters and plot get buried under the medley of half-themes and clichés that make up the production’s frail, if not collapsed, dramatic tension.
Apparently, Johnny, Will, and Tunny, the three main characters, are dissatisfied with their lives in Jingletown, USA. Johnny escapes to the big city, Tunny joins the military, and Will gets trapped in the suburbs with his pregnant girlfriend. And so the public has to sit through the expected: Johnny and drugs, Tunny and war, and Will and the TV.
And so angst abounds. Damn the system, damn the drug dealer, damn the city, damn the suburbs, damn politics, damn the war, and damn Fox News. In the meantime, the characters dance around the beautiful stage flaunting their exaggerated emotions like meat puppets incapable of authentic reactions (especially to their soap-opera-like love life).
Until one day--actually, I’ll spare you the rest. It’s a of coming of age story. You know the end.
Even if you insert really heavy issues in a production, so long as the characters behave like caricatures of real people and their reactions are superficial, there will be no depth or dramatic tension. Because you hate the right thing--and look good and sound fine and have the right budget--it doesn’t necessarily mean you have anything interesting to say about it.
"American Idiot" plays through Nov. 1 at Berkeley Rep.
