A team of risk-takers bet on a Green Day musical

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When Michael Mayer reworked Frank Wedekind’s play “Spring Awakening” into a pounding, rock-infused musical, he didn’t have to worry about what the German author would think of the overhaul — Wedekind died in 1918. The situation was very different when Mayer went to work on his musical reimagining of Green Day’s 2004 punk rock album “American Idiot”: the band would be looking over Mayer’s shoulders at every turn. So when Mayer and producing partner Tom Hulse showed the band a rough version of the musical last year, they were more than a bit nervous.

“We had no idea,” Hulse said, “of how it would sit.” Adds Mayer: “I was most nervous about if it would really pay off at the end.”

The band was not about to complain, and seemed especially impressed with how Mayer and musical supervisor Tom Kitt turned some of Green Day’s often discordant, angry songs into more melodious ballads that somehow created an “American Idiot” narrative about three young, disillusioned couples and a malevolent character named St. Jimmy.

“They brought in certain dynamics that I’d never thought of,” says Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, who compares the musical’s sounds to the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds.” “I love what they did with them,” Armstrong says. The band has even included some of Kitt’s arrangements on songs from their new album, “21st Century Breakdown.”

Will theatergoers? Early ticket sales to “American Idiot’s” world premiere at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre have been so strong the musical’s run has been extended for three weeks. If reviews are as enthusiastic, the ambitious show might be headed to Broadway before long.

Read more about ‘American Idiot” in Sunday’s Arts & Books section.

--John Horn

Caption: ‘American Idiot’ director Michael Mayer and actor John Gallagher. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times