This is the dawning of the rest of our lives! This is their lives on holiday! Take a holiday from your summer holiday and get all the gritty, grungy, emotional-super-charge you need to power through the back-half of this blistering, climate-change-infested, politically unstable nightmare that is the America that we now live in. Don’t want to be an American Idiot? Then get your ass up to Rising Sun and check out Street Lamp Community Theatre’s production of Green Day’s American Idiot. It may sound like “that thing from the 90’s” (the concept album actually came out in September of ’04… the dawning of my personal first semester in college; but it’s speaking to all of us 90’s kids who didn’t want to fall into the jaws of the broken establishment monster) but it has never felt more relevant because of all the topsy-turvey turmoil shit that this country— this world— is wading through as we speak. Making his directorial debut, Matthew Peterson brings a stellar cast of over 30 talented individuals together into the squeezebox stage of Street Lamp’s performance black box along with Musical Director LaShelle Bray and Choreography Stephanie Peterson to give the audience a kick-ass, knockout performance like no other. It’s got emotions for miles, rage for days, talent for eons, and a message that’s more important now than it’s ever been.
Tackling an iconic musical that means so much for so many (because people will have sentimental holdings to the original concept album or the first time they saw the stage show or what they were doing and feeling the first time they heard key numbers like “Wake Me Up When September Ends” or the titular number, etc.) brings its own set of challenges. Being a first-time director, working in a uniquely intimate space like Street Lamp’s black box, and bringing together the set and costumes for that show adds an infinite level of insanity to Director Matthew Peterson’s plate. Peterson does not rise to the challenge; he takes a damn jetpack and soars at warp speed clear over the top of it. Everything from the grungy graffiti all over the wall (see if you can’t see where the choreographer and director got their names tagged with ooey-gooey hearts by the cast in the midst of all that fine tag work) to the old-school, chunky TV screens that help set the scene, Peterson is bringing you into the reality of a post-9/11 Green Day America. One can’t praise him enough for all of the success that arises from this production.
Just looking at the set, with its elevated riser-platform across the back wall of the stage and then looking at the number of people in the cast, one might think it impossible to pull off a clean production that doesn’t look like an overcrowded space packed with people. One would be wrong if one thought that. Peterson and Peterson (they’re married) manage to get clean movement, excellent choreography, and an overall slickly paced performance out of the entire cast, making smart choices when it comes to blocking and how to stage certain scenes, with some groups up on the risers, some groups down on the stage— hell there are even times where some of the ensemble are singing from behind the side and back of the seating banks, which creates this insane surround-sound stereo effect that is pretty impressive. The overall aesthetic of the show accurately identifies the vibe of the music and the movement of the performers throughout the production gels with that look and feel.
There’s a lot of really cool lighting (again presumably Peterson and some unnamed Phantom of the lighting booth) that helps augment all of the feelings throughout the performance. Green light makes an appearance quite a few times, as does moodier reds and evocative low-lights (there’s even some song with UV-black light in play.) It’s all meticulously thought out and flawlessly executed. (Yes, we’re totally going with the fence-collapse as a 100% scripted incident.) It’s hard to accurately describe all of the theatrical magic that Peterson gets into play with this production because there’s just so much of it happening and on so many levels. And that couch, man? HOLY HELL. It may look like a couch. It may even function as a couch. (I mean, it is actually a couch…) But it is so much more than a couch. It’s like something out of Meow Wolf’s “House of Eternal Returns.” #GoThroughTheCouch #OrDontGoThroughTheCouch #YourChoice
Stephanie Peterson’s choreography is on point with a professional staging of a high-octane, frenetically-paced musical. What’s even more impressive about this Peterson’s contribution to the production is that she’s doing it all in this compacted, intimate space. You get mosh-pit vibes, rocker moves, and some serious rhythm-influenced, body-jerk staccato stuff that’s just off the rails and really screams American Idiot. Like during “Favorite Son” (a song sang by a character called the damn song title— Adam Kurek who really puts some weighted pathos into this number and the visuals happening all around it are disarming) when Peterson arranges a quintet of dancer girls to represent the Air Force (Jess Simonson), the Army (Lindsay Rosser), the Navy (Mariel Hazelwood), the Red Cross (Lindsey McCumber), and the Marines (Sammi Flickinger) doing their circles all around Tunny. There’s an electricity that infuses Peterson’s choreography, particularly during those hardcore numbers like “St. Jimmy”, “Letterbomb”, and that whole clusterduck of songs two before the end.
