“Don’t wanna be an American idiot,” wrote Billie Joe Armstrong in the early 2000s, rebelling against the George W. Bush administration.

Armstrong did not want to be another American idiot brainwashed by propaganda and patriotism, and actors and actresses from Shippensburg University brought that feeling of rebellion back for two nights in Memorial Auditorium this past weekend. Actors showcased songs from “American Idiot,” the Broadway musical based on Green Day’s album of the same name.

The showcase included monologues from Alexis Goodreau, a senior interdisciplinary arts major who was the director of the show, which was performed as her senior showcase, the final project of the major.

Before the show, the audience was greeted by an industrial-looking stage utilizing risers and no furniture at all with a projector running in the back.

Goodreau said she used the projector to mimic the way projections were used in the original Broadway production.

“American Idiot” began with live house music played by a band of SU students and alumni, and once the show started, all bets were off.

The profanity flew as much as the beer bottles that littered the stage, shopping carts were ridden like horses and the actors got up close and personal with the audience, performing a mere couple of feet away.

“Letterbomb” and “St. Jimmy” were the two standout songs from the performances, receiving boisterous cheers from the audience.

“St. Jimmy,” the song about Johnny’s alter ego, featured senior Matt Peck extravagantly dressed in nothing but a leather jacket, a pair of jeans and a lot of androgynous silver jewelry.

St. Jimmy is the cocaine-addled id to Johnny’s conscious, who is not visible to the other characters, but drives Johnny into a deep hole of drugs and parties, leading to Johnny losing his girlfriend, Whatshername.

“Letterbomb” featured the bombastic vocals of Gabrielle Sheller (Whatshername) as she wailed and writhed on stage, singing lyrics about the loss of her boyfriend Johnny to heroin and his alter ego, St. Jimmy.

After the other female cast members joined her for the song, the audience reacted with an almost shocked exuberance after the number ended.

Despite only featuring a few select numbers from the original score, the showcase was able to display the full story of the album and the Broadway musical through the song selection and outstanding acting.

The show certainly got the audience to think and leave tapping its feet.

The production got at least one audience member to spend the night listening to the soundtrack from the original show on repeat for hours.

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