Rash, brash and gutsy, American Idiot is a punk-rock musical with attitude -- lots and lots of attitude. Featuring the angry, in-your-puss music & lyrics of Green Day (vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong; bassist Mike Dirnt; drummer Tre Cool), the musical is based on the Berkeley band's two recent concept albums, “American Idiot” and “21st Century Breakdown.” Melded artfully into a stage show by Armstrong and co-writer & director, Michael Mayer (the wizard behind Spring Awakening), American Idiottells the raw, zigzagging story of three young potheads (Van Hughes, Jake Epstein & Scott J. Campbell) living in "Jingletown USA") trying to find their way in a world they not only never made but find difficult to comprehend. The time is the 90s; they are surrounded -- make that, dwarfed -- by a wall of video monitors (design by Darrl Maloney) flashing non-stop commercials, slogans, political messages (courtesy George W. Bush), Iraq war scenes and celebrity sightings.
To go with the sensory overload, the media onslaught, are the Green Day songs, delivered by an amped-up, virtuosic stage band (led by Jared Stein) which shook the Ahmanson's timbers with non-stop, hurricane force.
In the eye of the storm, the three slackers try and work out their destinies. One heads to the big city to make it as a rock star, another joins the army, another tries the suburbs and straight life. Drugs, beer and sex mess them up along the way, not to speak of battle wounds, showbiz disappointment, the banality of corporate employment.
American Idiot has a lot to say and does so in a hurry -- short scenes (with dialogue sung, not spoken), nearly two dozen songs, frantic choreography, characters flying overhead. It's all a bit bewildering and sketchy, but the dynamic music, singing and dancing hold you, keep catching you up in its impassioned, dizzying spell.
