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.
Few could have predicted that American Idiot, the new adaptation of the band's massively popular, starkly disenchanted album of the same name, would be the feel-good musical of the season. But in the hands of director Michael Mayer, who also co-wrote the libretto with Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, Idiot has become just that — as well as a case study in the power of teamwork in musical theater.
It’s a self-described “rock opera” set in a self-created “Recent Past,” and it purports to evoke, with a single tear and a power chord, the confusing days of the terror-stricken early 21st century, when we yo-yoed from cowed powerlessness to inchoate fury. Well, confusing and inchoate this show most definitely is: Its version of youthful anomie is so far off the mark, and such a muddled conflation of vague Gen-X nostalgia and generic rebellion sample tracks, that the effect is almost comical. But mostly just irritating.
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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