Local Views: ‘Pop Punk High’ is Still Relevant Even If You Haven’t Lived Through Pop-Punk
The new “Off-Off-Broadway” musical is a blast.
Pop Punk High is an immersive Off-Broadway production that unapologetically drags you back to the world of early-2000s teenage angst and nostalgia in a hilarious and reflective way.
The show follows underdog Derek (played by Ben Lapidus), who uses Avril Lavigne’s ghost to win the heart of the girl of his dreams, Amanda Bunkface (Jess Kaliban). Along the way, he has to evade the ire of his arch-nemesis and star of the school Skeet (Patrick Sweeney). Canadian pop-punk princess Lavigne (Kelly Krauter), who has been trapped inside a can of Axe Body Spray, grants him three wishes, on the condition that Derek finds her killer by the third wish. On his quest to be the object of Bunkface’s affections, he learns a few lessons along the way, including what being pop-punk is really “all about”.
As a true Generation Z member, I am a sucker for this play. I was literally a toddler when pop-punk reached its heights as a genre, but the Avril Lavigne meme references were not lost on me. Nor were the not-so-subtle references to the confusing duality of a genre consumed by the inelastic nature of toxic masculinity while also producing alternative female-fronted acts like Paramore — in fact, those would be absolutely buzz-worthy topics among my peers. Besides, pop-punk is in the heart, clearly, and not the times — just as most of my demographic, I make up my own eras. I had my very own curated pop-punk phase, dominated by pitchy sing-a-longs of “Girlfriend,” “Stacy’s Mom,” and “Monster,” just to name a few favorites.
I found myself intrigued by the “immersive” nature of the production. The pre-show performance by the Knuckleheads, for example, was amazing. The non-restrictive nature of the choreography made the atmosphere more infectious, and I was completely sold on the interactive karaoke sessions at the end. That being said, the constant movement of the main ensemble in and out of the crowds and around the stage came at some inopportune moments when serious angst was being built, breaking some of the amazing dramatic tension in parts of the musical. Nevertheless, the cast was incredibly talented and made Pop Punk High more than noteworthy.
This production isn’t just a great effort to reconnect with millennials and what seemed like simpler times of strained neck veins, whiny voices, and casual teenage rebellion. For younger viewers like me, the curation of the pop-punk experience into a distilled era is incredibly relevant in a time where being politically anti-establishment is the norm.
Just look at the teen activists of the #NeverAgain, #DACA, and #BlackLivesMatter movements, and the flourishing ideologies of fourth wave feminism and intersectionality being championed by teen girls everywhere. Punk and emo music influences are also now influential in the dominating genre of hip-hop, with popular acts like Lil Uzi Vert and Post Malone churning out emo/sad rap songs that climb to the top of the Billboard charts.
As the front man of Knucklehead said during the show, we might just need to reconnect to the pop-punk genre in what is arguably one of the most divisive times in America.
Pop Punk High runs for select dates through Nov. 1 at (le) poisson rouge. Tickets are available at poppunkhigh.com, from $20 for students with code PPHSTUDENT.