You’ve got a live band, naturally, featuring Charlie Hannagan as band leader and on guitar, with Ryan Dailey on bass, Mia Bray on keys, and Tess Garrett on drums; they rock. Literally. They really get the timing of the music (and have striking volume and balance control. In a space like SL’s black box, you’d expect overblown rock music and bleeding eardrums but the band and whoever’s on Sound Op…because the program is chock-o-block with phantoms and ghosts who operate stuff, design stuff, costume stuff…) refined to a fantastical science, giving all that live-time energy to the performers on the stage. It’s like attending a Green Day concert. But with actual narrative and real stories. It’s pretty wild. Musical Director LaShelle Bray is creating unified sound like no other. It’s too easy to have a wall of sound wipe out a small house when it comes to having 30+ people singing all at once. Bray doesn’t let happen. Instead its an immersive wave that washes over you, not drowning you but enveloping you in those ultra-saturated musical moments. Harmonies harmonize, groups blend, and solos pop under Bray’s seasoned direction.
There hasn’t been any singing about the awesomeness of the costumes…Cast? Peterson Patrol? All of the above? We’ll go with that. But they are awesome. You’ve got all sorts of tattoos, crazy ass makeup, grungy, gritty, iconic MTV-style shirts, and everything in-between that you might except for this production. There’s “sexy” versions of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Red Cross uniforms, there’s wild insanity happening all over everything featured on St. Jimmy. It’s on brand for the show, the costumes. So props and shouts to whoever handled all that.
With a powerhouse ensemble (Caitlyn Shaffstall, Megan Smith, Gabriel Schaffer, Troy Leftridge, Kiana Bray, Sammi Flickinger, Mariel Hazelwood, Jeneane Kraft, Lindsay Rosser, Jess Simonson, Lex Coudon, Sabrina Deitrick, Hope Fischer, Katie Gibson, Gabriel Gonzalez, Lindsay Hamilton, Josh Hawkes, Miranda Holland, Tristan Jenis, Ryan Kaczmarczyk, Daniel Michel, Beth Ostrusky, Kat Sullivan) you get an erupting volcano of passion occurring on stage throughout the performance. Whether their moshing, throwing their bodies all around the stage, or belt-blasting their faces off with those incredible voices, this ensemble is moving, singing, dancing, and being as one sensational American Idiot unit. They are supporting pillars which help uplift the insanely talented principal performers in this cast. Each one has a unique look and vibe, each one has an impressive sound, and each one is living larger than life in every moment that they’re on stage.
You’ve got Daniel Michel and Tigga Smaller providing rowdy vocals during “Too Much Too Soon” and it’s bombastically awesome. Michel can also be seen and heard with a megaphone during “Holiday” (and it’s freaky as hell because the megaphone has a micro-backlight which turns the inside of Michel’s mouth demonic red when he shouts into it. Insanely cool effect, actually.) Smaller and Michel are among a small bunch of featured soloists (divided across the show’s two weekends of performances, featuring Caitlyn Shaffstall, Megan Smill, Gabriel Schaffer, and Troy Leftridge) whose vocal contributions to the overall production as amazing.
Heather (Kalea Bray) is the character that many would ‘blame’ for why one third of the trio ends up the way he does. (In the primary trio it’s Will, Tunny, and Johnny, and the Heather character is the anchor…or sinking rock…for the Johnny character.) While the Heather character doesn’t’ get too many solo opportunities to speak her peace, Kalea Bray is belting out her heart and soul every chance she gets. “Dearly Beloved”, which is shoved in the middle of the first of the song-slush-montages, is her opening feature which really showcases just how powerful her vocal talent is. You hear a softer, more emotional sound resonating from Bray during “Last Night On Earth” and again that fiery, powerful sound during “Too Much Too Soon.” Bray delivers some epic facial expressions throughout her performance as well; including a surprisingly ‘HEA’ look of delight come the “reunion”-style ending.
Whatsername (Lizzie Sprague) is literally the girl who got away. The girl whose name can’t be remembered. Sprague delivers this beautifully aloof and almost hopefully naïve character who drifts into the grunge-pit of American Idiot like a stray leaf blown in on a gentle spring breeze. You first hear her quiet siren’s song in “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Another reactionary actor, with lots of fascinating facial expressions, which lend credibility to her expressive body language, Sprague has a curious inveiglement with Johnny, including battling the demon(s) of St. Jimmy along the way. “Letterbomb” is her explosive vocal burst, showcasing Sprague’s singing capabilities and overall performance versatility.
