Review: Deaf West's American Idiot Doesn't Ignite Like Their Spring Awakening

American Idiot, that paean of teen angst from the Bush era, has been jolted into the 21^st century as our country sinks into more chaos than Generation Xers or Millennials could ever have anticipated. Center Theatre Group has partnered with Deaf West Theatre (where Deaf and Hard of Hearing actors are doubled by hearing counterparts), and their involvement brings additional layers to pop-punk band Green Day’s rock opera about the latest generation’s desperation need to be heard and understood.

Based on the concept album written by Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and his bandmates Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool (with a book cowritten by original director Michael Mayer), American Idiot‘s mostly sung-through story deals with three 20-somethings trapped in their suburban town making an escape to a more exciting life.

Johnny (acted by Daniel Durant, sung by Milo Manheim) and Tunny (Landen Gonzales, sung by Brady Fritz) take a bus to New York and quickly find themselves tossed and torn by the fast pace. Johnny dives down the drug route, losing all sense of himself and destroying his relationship with a pretty neighbor (Mars Storm Rucker), while Tunny stumbles into the military after falling for its marketing and finds himself permanently injured. Will (Otis Jones IV, sung by James Olivas) must stay behind when he gets his girlfriend pregnant, but he fails both mother and unborn child by remaining a couch-bound sloth, drinking beers and checking out.

There’s a sense of desperation in the actors that works for this piece. The frustration, the invisibility, the inevitability of death, and inertia are well conveyed by the cast. The combination of the vocals and the band, led by David O, sounds bold and invigorating.

It is difficult to not compare the production to Deaf West’s Spring Awakening since that production was vital and heartbreaking in ways that this isn’t. Durant, who was devastating as the tragic Moritz in that production, doesn’t build a complex character in which the audience could invest here. The show’s highlight is Mars Storm Rucker, whose voice commands the stage every time they sing. As the malevolent St. Jimmy, Mason Alexander Park toys with the audience just as they puppet-master the drugged-out Johnny.

American Idiot’s albatross is the staging, which lacks ingenuity and cohesion, making it challenging to follow. Snehal Desai’s direction makes little use of the stage and lacks visual dynamics, while Jennifer Weber’s choreography is repetitive, though the cast does an excellent job within its confines. This doubles down on the original creators’ decision to jettison huge chunks of spoken dialogue to emphasize the confusion of the characters, but the attempt to update the setting to the present time truly backfires.

The CTG/Deaf West collaboration American Idiot brings the noise but not the revelations. Due to the subject matter, choosing this work makes sense today, but the musical’s lack of structure is more pronounced in this production. As such, it comes across as a staged tribute album and not a dramatic work.