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.
We never learn enough about this trio to care for them as individuals. And Green Day's songs, though sometimes effective in striking general attitudes, don't do much to make these guys seem contemporary quintessences, either. Only one song, the mournful 'When September Ends,' lingers in the mind. Mayer's design team blankets this thin slice of life in cascades of projections, always apt but predictable. His astute casting pays off: His three leads, who've all proven their skill in nonmusicals, give these straw figures solid presences. An elaborately choreographed flying effect, when Sands hallucinates in his hospital bed, ranks with the most inventive such stunts I've ever seen. I didn't come away cursing, or bored, or feeling that I'd wasted my time. But I also didn't feel satisfied. And I couldn't help savoring the irony of artists who critique the system by, literally, plugging into it. It's the influence of mass media, rock included, that keeps such non-hero types from becoming themselves. If only they'd joined a community theater group instead.
All this being the case, 'American Idiot' rises or falls almost entirely on the strength of the songs themselves, and I regret to say that I found them to be brain-numbingly dull. Perhaps I might have felt differently if I were 14, but I was all but incapable of attending to the puerile maunderings of Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day's lyricist, of which the following specimens are representative: • 'Well maybe I am the faggot America / I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.' • 'Lost children with dirty faces today / No one really seems to care.' • 'Summer has come and passed / The innocent can never last.' As for the music, it reminded me of an amphetamine-crazed hamster running on a treadmill.
2010 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2011 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
2012 | US Tour |
National Tour [Non-Equity] US Tour |
2015 | West End |
West End Production West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Choreography | Steven Hoggett |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Michael Mayer |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Featured Actor in a Musical | Tony Vincent |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Featured Actress in a Musical | Rebecca Naomi Jones |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Musical | John Gallagher, Jr. |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Lighting Design | Kevin Adams |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Musical | American Idiot |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Orchestrations | Tom Kitt |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Scenic Design | Christine Jones |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Sound Design | Brian Ronan |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Michael Mayer |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Musical | American Idiot |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Tom Kitt |
2010 | The Hewes Awards | Lighting Design | Kevin Adams |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Kevin Adams |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Scott Delman |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Larry Welk |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Bensinger Filerman and Moellenberg Taylor |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Tom Hulce |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Ira Pittelman |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Ruth and Stephen Hendel |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Vivek Tiwary/Gary Kaplan |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Aged in Wood and Burnt Umber |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Scott Delman |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Allan S. Gordon/Elan V. McAllister |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | HOP Theatricals |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Jeffrey Finn |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | John Domo |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | John Pinckard |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Awaken Entertainment |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Berkeley Repertory Theatre |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Musical | Christine Jones |
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