PEORIA -- Green Day's American Idiot rocked the Peoria Civic Center on April 23, and continues on April 24, an interesting and original rock 'n roll musical. Like Book of Mormon, you won't likely see American Idiot any time soon on a high school stage.
It's too rough-edged, and relies heavily on technology to tell its story of alienated youth, and the paths youths take toward adulthood.
This is not Sondheim, West Side Story or even Rock of Ages, much less Gershwin or Cole Porter. But it is engaging and worth seeing.
It opens with a blast of news images on many TV screens embedded in the stage walls, depicting the horrors, corruption, wars and degradation of modern times. Young people react with alienation and pledge to flee their hypocritical suburban existences for something more exciting.
One turns toward the military, and is maimed. One of the show's best songs, "21 Guns," is an effective anti-war song for the modern era.
Another turns toward sex, drugs and rock and roll, with predictable results.
The show is never funny. It's full of heartbreak, and offers no easy answers. Ordinary office-cubical work is portrayed as another modern horror.
The sketchy plot is carried by the energetic dancing and songs, and the set, including the TV screens that continue to flash images and messages. Costumes are often jeans and vintage t-shirts with their own messages.
This is a non-Actors Equity cast, but they do a terrific job in the fast paced, complicated show which requires them to play instruments and dance as well as sing and act.
The show received many awards on Broadway, and in an interesting program note, the director, Michael Mayer, is credited as consulting producer for the first season of Smash, the terrific TV series on the backstage drama of producing a Broadway play.
In Smash, some of the characters are working on a traditional Broadway show, and others are working on an off-Broadway rock 'n roll musical called Hit List. Did Mayer have American Idiot in mind as a prototype for Hit List?
It helped to have listened to the original cast CD a few times before seeing the show. It would have helped even more if supertitles had been played on one of those many TV screens. The lyrics are engaging, but often difficult to understand given the rock and roll music.
(Warning: it's loud! Take noise canceling ear buds or similar device if your ears are sensitive.)
In any event, American Idiot is original and worth seeing, even for Sondheim fans.
-- Elaine Hopkins
Comments