American Idiot, the blast-furnace of a musical built around the songs of Bay Area natives Green Day  and first produced at the Berkeley Rep in 2009 has circled back  from Broadway, landing at the Orpheum for the final run of its first North American tour (Now through July 8). The rock solid cast—including several veterans of the New York production—takes the stage with an exuberant ferocity that belies the fact that this is the last stop of a long haul that began in Toronto six months ago.

After last night’s official opening, we spotted director/conceptualist Michael Mayer positively beaming at the back of the house, surely impressed at the stamina and professionalism of this remarkable troupe. You’d be hard-pressed to name another touring show with this degree of polish.

Scott J. Campbell plays Tunny (Photo: Doug Hamilton)

The show stitches all of the songs from the 2004 American Idiot album—along with numbers from Green Day’s subsequent 21st Century Breakdown record—in a loose, poetry slam of a storyline about a troika of teenage boys seeking to escape the miasma of contemporary suburbia in search of some inchoate ‘better life.’ Propulsive punk-pop songs like “I Don’t Care” and “Know Your Enemy” effectively convey the sneering, pissed-off angst of adolescence, while anthemic ballads including “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends” alchemize sometimes self-dramatizing teen bathos into genuinely moving onstage moments.

The emotions and characters in American Idiotare as boldly and broadly drawn as graffiti tags: Musical vernacular aside, the show is much more akin to opera than to traditional musical theater: It invites its audience to get swept up in the music, to wallow and soar in grand percussive projections of their of their own emotions, rather than closely follow witty lyrics and clockwork plotting.

Arena rock spectacle at the intimate Orpheum
(Photo: Doug Hamilton)

American Idiot even has its own three tenors: Van Hughes as Johnny, who descends into heroin addiction; hunky Scott Campbell as Tunny, who joins the army out of aimlessness rather than patriotism; and Jake Epstein as Will, who stays behind in their hometown with his pregnant girlfriend. They’re remarkably focused actors, imbuing their loosely sketched roles with specific humanity and creating surprisingly individuated characters amidst the overall atmosphere of stomping ensemble spectacle.

A bell-clear sound system, an arsenal of well-deployed lighting and video effects, and Steven Hoggett’s frenetic full-bodied choreography help American Idiot concentrate and elevate the the pleasures of an arena rock show into something just as visceral, but much more rewarding in the intimate 2200-seat Orpheum.

Sit in the pit! A limited number of $25 Orchestra Pit Rush seats will go on sale two hours prior to each performance at the Orpheum Theatre Box Office only. These tickets are available to anyone and you must be present to purchase. Cash only with a limit of two tickets per person. Tickets will be sold on a first come, first serve basis.

Video clip after the jump

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You’re doubtless familiar with the Blue Man Group. Well, take a gander at White Man Group, better known as VocaPeople, the Israel-based singing ensemble now performing at the Marines’ Memorial Theater through June 17.

VocaPeople on tour in Spain

Their musical is tied together by a thin, rather extraneous plot line about alien visitors to earth (hence the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence cosmetics and bleached out wardrobe), but its really all about spotlighting the group’s remarkable vocal talents and ingenious song arrangements and mash-ups.  The show is performed entirely a cappella, but spans genres from classical, to funk, to metal (with a dollop of doo-wop, of course). If you’re looking for a lighthearted, utterly entertaining evening out over the week ahead, VocaPeople’s got the white stuff.

Check out cool Voca video after the jump Read more…

Yes, our taste in music is broad. From yesterday’s shout out to the SF Gay Men’s Chorus, we move to today’s cool buzzing hum-out to t Ming & Ping, the ultra-pleasurable synthcoction of LA-based artist/composer Bao Vo.

M&P, who play at the Elbo Room on Tuesday night are a sort of hybrid of the Pet Shop Boys- in their tunes of cautiously jaded yearning -and Gorrilaz- in that the “band” consists of fictional characters: M&P’s recordings are actually solo Vo, and in dreamy videos, Vo plays both of the “spiciest twins making the spiciest new wave music,” assuming two personae along the lines of Tennant (alpha-fey frontman) and Lowe (Andrew Ridgely).

