American Idiot The Musical Spotlight: Talia Aaron

Musical theater is so interesting to me because it is like a two to three hour music video. When I first heard that Green Day was bringing their music to life on stage, I was instantly interested. Living in Arizona makes it hard to travel to Broadway to see every show I want to see. When I heard last year that the touring company of “American Idiot” was coming to Phoenix I was ecstatic. I chatted with one of the ensemble members, Talia Aaron, about the show, her start in acting and what you can expect to see. Make sure to check out “American Idiot” at ASU Gammage April 24–29! The show will hit a few more cities before the end of the run so for more information on “American Idiot” visit www.americanidiotthemusical.com.

Arin: What originally got you interested in acting to begin with?
Talia:I always sang as a kid, a lot, and was always loud out there I guess. I was always a performer so when I was little my parents put me in community theater and that’s where things grew from.

A: How did you end up getting the role in “American Idiot?”
T: Well actually, at the time the auditions came up I had been in school for broadcasting at Ryerson [University] in Toronto and my agent who is actually a friend of mine, she’s represented me for like ten or eleven years, and she kind of always kept an eye out for things that were right for me and she called me about the American Idiot tour in march and she knew I was a huge Green Day fan and if there was any show I was really gung ho about leaving school to audition for that this was it so I followed her advice and they came and did a few days of casting in Toronto and I made it to the end of that whole shebang and then I made it to New York for final callbacks in June and here I am.

A: Do you have a favorite song from the show?
T: To perform, ‘Holiday,’ it’s just one of my favorites and so is ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ and to listen to, I love them all, but I love the ‘Last Night On Earth,’ I love the arrangement that Tom [Kitt] has done for this show. It just makes my brain explode it’s so beautiful.

A: What about the show and its subject matter do you love the most?
T: I think most recently, its been hitting me so hard every night, there’s a transition earlier on in the show in the number ‘Favorite Son’ it’s kind of a cheeky song where the girls, myself included in the ensemble wear these sparkly dresses and are going gaga after this favorite son character appears. He starts out in his underwear and he turns into a military officer changing the course of one of the characters lives in a really big way in that moment shift, i call it in my head the ‘shit gets real moment’ for the audience where we go from presenting a show that’s fun and out there to something that is serious subject matter of what the american dream has become and I’m so honored to be part of the telling of that story.