American Idiot, the musical based on the Green Day concept album of the same name, opened last night at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts with flashy, sneering energy and a whole lot of youthful angst, but not too much beyond that. And maybe that’s okay.
The show charts the lives of Johnny, Will, and Tunny, three disaffected dudes attempting to escape what seems to them the ultimate prison: comfortable suburban life. Johnny and Tunny set off for the big city with big dreams, while Will stays behind with his accidentally pregnant girlfriend.
When the adventure turns out not to be the solution to all their problems, Johnny turns to heroin and Tunny joins the army. Eventually, after kicking the habit and losing a leg respectively, all three are reunited back in the ‘burbs, with no clear future ahead of them.
Many of us have been there: everything in your short teen life sucks and your parents just don’t understand. An interesting time of life surely, but the show presents everything with maximal energy and not much depth.
It’s hard to tell what’s taken seriously and what’s being skewered. Is “American Idiot” an indictment of Hot Topic privileged punk or a celebration? How seriously does adolescent angst deserve to be taken?
Early on in the performance Johnny claims the money for his city bus ticket came from robbing his local convenience store, but then admits he stole it from his mom’s purse before finally confessing she just lent him the money. It’s a funny moment, and we see the distance between what Johnny wants to be and what he really is. But these moments of self-awareness are few and far between. We get only sketchy narrative arcs for each character and not much development along the way.
Not to say the show isn’t entertaining. The set is suitably over-stimulating with dingy city walls covered in glowing TVs constantly changing channels. With impressive acrobatic dance moves and boundless energy, the show’s young cast (all non-Equity, most fresh out of school) tears their way through the show’s short 90 minutes, hardly pausing to take a breath. The show sticks almost exactly to the original album, only adding in a couple new songs and connecting it all with brief snippets of dialogue.
Alex Nee, a Palo Alto native, plays an admirable lead as Johnny, but Casey O’Farrell stands out as a soulful Will. Despite spending most of the show smoking weed on the couch, Will emerges the most interesting and engaging character. His rendition of “Novacaine” is one of the highlights of the show.
It’s a shame the female characters get such short shrift, because the women behind them emerge as the stand out vocal performers. The three stereotyped female leads (only one of which gets an actual name) serve mostly to assuage the males’ angst, but the women go far with little they’re given. Kennedy Caughell’s Heather shines on songs like “Too Much Too Soon” and she joins Alyssa DiPalma and Jenna Rubaii to belt out beautiful harmonies for “21 Guns.”
A rock opera it truly is, and opera goes all in for the music, not always depth. However, one can’t help but wonder what the show could’ve been with a little more focus and a little less flash.
.Review: 'American Idiot' at San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