Double Vo-sion

Performing live, its another story altogether. Vo leads an onstage extravaganza with elaborate costumes, dancers (spicy indeed), and a hyped atmosphere of blip-stomp chaos that, well, enlivens the electro-chilled aura of the recordings themselves.

While remaining largely under the pop radar, Ming & Ping’s music has developed a somewhat unlikely  following among extreme sports enthusiasts after being included on the soundtracks of wakeboard, snowboard, and snowmobile films. This shouldn’t keep you away from the show if you’re more a skinny-jeaned nerd than a Stoned Dudley Do-Right.

Ming & Ping don’t exist, but they’re game to seduce both of you.

Video after the jump

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SFGMC Executive Director Teddy Witherington is "unplugging"

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus will present two evenings of pure vocal talent in their acapella Unplugged concerts on June 15 and 16. Unaccompanied by any instrumentation, the choir will be joined by Deke Sharon, of NBC Television’s The Sing Off  and beatbox master Kid Beyond [video gets impressive at 0:13] in a program that will mix pop hits—à la Glee—with contemporary and classic choral compositions.

The June concerts’ entertaining repertoire may lean to the lighter side, but expect emotions to run high at these shows in the wake of Executive Director Teddy Witherington‘s May 29 announcement that he will be stepping down after six years in July. Plans are underway to begin a search for a new executive director who can help uphold the levels of organizational energy and success that Witherington has fostered during his tenure.

During the period of Witherington’s leadership, the SFGMC has brought on Dr. Tim Seelig as artistic director and conductor, begun collaborating with Broadway composer Andrew Lippa on an original multimedia stage production about Harvey Milk (debuting next year), and doubled its annual budget in the face of the recession.

Celebrate the final San Francisco concert’s under Witherington’s leadership by purchasing tickets to Unplugged here.

Video of SFGMC celebrating the Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary, after the jump

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Darren Criss, live on Sunday night (Photo: Rebecca Sanabria)

Finally slogging your way through your taxes this weekend? Why not celebrate getting it over with by supporting a great local cause, racking up a deduction for next year, and easing your pain by staring into the limpid eyes of a singing heartthrob?

On Sunday night, Glee dreamboat and local native Darren Criss headlines the American Conservatory Theater’s annual season gala. Criss, who will perform half a dozen numbers throughout the fundraiser’s original production, is an alumnus of the A.C.T. actor training program, the gala’s beneficiary. Two-time Tony winner and MacArthur fellow Bill Irwin—who stars in A.C.T.’s upcoming mainstage production of Becket’s Endgame—will also be featured in the evening’s performance. 

Meanwhile, A.C.T.’s  current main stage offering—a smartly designed production of the high concept comedy Maple & Vine—continues through next Sunday, April 22. The fast-paced play finds a contemporary couple trading in their manic Manhattan lifestyle to join a midwestern community of full-time 1950s reenactors. The sleek, period-perfect set and costume designs by Ralph Funicello and Alex Jaeger are terrific.

Gay playwright Jordan Harrison cleverly weaves pointed commentary on good old fashioned racism, homophobia, and misogyny into his portrait of the superficially idyllic Leave It To Beaver era. But he gets a bit tangled in the limits of his premise—how does a thirtysomething Japanese American in 2010 have a sister who was in a WWII internment camp? This is supposed to be about reenactment, not time travel.

Nonetheless, Maple & Vine makes for a zippy, quippy evening’s entertainment, especially at the discounted ticket prices you can find on the web for next week’s performances. It’s like seeing the world through RomneyVision goggles.