Playing the Extraordinary Girl, Linsey McCumber…and while I believe McCumber is indeed extraordinary, let it also be known that this, much like Whatsername, is the genius/laziness of librettist & lyricist Billie Joe Armstrong… is truly striking. First appearing as a ‘naughty nurse’ preparing Tunny for that potential 21-gun salute in “Favorite Son”, you get to hear so much more of her vast vocal talents during the song which bares her character’s namesake. That number is her only vocal solo, but McCumber has a voice which lends that number some really beautiful aural sensations. She flips like the face of a coin from being this doting, worried nurse to some delirious figment of Tunny’s imagination during that entire sequence, which starts somewhere around “Before the Lobotomy” and concludes after its reprise.
They’ve all got their baggage, their vices, their— enemies? And for Johnny that enemy manifests, physically, as St. Jimmy (Lucky Marino.) Exploding out from that trippy couch I referenced earlier, Marino is hell on wheels, insanely over the top with his theatrical presence and stomping around the stage like the menace that his character is. (He’s drugs. He’s literally addiction and the demons therein incarnated into a human who looks like a punk-rock-nightmare-monster and for two hot seconds the ‘boot’ almost looks like an outrageous character choice, because Marino sells it so damn well.) Marino has got some serious vocals to work with and the energy that he’s funneling into this character and into his singing is just shy of inferno-level blast. Watching him become the world’s creepiest freaking puppet-master up on the platform-riser during “St. Jimmy” where he’s conducting the masses below is an out of this world experience unlike any other.
Will (Mikey Floyd), Johnny (Eric Bray Jr.) and Tunny (Austin Barnes) are the trio rockstar male leads in the production. It’s ironic how much time they actually spend apart on their own journeys in this production; when they sing together it’s an impressive feat of blended harmonies and beautifully emotional outcries that really ring with sincerity. “City of the Damned” and “Jesus of Suburbia” are two of the times (might be the only two until the end) where this trio is featured together doing their vastly incredible vocal thing. They play well off one another, mostly in paired up settings, either Tunny and Johnny or Will and Johnny, or Will responding to news from Johnny, etc.
Mikey Floyd, who battles the demon of “unexpected situational trauma” as Will, is this quiet, almost introverted character who does a lot of reacting to Johnny’s antics. When he and the Tunny character partner up (in that weird way where two separate scenes are happening on the same stage at once but the characters are singing really close to each other) for “Give Me Novocain” you can feel the sorrow and pain and torture rolling out of the depths of Floyd’s character’s soul. You get a great sound out of Floyd during “Wake Me Up When September Ends” as well.
Austin Barnes’ rendition of Tunny is harrowing, brutal, and will haunt you long after you leave the performance. The music may be all rocker grunge punk edge, but the lyrics and the narrative are dark and deep and heavy and disturbing and depressing. Barnes masterfully portrays all of that on stage. Without getting into spoiler territory, the whole roll from “Before the Lobotomy” through “Extraordinary Girl” to “Before the Lobotomy (Reprise)” is just a gut-wrenching experience where Barnes delivers peak vocal quality over augmented emotional intensity. His physicality in these scenes is striking too. There’s a moment, later in the production— when Barnes goes to raise his hand in salute, it’s a slow moment, but it’s so powerful and so tragic in its beauty that it really hits you. He’s got great sound with power and feelings to back that up 100%.
Really getting a chance to flex his acting and singing muscles in this role of Johnny, Eric Bray Jr. is a triple-threat knockout (who doesn’t know his own physical strength. RIP fence-gate.) The almost maniacal, edgy quality that he brings to the forefront once Johnny encounters St. Jimmy feels so authentic and so visceral that it leaves you slightly disturbed and shaking in your seat. He’s got astonishing vocal capabilities which are on display throughout practically the entirety of the performance. (The show is about more than just Johnny but Johnny has a lot of vocal time.) The Johnny character is also the “narrator” in various and sundry letters— to Will, to himself, to his folks, to whoever. Telling the tale as if he’s actively living in the moment. It’s remarkable. Bray Jr. displays such vocal versatility, hitting some insane ranges all throughout the performance, with “Holiday” being as different from “Know Your Enemy” from “Last Night On Earth.” You hear, sense, and utterly feel that loss and that tragic beauty that Bray Jr. brings forth for “Whatsername” during the penultimate musical number of the production. It’s stellar.
I read the graffiti on the theatre’s back wall— in invisible flippin’ ink it says— GET YOUR ASS TO American Idiot. Don’t BE an American Idiot by missing it.
Running Time: Approximately 95 minutes with no intermission
Green Day’s American Idiot plays through August 7, 2022 with Street Lamp Community Theatre at Street Lamp Productions— 5 Valley View Drive in Rising Sun, MD. For tickets call the box office at (410) 658-5088 or purchase them online.
