‘American Idiot’ ushers in rock, rage and the reopening of the Mark Taper Forum

LOS ANGELES — Everything about the musical “American Idiot” is visceral.

There is anguish and rage in the faces, in the voices, in the words.

For actor Daniel Durant, musical theatre wasn’t really something he encountered until his breakout role in Deaf West’s production of “Spring Awakening” roughly a decade ago.

“My whole life, you know, being raised proudly as a Deaf person, I wasn’t really aware of musicals,” Durant said.

Durant, who describes himself as profoundly Deaf, has since learned that it’s not so much about the music or the lyrics as it is about the emotion the songs contain. It’s been said that characters in musicals sing because their feelings are so heightened that spoken words aren’t enough, and this production of American Idiot will drive that point home in a new way.

“Having this musical be in sign language, it’s so very visual,” Durante said. “There’s added expression, there’s sign language, there’s energy and emotion put into it. So we’re really hoping that the audience will see that and really feel that impact.”

Durant plays Johnny and so does Milo Manheim, an actor best known for starring in the Disney Channel’s Zombies franchise.

“We both are sort of two heads in one character, if you will,” Durant explained. “[Manheim] is the voice and I’m the visual part and the sign language bit of it. And we both create this character together.”

Rehearsals are conducted bilingually as well, with director Snehal Desai and the deaf company members communicating through interpreters. 

This is the fourth collaboration between Center Theatre Group and Deaf West Theatre over roughly two decades and the latter’s artistic director DJ Kurs says over that time a lot has changed.

“We as a deaf community have found new ways to express ourselves through music, through social media,” he said. “Doing ‘American Idiot’ is just a really great way to show our rage, our place in the world and to really use music as a language to reach across the world on a global level.”

He admits that the announcement of the show resulted in a mixed reaction in the deaf community.

“Some people were like, Who? What is Green Day?” he recalled. “Then other people were like, oh, I love Green Day. I bought their cassette, and we put it in the car and listened to it.”

“That’s really a reflection of the community in the world that we live in today,” he added. “For me, it’s really exciting to be able to make theater in this moment, and in a world where the deaf community is closer to music than we’ve ever been before.”

Lark Detweiler, whose Instagram handle is @deafdancer, is one of the company members who knew the band well.

“Growing up, my family was really into Green Day,” they said. “I’m actually a big fan of Green Day myself. If you listen to alternative music and you don’t know [‘American Idiot’], like what are you doing?”

Detweiler is not only a member of the ensemble, but they also serve as the dance captain. While the bilingual nature of the production posed some communication challenges, they explained, dance doesn’t share that difficulty.

“Dance language stays the same regardless of like who can hear, who can move, whatever,” they said.

“American Idiot” marks a milestone in the history of Center Theatre Group. It’s the start of the first season programmed by Desai since he became artistic director — the third person to hold the position since CTG’s founding.

He knows the music from back in the day. 

“I was listening to it on repeat,” he said. “I had the CD. We don’t even have CDs anymore.”

Revisiting it now, he’s amazed at how relevant it still is.  

In 2004, when Green Day’s album “American Idiot” was released, there was a contentious election, a war in the Middle East, and division in the country. 

There was so much noise in the world, he remembers, and it’s very much like that today.

“I think the journey of these three characters is that they want to be proud Americans and find their identity. But it can sometimes be hard in a world that you’re screaming that seems deaf to you,” Desai said. “We took this idea of what happens if you’re screaming in a world that feels deaf to you, and instead you are deaf in a world that is constantly screaming but not listening to each other, and how we can start to find a place to listen to each other.”

In this case, that place is the Mark Taper Forum, which has sat mostly in silence for the past year. 

Desai thinks this is the perfect show to reopen the iconic venue.

“The Taper is a forum, right?” he said. “It’s meant to be a public community space. And it just felt like the right show at this time to bring our different communities together.”

“I think it represents the best of LA,” Kurs said. “CTG and Deaf West have both been around for a long time, and we are definitely pillars of the theater community here in LA, and it’s really a special moment to be able to open up the Taper again with this collaboration.”

His company has a successful track record with musicals, including the acclaimed Broadway production of Spring Awakening with Durant. 

They are currently developing a musical based on the film Coda, which the actor also starred in.

He says deaf representation in media has improved significantly over the past few years, a trend he hopes will continue.

“There is access to the world of the arts, to theater, to all sorts of different places in the world of arts that we…historically had not had access to,” he said, “so I’m so happy to see it happen.

American Idiot about being heard, and that’s especially meaningful at a time, he says when no one — Deaf and hearing alike — seems to agree.

“There’s so many people who don’t have rights that are recognized, whether you’re disabled, LGBTQ, deaf, whatever,” he explained. “We are fighting for our rights, we want people to notice us and see us and we want fair treatment.” 

Understandable sentiments, whether spoken, sung or signed, or all of the above.