Punk-pop musical strikes clever balance in times of Trump
You can’t, or shouldn’t, have a rock musical without some edge-y content. But American Idiot has a little more going for it than just sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, says Ryan Mooney.
“It was also a comment on George W. Bush at the time,” said the director of the musical, which is coming to Vancouver as part of Fighting Chance Productions’ summer repertory.
“But I think the discourse in the U.S. has gotten even worse. What’s interesting is how it’s more appropriate now with its commentary on politics in the States than when it was originally written for the stage.”
Based on the music of American punk-pop band Green Day, American Idiot centres on three men in their early 20s who are learning to navigate the adult world. One tries to work out his relationship with his pregnant girlfriend, another joins the military, another turns to drugs.
The musical, which features songs from the band’s 2004 album of the same title as well as a handful of other Green Day tracks, features a book by frontman Billy Joe Armstrong and American stage and film director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening). It opened in Berkeley in 2009 before moving to Broadway for 422 shows.
The Fighting Chance production is the first time American Idiot has come to Western Canada, at least on this scale, says Mooney.
The show is running alongside Heathers: The Musical, the stage version of the 1988 movie (and which Mooney is also directing), as part of Fighting Chance’s summer program. Both have large casts (19 in American Idiot), along with music and choreography.
“What I love about American Idiot is, you get all this music, you get this story, but how you want to tell that story is very much up to the director and choreographer,” said Mooney, who is also artistic director of the company. “It’s not what I would call a paint-by-numbers story — ‘This scene takes place here,’ and ‘They have to do this and this and that.’”
The company has previously presented Spring Awakening, The Rocky Horror Show, and Rent, among others. For American Idiot, Mooney is working with choreographer Anna Kuman and music director Clare Wyatt. All the actors also play instruments in the show.
“In the original, actors played instruments, but I think we have them playing much more,” Mooney said.
“Clare has been really wonder- ful too with ideas of who should be playing when, and tying that in with their characters, rather than it just be the novelty of actors playing instruments. We’ve tried to make it part of the storytelling.”
The costumes, by Sandy Margaret, will reflect the times and social milieu, with an emphasis on the colour scheme — black, red and white — favoured by Green Day.
Mooney is an avowed fan of the band, as is Ross Foster. Foster plays Will, one of American Idiot’s three main male characters.
“It shows many different dark paths people can go down in their early 20s, when they don’t know what to do with their lives,” he said of the storyline.
“The young adults have luxuries that they don’t know about. They were raised in suburbia with little direction of where to go in life. They got bored and fed up with living for nothing, so they decide to do something with their lives but all the choices they make are not thought through at all. And that ends up costing them a lot, in the long run.”