A '50s coffee klatsch in Maple & Vine (Photo: Kevin Berne)

Rrazz Room impresarios Rory Paull and Robert Kotonly flank diva CeCe Peniston (Photo: Pat Johnson)

Last Wednesday night, a most eclectic constellation twinkled in the San Francisco night.  The Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko, perhaps the United States’ most adventurously booked boîte, celebrated its 4th anniversary with a benefit for St. Jude’s Hospital for Children. The evening’s “Whoa, how the heck are these acts gonna share a stage?” kind of lineup proved utterly successful. It reflected the wide-ranging tastes of Rrazz owner-impresarios Robert Kotonly and Rory Paull, long loathe to have their club perceived as a ‘cabaret’ with all the attendant stereotypes of dowager princesses downing too many expensive martinis to the songbook standards of their faded youth.

While the Rrazz’s quirkily curated booking calendar always incorporates some of same great interpreters of song who ply their trade at Manhattan’s Carlyle, Feinstein’s, and the late-lamented Algonquin Oak Room (Tyne Daly, Betty Buckley and Amanda McBroom have all played the intimate 186 seat room over the past couple seasons), Kotonly and Paull cast a much wider net. Well-regarded soul, R&B, gospel, comedy, jazz, burlesque and drag acts are a regular part of the offerings, as are some of the Bay Area’s best local talent—fortunate to have the chance to perform in such a jewel box of a venue.

Natalie Douglas, a sublime interpreter of song (Photo: Pat Johnson)

And so, last Thursday’s highlights swung like a drunken metronome from Edna Wright—spark plug sister of Darlene Love—belting “Want Ads,” a 1970 hit with her group, The Honey Cone; to local percussion legend Pete Escovedo and his sons pounding out a volcanic set of Latin jazz; to CeCe Peniston riling up the crowd with her dance club classic “Finally”; to a revelatory rendition of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Natalie Douglas, who deserves to be a household name.

More on the anniversary gala, and Rrazz room April highlights after the jump 

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Daniel Dallabrida, artist

This Monday, March 26,  at 7 p.m. a multi-generational gathering of gay writers and performers will participate in “Younger Than Jesus: Older Than Aids” at the magnet community space in the Castro. The evening is an extension of artist Daniel Dallabrida’s current exhibition, discussed below…

“I want today’s young gay men to realize that those of us in our fifties and beyond have something to offer,” local artist Daniel Dallabrida told John and I over drinks at the  Eureka Lounge a few weeks back.

“Those of us who lived through the AIDS crisis can walk down the street here in the Castro and feel like we’re invisible today, in this culture of Glee and gay marriage and kids coming out in junior high school.”

Even the setting of Dallabrida’s current exhibition addresses the tensions and connections embedded in his art: His photography and photographed mixed-media collages are on display through next Wednesday, March 28, at magnet, the Castro’s sexual health services center, where so many of today’s young gay San Franciscans are regularly tested for HIV.

The small exhibit, titled  In Now’s waters burn the stars of Then, features works that combine Dallbrida’s casual, snapshot of denim clad, mustachioed gay men circa 1980—the united, unknowing members of a generation soon to be decimated—with posed, slickly lit images of twinks, bears, pigs and other self-proclaimed subtypes torn from the colorful party flyers that confetti the Castro today.

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Susan Werner (Photo: Asia Kepka)

Trust us on this: Treat yourself to a pair of tickets to singer-songwriter Susan Werner’s gig at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Sunday, March 25th.

Haven’t heard of her? Chicago-based Werner hasn’t become  a huge star over the course of her two-decade,  seven album career because she’s just too smart, too curious, and too adventurous to stick to the brand centric self-repetition that makes musicians blow up on the pop cultural scene in the 21st Century .

Well, too bad for the masses, we’ll take her!  Originally trained as an opera singer, the Iowa-born Werner has been called “the empress of the unexpected” by NPR. In live performances, serves up a sly blend of pop, folk, jazz, cabaret, made effortlessly coherent thanks to a dry wit and warm, hummable humanism that infuses all of her work, regardless of genre.

More on Werner, and a performance video after the jump

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