Review: Experience the Punk Angst in AMERICAN IDIOT at Triangle Productions!

When AMERICAN IDIOT premiered on Broadway in 2010, I must admit I was skeptical. Like every other person of my generation, I started listening to Green Day in high school. But a punk jukebox musical? Really?

But when I saw it, all of that skepticism disappeared. The musical so perfectly encapsulates the confusion, angst, and general disaffectedness of youth in the late nineties/early noughties. It's our generation's HAIR. And it's playing right now in spectacular form at triangle productions.

AMERICAN IDIOT follows the story of three friends, Johnny, Tunny, and Will, who are all dissatisfied with life in the 'burbs. Johnny and Tunny leave for the city, while Will stays home with his pregnant girlfriend (Heather). Johnny falls in love and gets caught up in drugs, developing an addiction that manifests in a character called St. Jimmy, while Tunny is lured into the army. It's about the many ways there are to spend -- and to waste -- one's youth, and where to go from there.

Triangle's production is terrific -- from the first note of the title song to the sing-along of "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," which marks the show's end. I went with a group of six people -- three who were squarely in the Green Day generation, and three who didn't know their music beforehand -- and everyone thought it was fantastic.

First, I have to call out Jonathan Quesenberry, the incredibly talented musical director at triangle. Punk isn't your normal musical music, and I imagine that doing this kind of show is a unique challenge. But he's got some special magic, and I felt like I was all at once at a Live Theatre performance, at a concert, and just rocking out to Green Day in the 1988 Ford Escort I drove in high school.

Next the cast. I admired several of these actors -- including Ethan Crystal (who played Will) and Kelsey Bentz (heather) -- in HEATHERS...THE MUSICAL at triangle earlier this season. Add to them the talents of the rest of the cast -- in particular, Dave Cole as Johnny, Dale Johannes as St. Jimmy, and Lauren Steele as Whatshername (Johnny's love interest) -- and you get an exceptionally tight ensemble. There isn't a weak one in the group.

Don Horn's staging capitalized well on the triangle space, which, in case you haven't been there, is the sanctuary of a former church. They always make use of the aisles, but in this case it was particularly effective, both simulating members of a band going into the crowd at a concert and symbolizing how the angst normally associated with a subculture spilled out into the mainstream during the Bush era. It made this big, loud, punk musical a surprisingly intimate experience.

AMERICAN IDIOT only runs for one more week -- through July 2 -- so you don't have much time left. Fortunately, I recently heard that they added a second performance at 10:30pm on Friday, July 1. If you can get a ticket, I highly recommend you see it.

More tickets and info here: http://www.trianglepro.org/

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