Berkeley Rep's Production Of Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT Featured In The San Francisco Chronicle

Green Day's American Idiot will run from September 4 through October 11, opening Berkeley Rep's 2009/10 season in the state-of-the-art Roda Theatre. Tickets start at only $32 - half that for anyone under 30 years of age.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a new feature on the exciting production at Berkeley Rep.

In a 2005 interview with Variety, Director Michael Mayer said he thought someone had to be thinking about a stage version of the Green Day smash. When the actor-turned-producer Tom Hulce read the interview, he called Mayer, with whom he was already working on "Spring Awakening," and essentially called his bluff.

Says Mayer, " 'Are you serious?' Tom asked me. The next thing I knew I was in meetings with Green Day's people in Los Angeles and making a very rough pitch for this show." So began a long but remarkably smooth road that breaks into open ground next month with the world premiere of "American Idiot" at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The sung-through musical, which dramatizes the entire 2004 Green Day album along with four songs from the East Bay band's upcoming "21st Century Breakdown," follows a group of dispirited suburban kids who travel to the city and then the Middle East on a quest for meaning. The book, by Mayer and Green Day lyricist Billie Joe Armstrong, reworks some of the original story. It will be performed by an ensemble cast of 19 and seven musicians - none of them Green Day band members.

To read the entire SF Chronicle article, click here. 

Green Day won two Grammys - Best Rock Album and Record of the Year - for its multi-platinum American Idiot, which sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. Now the band brings that explosive album to the stage with the director of Spring Awakening, which nabbed eight Tony Awards in 2007. American Idiot follows working-class characters from the suburbs to the city to the Middle East, as they seek redemption in a world filled with frustration - an exhilarating journey borne along by Green Day's electrifying songs. This high-octane show includes every song from the album, as well as several new songs from 21st Century Breakdown. With an onstage band and 19 young performers, American Idiot receives its world premiere at Berkeley Rep, the Tony-winning playhouse that launched last year's provocative rock musical Passing Strange.

The show features the music of Green Day vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tré Cool - along with Armstrong's lyrics. It is being staged by Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer, who collaborated with Armstrong on the story. Berkeley Rep presents American Idiot in association with Tom Hulce and Ira Pittelman, the lead producers of Spring Awakening.

The production features choreography by Olivier Award-winner Steven Hoggett with Tony-winning composer Tom Kitt providing orchestrations, arrangements, and musical supervision. The design team includes Tony-nominee Christine Jones (sets), two-time Tony-winner Kevin Adams (lights), Baryshnikov fellow Andrea Lauer (costumes), and Obie Award-winner Brian Ronan (sound), as well as video designer Darrel Maloney. The music director is Carmel Dean and the associate choreographer is Lorin Latarro.

Tony-winning actor John Gallagher, Jr. plays Johnny, leading an ensemble of 19 young performers that also includes Matt Caplan as Tunny, Michael Esper as Will, and Tony Vincent as St. Jimmy with Mary Faber as Heather, Rebecca Naomi Jones as Whatsername, and Christina Sajous as the Extraordinary Girl.

American Idiot is supported by several contributors to Berkeley Rep's Annual Fund. Bill Falik and Diana Cohen, John and Helen Meyer, Sally Smith and Don Burns, the Strauch Kulhanjian Family, and Felicia Woytak and Steve Rasmussen serve as executive producers. The lead sponsor is Levi's®. The show is also sponsored by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.

Tickets are on sale now. For more information on American Idiot and other shows at Berkeley Rep, call (510) 647-2949 or toll-free at (888) 4-BRT-Tix - or just click berkeleyrep.org.

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