Earlier this year, the Berkeley Repertory Theater announced the production of a Green Day musical – a take on their magnum opus “American Idiot”, and the collective world shrugged. When the band themselves confirmed participation, brows raised a little, and when it turned out that the director and producer of Broadway’s 2007 Best Musical “Spring Awakening” were at the helm, interest was officially lodged.

A week ago we took the plunge on a fantastic Berkeley weekend that could hardly be ruined by a low-Rent bit of musical theater, and what do you know… it was a solid experience. We planned to hit the Thai Buddhist Temple, a wonderful place to enjoy mango sticky rice and yellow curry on a Sunday morning (our advice, arrive before 10am and find parking – it’s residential, after all), and looked forward to the excellent Cheese Board Collective for vegetarian pizza and corn cherry scones (nothing to say but yum). To ruin the weekend, Green Day would have to sorely disappoint.

Thankfully, Billie Joe fans, they did not. The Berkeley Rep is a nice venue, and they featured some Green Day-themed adult beverages (Cara preferred the “Jesus of Suburbia”, a mixed drink that features Midori). Unlike many off-Broadway locations, the Rep allows beverages in the theater, so expect a decent concessions bill. Fans of the band will be frustrated by the lack of theme merchandise (the only Green Day items for sale were their studio CDs), but a giant board for Green Day fans to sign before or after the show (but not during, there is no intermission) provides a few moments of shared intimacy.

Having seen Spring Awakening twice (once on Broadway, with Glee’s Lea Michele in the female lead), and enjoyed Green Day’s tour in Las Vegas, my expectations for American Idiot were very high. Granted, I couldn’t honestly be called a Green Day “fan” – I owned a few of their CDs a decade or so ago, and while I love the theatrical Jesus of Suburbia, I considered “21 Guns” one of the sins committed in the  debacled “Transformers 2″. Without spoiling too much, I’ll say “American Idiot” is far more “Rent” than “Spring Awakening”, and it contains far less emotion than either of those award-winning shows. The drama is moderate at best, there are literally no real tear-jerker moments, and the characters are nearly all slacker bums who frankly aren’t particularly interesting. Do you want to watch a production about a couple losers who opt for drinking and drugs while trying to get their band off the ground,  looking for and losing love in the process? Unless you’re a Green Day fanatic, the answer is probably no.

So what does Green Day’s musical have to offer? Some inspired dance numbers (nowhere near as well choreographed as Spring Awakening, in my opinion), a very cool multimedia set design, and a whole lot of Green Day music. If you enjoyed Spring Awakening on Broadway, you may be happy to see John Gallagher, Jr. (Moritz in the original cast) at center stage as Johnny, the Jesus (of Suburbia) of the original recording. Gallagher’s more grungy than whiny as the drug-addled alpha friend, but he ably handles the Green Day standards he’s expected to rock out, somewhat recalling Awakening’s “The Bitch of Living” and “I Don’t Do Sadness”. To be honest, his nasally delivery in Awakening reminded me of Billie Joe Armstrong, so it’s probably a perfect match of styles.

As enjoyable as the musical was, there were definitely down moments. The “St. Jimmy” drug addiction character pops up a little too often for my tastes, and the inclusion of new track 21 Guns lent nothing but a ridiculous hand-dance that is immediately mock-able, while adding little to the stronger American Idiot tracks. Additionally (spoiler alert), the lack of any true game-changing emotional moments left me wondering if this was truly a “must-see”. After enduring Rent’s HIV and love stories and Awakening’s tragic endings, I felt a little… nothing… when no corresponding emotional highs and lows came across here. Granted, both of those shows were over the top and a bit melodramatic… but during a night at the theater, melodrama is often welcomed.

There were some great moments. Angelica loved the opening numbers (they jump right into the popular title track and the sprawling Jesus of Suburbia), and a raucous bus-dancing sequence provided the best match of song and theme for my money.  Green Day fans will love this show, and everyone else will be entertained – much moreso than sitting through a droll retelling of Shakespearean tragedy or “Grey Gardens” style drama. And… if you’re inspired to appreciate the Berkeley punks more than ever before, make it a Green Day theme night and have late dinner at bassist Mike Dirnt’s co-owned “Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe“, where sweet potato fires and pie can be had.

One final note: good seats may be tough to get, with the large number of Berkeley Rep subscribers… but the theater is small enough that there are no bad seats. You can buy your tickets here. If you’re a Green Day fan and you can’t make it to the show, talk to me in the comments and I might provide you with a free program from the show!

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“Tour of the Universe,” 2009. The show was once again excellent. These guys know what they are doing. The weather was perfect, the sound quality was amazing.

The setlist might have gone a little like this (corrections are welcomed):

In Chains
Wrong
Hole To Feed
Walking In My Shoes
It’s No Good
A Question Of Time
Precious
Fly On The Windscreen
Little Soul*
A Question Of Lust *
Miles Away/The Truth Is
Policy of Truth
In Your Room
I Feel You
Enjoy The Silence
Never Let Me Down Again

For the Encore:
Shake The Disease*
Stripped
Behind the Wheel
And the obligatory Encore number 2:
Personal Jesus
Waiting For The Night (Bare Version)

*one of those crazy Martin Gore solo things.

What struck me in particular about this concert was the visuals. Firstly, it was the best editing of a video feed I have ever seen at a live event. I had to check for the cameras and double-check the action on the stage to be sure I wasn’t watching something prerecorded. It looked very polished and spot on. A live music video going on in conjunction with the concert.

The pre-recorded visuals were also great. I’m not sure if it was all-new for this tour, but it seemed to be. The back of the stage had a giant HD quality screen with a large LED orb sticking out of the upper middle of it. The orb at times had video mapped on it as part of the larger screen, and sometimes it operated separately. This created some fairly interesting visual gags that added to the impact of the visuals being shown. For “Enjoy the Silence,” for instance, the 3 band members were dressed in space suits. For each verse and chorus set, one of them would switch places with the other two so that one was dead center, space-helmeted head ballooning up as it was mapped over the orb.

Another thing about the visuals. I imagine that many of them were created, directed, or inspired by their long-time image guy, Anton Corbijn. In turn, it would appear he was inspired by the concept of the “long portrait.” Here’s a random example on YouTube if you haven’t experienced this mini-phenomenon. For the opening song, In Chains, I at first thought I saw two still images of faces, large and on both sides of the giant screen. After a few moments, I realized they were live video. And, in perfect sync with the music, the two faces (an old man and a young boy) slowly morphed into each other. Again this concept came through in Enjoy The Silence as each band member stood still, seeming to transmit their image into the camera rather than just being observed by it. Very powerful.

While their albums of the last 2 decades have been technically brilliant, the Depeche Mode songs gain much through their live performances. There is something they are able to evoke in their live performances that make the lyrics and nuance of their songs absolutely profound. This is something I have detected more so with DM than many other technically superior bands. While their latest album hasn’t been so well received by some of my peers, I believe it in no way lessens their tour.

This is a show that music fans should strive to see.

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