American Idiot follows the exhilarating journey of a new generation of young Americans as they struggle to find meaning in a post 9/11 world, borne along by Green Day’s electrifying score. This high-octane show includes every song from the acclaimed album American Idiot, as well as several songs from the band’s Grammy-nominated new release, 21st Century Breakdown.
Green Day won two Grammy Awards for the groundbreaking rock opera American Idiot, which sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. Now Billie Joe Armstrong and the band collaborate with one of the theatre's most acclaimed creative teams, led by the Tony Award-winning director of Spring Awakening, Michael Mayer, two-time Tony Award-winning composer and orchestrator Tom Kitt, and Olivier Award-winning choreographer Steven Hoggett, to bring this explosive, iconic album to the stage.
Although the original concept album is reasonably cohesive, it's a thin premise on which to base a musical, and the show's book, by the band's Billie Joe Armstrong and director Michael Mayer, doesn't manage to flesh it out sufficiently. Telling its story largely through music and movement with only a smattering of dialogue, 'Idiot' never manages to make us care about the fate of its thinly drawn characters. Still, there's a lot of passion onstage, and Mayer has provided the sort of propulsive staging that helps put the material over.
I suspect that I may grow to appreciate 'American Idiot' over time, which is essentially what happened to me with 'Passing Strange.' At first, I was thrown off by the lack of coherent storytelling in 'Passing Strange.' But after listening to the album several times and then watching the filmed performance on DVD, I became able to appreciate the musical on its own terms. I even listened to the original album today on my IPOD. It's also worth pointing out that the Green Day fanbase, by already knowing the lyrics by heart, will be better able to follow the 'Jesus of Suburbia' plotline in spite of its sketchiness and fill in (or ignore entirely) all the gaps. Nevertheless, I need to be true to my gut instincts; and for the time being, will proudly air my initial grievances over the lack of character and story development in 'American Idiot.'
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