Review Roundup: Deaf West's AMERICAN IDIOT - Critics Sound Off

Green Day's American Idiot, produced by Center Theatre Group in collaboration with Deaf West Theatre, officially opened Wednesday, October 9 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles - and the reviews are coming in.

The cast includes Steven-Adam Agdeppa, Will Branner, Jerusha Cavazos, Lark Detweiler, Daniel Durant, Kaia T. Fitzgerald, Brady Fritz, Milo Manheim, Josué Martinez; Giovanni Maucere, James Olivas, Patrick Ortiz; Mason Alexander Park, Monika Peña, Mars Storm Rucker, Mia Sempertegui; Angel Theory, Ty Taylor, and Ali Fumiko Whitney.

Tickets for Green Day’s American Idiot are available through CenterTheatreGroup.org, Audience Services at (213) 628-2772 or in person at the Center Theatre Group Box Offices at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown LA 90012.

American Idiot features music by Green Day; lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong; and book by Billie Joe Armstrong & Michael Mayer. Jennifer Weber (Broadway: & Juliet, KPOP) is the choreographer; Colin Analco (Deaf West: Fidelio) is the ASL choreographer. This groundbreaking, new production, directed by Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Snehal Desai, and produced in collaboration with Deaf West Theatre, features an ensemble of both Deaf and hearing actors, and is performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and spoken English.

Let's see what the critics have to say!

Charles McNulty, LA Times: What I didn’t expect was to find the musical so dated. The story of three young suburban wastrels looking for a way out of the American capitalist wasteland struck me as a luxury we can’t really afford at this hinge moment in history. My unexpected reaction stems from Desai’s misguided production. The music’s urgency is generalized into a blur. Instead of definition, the staging gives us a muddle of free-floating feeling.

Benjamin Lindsay, The Wrap: The new stage production’s opening visuals from projection designer David Murakami are the only time we see Trump in the flesh onstage, but his presence is still felt in this present-day “American Idiot.” The musical again centers on three young men – Johnny (Daniel Durant), Will (Otis Jones IV) and Tunny (Landen Gonzales) – and its themes of suburban malaise, economic insecurity and fatalistic disillusionment are still the production’s beating heart. In other words, “American Idiot” doesn’t show Trump again, but it dramatizes the conditions of desperation that breed the groundswell of his support from a male populace that feels despondent and unheard. Restless angst permeates the snarls, contorted faces and rock star wails of its players – a red-eyed anger that wouldn’t feel out of place among Trump’s ranks. 

Edward Hong, Nerds of Color: This is a resounding re-opener for the Mark Taper Forum, a fantastic CTG directing debut for Snehal Desai, and a big, promising start for the new season of Center Theatre Group’s One CTG. Go for the music, the sheer fun, but also take in the words and how they have much lasting impact today as it did when the album first came out in 2004.

Elaine Mura, Splash: The current production of GREEN DAY’S AMERICAN IDIOT was striking for a key newly-added element – the contributions of Deaf West Theatre. Signing was the motion of the day, and each of the three leading characters included an actor who signed and an actor who voiced (and sang) their thoughts and feelings. In fact, the production was a technological miracle – with signing throughout, three double cast characters, captions streaming just about everywhere with artistic abandon, dancing in three dimensions, quick change sets, live orchestra, two tiers of staging – and it all worked like a charm.

Imaan Jalali, LA Excites: For an intermission-less 95 minutes, the musical aims to do what the album does — which is make an energetic and enlightened statement on what it means to be alive among generations of a populace finding their own voices, pursuing their dreams, and kicking the bad habits that get in the way of self-growth. These themes, touched on by individuals who either oppose or fall in line with the establishment, are further inclusive of all the ups and downs that color life’s trajectories and the relationships that inform them.

Evan Henerson, BroadwayWorld: When the CTG/Deaf West IDIOT was announced, I was so hoping that Desai and his team – particularly the ASL choreographers - would find a new and exciting path into Armstrong and Mayer’s script, something that would crack open these songs and these characters in challenging new ways. Doesn’t happen. Daniel Durant is a strong actor whose bitterness self-hatred, and longing all come through at various points of Johnny’s journey. Milo Manheim puts these feelings elegantly to song. Mason Alexander Park’s St Jimmy may be a narcotic made human, the evilest of evil angels, but they’re a compelling one. From named characters to ensemble, these performers are plenty skilled and can certainly tap into the spirit of the music, but they can’t make us care.

Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly: So, when Center Theatre Group announced that they planned to reopen Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum with a Deaf West collaboration of a revival of Green Day’s American Idiot, I couldn’t think of a better way to welcome theatergoers back to one of the city’s most important theatrical venues. But the new production, now playing and extended through Nov. 16, is, quite simply, a disappointment.

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