“Don’t wanna be an American Idiot!” Angsty, beautiful voices chant and sing across the vibrantly lit stage with television screens broadcasting the media (current news, clips of the war, pop adds, commercials and President Bush) and fluorescent lights flashing. Brilliantly directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer, the musical follows three teenage friends; Johnny (John Gallagher Jr.), Tunny (Stark Sands) and Will (Michael Esper). The questioning of youth and what comes tied in with it. Drugs, sex, rock n roll, trauma, girls (extraordinary or forgettable).
Finding the “American Dream” has always seemed impossible and out of reach for the boys of suburbia, stuck with nowhere to go. Finally they’ve had enough and decide to go to the big city of lights, dreams and aspirations, where the impossible becomes the possible. They are all set out to go but when Will’s girlfriend, Heather (Mary Faber) reveals she is pregnant, he stays behind while his boys travel to the big city. Tunny gets sucked into the pop culture essence of the army, where it’s the “right thing to do for your country” and post 9/11 issues, leaving Johnny to gain a greater sense of nationalism after the two towers fell in New York City and a uniform. With no one to share the experience with, lonely Johnny falls into the hands of drugs and his questionable alter-ego St. Jimmy (Tony Vincent); who represents adolescence and all that’s “evil.” Following the song journey of the American Idiot album (and some additional songs) tells the story of these three friends, whose lives are all moving at different speeds. Without dialogue, the story with only letters to home dated and read aloud, the songs are powerful enough to speak the story to the audience without the help of explanation. The musical numbers are up to the audiences interpretation, but it is easy to draw a background history and story through the eloquent lyrics.
American Idiot exposes the truth. The truth of what has been going on in this country and addressing it back to the year it all went down, 2001. It brings it back in your face, this time, on stage. The post 9/11 issues have almost been pushed back and not really recognized, American Idiot pushes them back into your face. Explaining what was really going in that year that the war began from three different perspectives, being able to let the audience into their minds and then eventually brings back thoughts that have been put aside for all these years.
In one scene Johnny and Whatsername (Rebecca Naomi Jones) share a very passionate moment while they are taking heroin. They intertwine, using rubber piping between them tangling up in on another to show something so morally wrong seem so right and beautiful. Sitting in your chair you watch the couple elevate, on a platform that rises, bringing the couple more into the main focus of the stage as they metaphorically get “higher and higher.” Intertwining with beautiful colored lighting surrounding them as the drug starts kicking in. You may find yourself getting chills, because it is so hauntingly precious and delicate you can’t look away.
As the musical goes on, the dates fly by. The date is now September 10th 2001. Johnny’s, Tunny’s and Will’s lives have all changed so drastically over these past year (as Johnny recalls when he is singing Wake Me Up When September Ends). Looking upon the past; choices, right or wrong, each character reflects upon their lives that have come to be since they all have left each other. Though they have all parted ways and are at different places, their lives are still connected. You see three different paths on one stage, and no matter which kind of emotional and physical roller-coaster the musical has rode, come together as one, understanding each point of view. We have experienced who they were and who they have become.
They say the truth hurts. The actors go beyond and above by addressing the audience. After seeing American Idiot, a very “in your face/breaking the fourth wall” piece about what has been occurring in our country for the past 10 years is no surprise. Though subject matter of what happens on stage can be tough, some people can’t come to terms with what is screwed up. Coming and sitting down in this theater is the wake up call to any American who has made themselves numb to what’s been going on around them. They can’t say “give me novacaine” anymore. It’s here, raw and real.
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