By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
If the Occupy Wall Street movement had a soundtrack it would be Green Day’s “American Idiot.” The two-time Tony Award-winning stage musical based on the neo-punk band’s Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum album boldly takes the American musical where it has never before gone.
Director Liam Fitzpatrick helms a high-octane version of the relentlessly rocking show being performed through Aug. 5 by a hyper-kinetic cast of 17 at CNY Playhouse at DeWitt’s ShoppingTown Mall.
In staging this revolutionary rock show in which its characters desperately seek meaning in a post-9/11 world, a certain dilemma faced Fitzpatrick and choreographer Sami Conter Hoerner. They had to celebrate anarchy while remaining true to basic tenets of theatrical presentation.
They succeeded on both counts. The upbeat dance numbers suggest chaos, yet they’re performed in impressive unison by the otherwise ungainly cast of rag-tag-attired young idealists.
Music Director Abel Searor may be more comfortable with Billy Rose than with Billie Joe Armstrong, but here he coordinates an incendiary sextet which competently cranks out 30 three-chord tunes with an expected excess of volume and a minimum of finesse.
Drummer Kevin Dean and guitarists Dennis Goettell and Harry Lumb manage to hint at cacophony while maintaining reasonable rhythm and melody for the benefit of the singers on stage. Violinist Erica Moser enjoys a brief tender moment and bassist Rob Searle hold down the bottom. Searle’s opening night T-shirt made one of the clearest, most pointed statements of the show: “Make America punk again!”
Fitzpatrick and stage designer Christopher Lupia wisely employ a thrust stage to bring the non-stop action closer to the audience seated this time in rows rather than at the usual CNY Playhouse tables. This choice was particularly effective in Act 1 when a crowded bus rolls by for a “Holiday,” and then when actor Mike Gibson takes a stroll on a treadmill while strumming his guitar on “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”
One of CNY’s top comic actors — lanky Josh Taylor — nearly steals this show as St. Jimmy, a black trench-coated debaucher and drug dealer sporting an audacious mid-dome nest of hair, half coal black and half fire-engine red (kudos to hair dressers Fitzpatrick and Kathy Gilbert!). Whether you snort it or smoke it or shoot it, the Saint dishes out blessings like candy, and Taylor relishes every nuance of his repulsive role.
Other “Idiot” standouts include an angelic Hannah Weiler, a spirited Natasia White, an impressionable Nicholas MacLane and a smoky Tyler Ianuzi.
The ensemble sparkles with talented extras such as Matthew Baum, Declan Cavanaugh, Saraya Laughlin, Jordan Twiss, Eric Zeigler and especially the effervescent Emilie Pitts.
“American Idiot,” produced by Korrie Taylor and Kathy Egloff, runs at 8 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 27 to 29, at 2 p.m. Sunday July 30, and 8 p.m. Aug. 3, 4 and 5, at CNY Playhouse, located near the Macy’s entrance at on the second level of ShoppingTown Mall, in DeWitt. Tickets cost $25 on Thursday and Sunday and $28 on Friday and Saturday; cnyplayhouse.org; 315-885-8960.
