Like many young millennial men, Johnny, Tunny and Will are trying to find their way out of suburbia and into adulthood. While Johnny heads to the city to make it as a musician and Tunny heads overseas to war, Will stays behind to deal with the surprise pregnancy of his girlfriend, Heather.
American Idiot, a Tony-nominated rock musical, follows the three men on their journey to maturity through the soundtrack of Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day.
Produced by Fighting Chance Productions, this is the Western Canadian premiere of the musical, which is playing until Aug. 27 at Granville Island’s Waterfront Theatre, 1412 Cartwright St.
All 19 cast members will be singing, dancing and playing instruments throughout the production.
Brookswood Secondary student Brett Dick, 16, will be performing as Gerard. Dick’s interest in music started with the ukulele. He spent many years with the Langley Ukulele Ensemble travelling with them to Hawaii twice, as well as Stratford, Toronto and Nova Scotia.
At the age of 10, Dick started learning the guitar and played in the pit orchestra for Brookswood’s 2014 production of In The Heights.
Being involved in that production gave him the acting bug and he auditioned the next year for a part in the show. He played the role of Jimmy Smith in Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2015, and the role of Bobby Strong in Urinetown in 2016.
American Idiot is his first role outside of high school.
Other cast members include Tristan Smith as Johnny, Ross Foster as Will, Nick Heffelfinger as Tunny, Elaine Bevans as Whatsername, Allyson Fournier as Heather and Tiana Swan as Extrordinary Girl.
“American Idiot is the perfect Fighting Chance show. A story about young people growing up, facing challenges and overcoming them fits in well with what so many of our audience and cast are experiencing. Green Day scored the music of my youth and I’m so excited to present this intensely creative musical to Lower Mainland audiences,” said Artistic Director Ryan Mooney.
“American Idiot is the fourth collaboration between choreographer Anna Kuman and myself and I think we have really created a feast of visuals to go along with this heartbreaking tale.”
For a complete list of performances and ticket info, please visit www.ticketstonight.ca.
For more information on the show, please visit www.fightingchanceproductions.ca.
