Green Day’s “American Idiot” album comes to life in the musical of the same name, now being presented at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.
The show revolves around three friends — Johnny (Van Hughes), Will (Jake Epstein of “Degrassi: The Next Generation” fame) and Tunny (Scott J. Campbell) — who are desperate to get out of Suburbia. They buy bus tickets to move to a bigger city, but Will has to stay behind when his girlfriend announces she is pregnant.
When Johnny and Tunny move to the city, they find themselves going their separate ways, as Tunny decides to enlist in the military. Johnny becomes lonely, and shares his feelings of sadness with Will in a letter with the lyrics to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” However, he meets Whatshername (Gabrielle McClinton) and falls in love, but falls to drug use when he is introduced to St. Jimmy (Joshua Kobak), who is a figment of Johnny’s imagination.
Meanwhile, motherhood proves to be “Too Much Too Soon” for Will’s girlfriend, and she takes the baby and leaves him. Tunny also finds himself in a bad state as he loses the use of one of his legs.
The storyline follows Johnny, Will and Tunny through their separate lives. The stage is simple and scarcely changes, besides the addition of a few props and the images on the multiple televisions across the stage that indicate what’s going on.
Hughes is sensational as Johnny. His dramatic shift from a hopeful young man to hopeless drug user is quite shocking. However, he plays it off well and makes it extremely believable. He also possesses strong singing talent, making the Green Day songs his own, adding personal flair to them.
Epstein is easy to sympathize with. Though his dialogue becomes less and less as the play progresses, he is always on stage right, laying across his couch, drinking his sorrows away. Even with few words, Epstein successfully captures the audience, and makes his change from happy to discouraged easily known.
The choreography in this production is also exquisite, complete with aerial acts and stage combat. In a hospital scene, during “Extraordinary Girl,” Tunny is lifted from his bed by a girl wearing an “I Dream of Jeannie”-like outfit, and then the two perform beautiful aerial stunts, flipping and spinning in the air. The inclusion of stage combat is also clever, as Will and his girlfriend are seen fighting to the beat of the music in “Too Much Too Soon.”
However, one of the most captivating pieces of choreography is a ballet-like dance between Johnny and Whatshername, as they struggle with each other and fight over a tourniquet. They get tangled in it, Johnny wraps Whatshername with it, and the entire dance is just one beautiful metaphor that is just jaw-dropping to watch.
The show is flawed in few ways. However, like in other musical productions, such as “Rent,” the viewer can get lost in the music and distracted from the storyline. This, unfortunately, happens with “American Idiot,” but the music is still incorporated in a skillful way. One noteworthy scene is “21 Guns,” where the song is used to explain the possible consequences of Johnny’s drug usage and the sacrifice that Tunny made as a U.S. soldier.
Overall, the play is impressive and proof at how talented Green Day is. The lyrics work extremely well as the basis of the storyline, and anyone — Green Day fan or not — will be easily pleased.
“American Idiot” runs at the Ahmanson Theatre through April 22. Performance times are Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $20 to $120 and are available at CenterTheatreGroup.org. The Ahmanson Theatre is located at 601 W. Temple St. in Los Angeles.
