Backstage with Green Day at the world premiere of Berkeley Rep's American Idiot

Green Day attends premiere of riveting new musical based on its 2004 smash album; Diablo schmoozes with the East Bay punk-pop legends at the afterparty.

This has been a huge year for Green Day, arguably the biggest rock band ever to come from the East Bay (apologies to Creedence Clearwater Revival, Counting Crows, and Metallica fans). In April, they played a series of surprise shows at the tiny Uptown club in Oakland and the Fox Theater across the street. In May, they released 21st Century Breakdown, their long-awaited follow-up to 2004's mega-smash, American Idiot. Then they hit the road and went on tour, selling out arenas coast-to-coast, including the HP Pavilion in San Jose in August.

But last week, the band was back in town to attend the world-premiere of Berkeley Repertory Theatre's American Idiot.  This stage musical version of Green Day's most ambitious album has sold more advance tickets than any other show in Berkeley Rep's four decades. After attending the world premiere last week, it's no wonder why. American Idiot is a perfect storm of modern theater—a wildly creative operatic interpretation of one of the most impressive rock albums of the past decade, directed by Michael Mayer, whose Spring Awakening rock musical was the toast of Broadway a few years ago.

The musical is brilliantly produced—the audience gasped, then cheered as the curtain rose to reveal a MASSIVE stage decorated with imposing televisions and plastered with iconic American images (everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Rosie the Riveter is up there). and choreographed. Blurring by without an intermission, American Idiot is a visual overload, tightly packaged around Green Day's songs with an abstract, skeletal story that follows three young products of suburbia into the American zeitgeist of the 2000s. The soundtrack guides them through war, demonic drug dealers, despair, and a quest for love. It's all quite impressive, a particular treat for fans of the album, as the stage version adds myriad interpretations to the material.

Quick quibbles: I felt the opening number and title track, "American Idiot" as well as "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Know Your Enemy" still play better as Green Day barnburners than they do with a dozen and a half singers and choreographed dancing. However, several songs improved in the stage version—notably, the ballads "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me When September Ends" were beautifully arranged, beginning with strums of an acoustic guitar, then layering in strings and electric guitars. Several songs from Green Day's 2009 album, 21st Century Breakdown, also factor nicely—particularly "21 Guns". For hardcore Green Day geeks, the show effectively throws in a couple of Idiot B-sides ("Favorite Son", "Too Much Too Soon") and a lovely, previously unrecorded love song, "When Its Time."

When Idiot's final song, the haunting "Whatshername" concluded, the packed house shot to its feet and showered applause on the cast. The audience included Green Day itself, singer Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tré Cool sat amongst the theatergoers—then hung around for a few hours at a lively afterparty that took over the entire Berkeley Rep complex. Armstrong posed with fans for photos, and even shaved one fellow's head into a mohawk.

While passing through the crowd, I spotted Mike Dirnt sititng with Armstrong's mother, Ollie, who was beaming with pride. "This guy is the greatest," said Ms. Armstrong, giving Dirnt a hug. Dirnt, who moved into the Armstrong's garage when he was teenager, was clearly moved by the raptous response the the musical had received. "We nurtured this album from its infancy, raised it from the ground up," he told me. "To see it take on the whole new life, to become this musical is pretty amazing. This album has been really good to us."

The party was a non-stop blast, and hardcore Green Day fans would note that songs from the band's alterego, Foxboro Hot Tubs, were mixed in with '60s garage rock gems like The Who's "I Can't Explain" and Strawberry Alarm Clock's "Incense and Peppermints".

Later, I ran into drummer Tré Cool, who shared this charming anecdote with the two girls he was chatting up when I told him I was with Diablo magazine.

Tré: "Hey, you guys put us on the cover and didn't tell us. So, I'm walking through the grocery store and this MILF comes up to me and has a copy of Diablo and says, 'Will you sign my magazine?'...I said, 'F*** yeah!' "

Posted at 05:57 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink