Playwright: Billie Joe Armstrong, book/lyrics; Michael Mayer/book; Green Day/music. At: The Hypocrites at The Den, 1329 N. Milwaukee Ave. Tickets: www.the-hypocrites.com; $28-$36. Runs through: Oct. 25
Director Steven Wilson, choreographer Katie Spelman and musical director Andra Velis Simon have birthed an American Idiot that's fast-moving, completely alive and fresh. Or as fresh as it can be given American Idiot's highly-derivative yet thin storyline. The company may be exceptional, but there are built-in weaknesses to this jukebox musical shaped around the excellent punk-rock songs of Green Day.
The chief problems are that we know next to nothing about the characters and barely learn their names. One lead female is called only "Whatshername" ( Kyrstal Worrell ). Are they 18 or 22? High school dropouts? College dropouts? Do they know anything? Does anyone work? The show provides no exposition and little context. None of it matters, I suppose, as the story is simple enough to mime. Three best buds plan to escape Podunk for New York but one stays when his GF becomes pregnant. The other two go Big Apple where one soon becomes a heroin junky and the other joins the Armed Forces. In less than a year, all three are home nursing their physical and psychological wounds ( reference: "Oh, Auntie Em, if you can't find what you're looking for in your own backyard..." )
What the characters don't like is laid out in back-to-back-to-back-to-back songs in the opening minutes: "I don't want to be an American Idiot" ... "all across the alien nation" ... "In the land of make believe they don't believe in me"... "no one really seems to care"... and "I don't care if you don't care." But what do they believe? What do they want? I'm given neither the source of angst for the characters nor their ideology. Youthful alienation by itself isn't enough because it's a constant and anyone older than 30 has been there, done that.
Still, this production seethes with energy and talent. Almost everyone in the large cast is brand-new to The Hypocrites rather than a company member, and all double as singer/performers and instrumentalists. The usual rock instruments are sweetly supplemented in several ballads by violinist Elisa Carlson. Throughout the show, volume is at a level that's appropriate and tolerable for the intimate performance space. Very much an ensemble piece, it's impossible to cite one player over another. Chief roles are well-covered by Luke Linsteadt ( Johnny, the erstwhile-hero ), Whitney Dottery ( father-to-be Will ), Steve Perkins ( soldier Tunny ), Alex Madda ( pregnant Heather ) and non-gender-specific Malic White ( drug dealer St. Jimmy ).
In my generation, Hair was both American Idiot and Rent, and I identified with its ideology. But I didn't, for a second, find Hair believable, nor do I find American Idiot believable. Entertaining, yesbut believable? No.