BY SARAH SHARPE
The Broward Center for the Performing Arts presented American Idiot on Saturday, March 29th. Set to the music of Green Day, American Idiot tells the story of three best friends from Jingletown, USA who long for an escape from their monotonous suburban lives. Finding love, dealing with loss, and suffering through major identity crises, Johnny (Jared Nepute), Tunny (Dan Tracy), and Will (Casey O’Farrell) soon discover that there really is no place like home.
As a fan of Green Day before even seeing the show, I fell in love with this musical almost instantly. The show is a rock opera, so the majority of it is told through song, interspersed with minor narratives by Johnny in the form of letters to home. The music by itself rocks out loud, but the orchestration and arrangements, created by the ingenious Tom Kitt, give it that captivating musical theatre sound. The way the individual songs are connected and the beautiful harmonies that have been composed for this show are truly breathtaking.
The set is also wildly innovative, with a backdrop that’s basically just a wall of television screens, footage ranges from a live camera recording the action onstage to cable TV shows to news revealing the corrupt state of our nation. Also, the play is filled with awesome projections, such as a moving highway during “Holiday,” papers flying through the air during “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and city lights during “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (which received huge applause from audience as soon as Nepute picked up an acoustic guitar). I might have had to squint my eyes throughout the majority of it due to all of the strobe lights, but visually, the show is certainly a spectacle.
Rounding out the cast was the incredible Olivia Puckett as Johnny’s girlfriend “Whatsername,” the lovely Taylor Jones as Tunny’s girlfriend, “Extraordinary Girl,” the fierce Mariah MacFarlane as Will’s girlfriend Heather, rock star Carson Higgins as Johnny’s alter ego, “St. Jimmy,” and one of the best ensembles touring the nation today. A few days after seeing the show from the audience, I got the amazing opportunity to listen on headset in the lighting booth and hear all of the 500+ lighting cues being called. It was extremely educational to learn all of the little technical aspects that go into a show this huge, but look so flawless on stage.
Green Day’s frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong, took a huge gamble allowing his music to come to the Broadway stage. Fans were so familiar with the music of the original American Idiot album and as revealed in the documentary, Broadway Idiot, Armstrong holds the songs very near and dear to his heart. The essence of Green Day explodes on the stage, as watching American Idiot is reminiscent of attending a rock concert. No audience member isn’t tapping their toes or bopping their heads. American Idiot is, without a doubt, one of the best marriages of rock-and-roll and musical theatre we’ll likely see in this generation.
