Theater Review: American Idiot
Mon, April 19, 2010 Yeah, you read that right: theater review. Don't worry, we're not trying to turn this place hideously uncool. But at the request of our movie reviewing/reporting wunderkind, Mitch Anderson, we've decided to include an ocassional theater review when something theatrical is actually worth including in this column. Like a certain punk rock opera by Green Day opening on Broadway this week...so here we go:
Released in 2004, American Idiot was Green Day's first attempt at a rock opera in the style of The Who's Tommy and musicals like West Side Story and Jesus Christ Superstar. The critically-acclaimed album tells the story of a disenfranchised youth (aka: the "Jesus of Suburbia") trying to find his place in a post-9/11 world.
The album was a huge success, selling 14 million copies and winning a Grammy for Best Rock Album. So a stage version was inevitable. The question was...would they do it justice?
The answer is definitely yes. The new stage version of American Idiot, which opens on Broadway tonight, is every bit as good as the original album. In some respects, it's even better.
The story remains the same, with a few added characters to flesh out the story a bit more. Instead of one Jesus of Suburbia, we now have three: Johnny, Will, and Tunny.
These Ritalin-addicted, 7-11 parking lot-dwelling teens are getting ready to escape from their dull suburban town. Immediately, things do not go as planned: Will is forced to remain behind when he learns his girlfriend is pregnant, Tunny joins the Marines after being swayed by a slick media campaign and heads off to Iraq, which leaves Johnny to head alone into the city, where he finds a girlfriend (known only as "whatshername")...and a raging heroin addiction (embodied by a punk rocker called "St. Jimmy"). All three are left to find ways to deal with all of their potentially self-destructive paths and learn how to deal with a world that is just always going to be screwed up.
Now anyone thinking this is American Idiot: The Musical with a bunch of cheesy dance numbers and sung by people who have no idea what rock music is, relax. This is American Idiot as was it was intended: loud as hell with an amazing cast that sings the crap out every song. Green Day was completely involved in the production, and even invited the cast to perform with them at the Grammys this year, where they performed a killer version of "21 Guns." The album is presented on stage in its entirety, as well as several B-sides from the original album, and a few tracks from their newest album, 21st Century Breakdown.
The show was directed by Michael Mayer, who also directed Broadway's last rock musical, Spring Awakening, and stars that show's Tony winner, John Gallagher Jr., as Johnny, who I think is well on his way to his second Tony win. Not only does he have a great voice, but during songs like "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends, he plays the guitar as well.
The rest of the cast, including Rebecca Naomi Jones as Whatshername (who sings an outrageous version of "Letterbomb"), Michael Esper and Stark Sands as Will and Tunny, and Mary Faber as Heather (Will's pregnant girlfriend) are all fantastic. Tony Vincent is great as a crazed St. Jimmy, and Christina Sanjous has an amazing scene with Stark Sands which has both of them flying (yes, flying) around the stage while singing "Extraordinary Girl." How they managed to stay in tune while being flown around the stage on wires, I will never know.
The staging is wild - the walls are covered with flatscreens that blast clips from the news and random TV shows, there's a scaffolding that gets rolled around like a bus for "Holiday" while a projected highway flies by in the background, and there's a 'shock and awe' Iraq battle scene. You're just bombarded by images as soon as the curtain goes up. The band is on stage for the entire show, which is awesome, and definitely stick around for the curtain calls - there's a surprise encore song that the audience went crazy for the night I saw it.
As a fan of the album, I thought the show was fantastic. It's a real rock musical. I thought it was an even better adaptation than The Who's Tommy was back in the early 90s, and I saw that show 4 times when it was on Broadway. I'm a big fan of rock musicals like Hair, Rent, and Spring Awakening - and this show was just as good as any of those. This show could have gone wrong in a whole lot of ways, but thankfully it succeeded in a whole lot of ways instead.
I wasn't sure I needed the cast album (which also releases today), since the Green Day version is usually in constant rotation on my ipod, but after seeing the show, I'll definitely be getting it. In fact, I saw quite a few people checking the theater's souvenir stand to see if they had early copies available (they didn't). Hopefully that bodes well for a good long run on Broadway, it certainly deserves it.
American Idiot officially opens tonight on Broadway at the St. James Theatre. However, if you're nowhere near New York and want to see what the show looks like, check out this clip of the opening number from the soundcheck fans were invited to see just before previews started (and fair warning - like the album, it contains some R-rated language):
Not a bad way to end our first theater review. Awesome show!
Reader Comments (8)
Finally! I've been waiting for this, great review.
I'm linking this from my my twitter @IrishMitchy
Is this only playing in New York? Sounds like a great show, thanks for the review.
I wanna see this, I love green day. I thougth it was actually green day doing the show until I read you review, very cool. thx
@Angela - right now the show is only playing in NY, but if it does well it will probably tour.
@Dave - Green Day is on the cast album (which I'm listening to right now) along with the cast of the show, and they perform a bonus track of "When It's Time" at the end of CD, which is a song Billie Joe wrote for his wife while they were dating and is included in the show.
Thanks Mitch!
i wanna see this now, great review! You should do more like it, green day is awesome.
I'm going to this! I was on the fence about it before, but now im sold, I'm seeing it next week.
Great job on the review Jen.
I can't wait to see it this Sunday! I just want to thank Jen for a great review of the show and watching her wonderful nephew so I can go see it!
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