Opening night assembled a diverse audience to QPAC’s Playhouse Theatre. A broad range of ages, most casually dressed, were excited to experience Green Day’s semi-autobiographical rock opera. Breaking through to a new theatre market is extremely difficult but critical for its longevity. shake & stir have continually hooked new audience members and the importance of this is not to be taken lightly.
When the lights dimmed there were whoops, hollers, and screams of anticipation even though we were only viewing a dark and uninspiring industrial stage set. Oh well, I thought, it’s boring but it’s meant to be grungy… WHAM! the stage came alive with thumping sound and pulsing video screens, leading us into the title track American Idiot. Green Day’s anthem served to introduce us to the jaded inhabitants of the dead-end town of Jingletown, milling around their local 7-11, drunk, stoned, and angry at the current political climate. Johnny (Ben Bennett), Tunny (Connor Crawford), and Will (Alex Jeans) sense their dreams slipping through their fingers and naively opt to Greyhound it out to the big smoke.
Will never makes it onto the bus when his girlfriend Heather (Ashleigh Taylor) announces her pregnancy. Left behind, glued to his couch with dead-eyed resentment, this character embodied Jingletown’s stagnation and lack of social mobility. Although Jeans role is physically static, he makes up for it by providing humour, precise offside work, and a powerful vocal. What a commanding Death/Thrash Metal front man he would make. Heather’s Dearly Beloved revealed her disillusionment with Will and Taylor’s plaintive vocal was a beautiful balance to Jeans.
Without meaning or purpose, Tunny’s new life flounders until he’s enticed by repetitive “War on Terrorism” TV adverts. Enlisting in the army, his deployment to the Middle East is swift but he’s maimed in battle soon after. Crawford’s harmonies were spot on and his ability to display emotion with only his eyes really moved me. His character represented the thousands of men desperately craving direction and purpose, whilst still needing someone to take care of them. Spending his days hallucinating on morphine in a hospital bed, we’re treated to a dream sequence and an aerial ballet duet with Kaylah Attard (Extraordinary Girl) his nurse. Pink has discussed the difficulty of singing whilst suspended so kudos to Attard.
Lacking confidence and self-discipline, Johnny succumbs to the city’s hedonistic lifestyle of sex and drugs, carving a nihilistic path that will slay all in his wake. To cope with suddenly being a small fish in a big pond, he creates a confident but narcissistic persona he calls St Jimmy. Sarah McLeod (Lead Singer of The Superjesus) was a perfect choice for one of the three St Jimmy’s sharing the role. Vocally gritty with a commanding stage presence, she made this role her own. Bennett had a vocal tone perfect for Green Day’s ballads and gave a believable and grounded lead performance. Falling in lust with Whatsername (Phoebe Panaretos), Johnny is incapable of committing to a mature relationship and she leaves him wallowing in his heroin induced stupor. Panaretos’ performance, particularly during Letterbomb is a triple threat force of nature.
For me, the three men’s journey is similar to the Wizard of Oz. All were subconsciously following the yellow brick road seeking traits they lacked. Will sought manhood, Tunny needed purpose, and Johnny lacked identity and self-love. Johnny returned home alone and drug free, Tunny had Extraordinary Girl on his arm, and although Heather had moved on, Will got off the couch and accepted his role as a father. Jingletown hadn’t changed, but I believed these boys had grown from their city experience and finally found themselves.
Directed by Craig Ilott, this show’s numerous technical aspects could easily go awry but Ilott is a veteran who handled everything in stride. Dialogue is intentionally minimal so as not to detract from the brilliant score. With a ingenious set design (Josh McIntosh), killer visuals (optical bloc), arena spectacular lighting (Matthew Marshall) and a top-notch blistering band (directed by Glenn Moorhouse) you’d be forgiven thinking you were at a major rock concert. Some people exited their seat to quickly grab another drink. This behaviour is unusual for a theatre opening night, but its common at a large rock concert. I believe that’s where many felt they were!
American Idiot is not just for Dookies and Idiots, it’s for everyone who loves to be entertained by a show at the top of its game. I absolutely loved it and so did the rest of the sold-out audience. You can’t afford to miss this beating, explosive production because you will likely never see anything like it in Brisbane again. If you’ve read mixed reviews, don’t despair. I leave you with David Mamet:
"the audience is the only judge. If the audience members didn't laugh, it wasn't funny. If they didn't gasp, it wasn't surprising. If they did not sit forward in their seats it is not suspenseful."
For American Idiot the audience have spoken! LOUDLY * * * * *
By Lisa Bingham
Photo Credit- David Fell
Green Day’s American Idiot
Presented by shake & stir theatre co and QPAC
13-21 April
QPAC’s Playhouse Theatre