SNEAK PEEK: Green Day's 'American Idiot' Musical
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John Gallagher, Jr. and Tony Vincent star as Johnny and St. Jimmy / Photo courtesy of mellopix.com
Green Day: Aficionados of fire and helicopters, high-powered machine guns, and … the fine art of theatre. As you may recall, a new musical based on the band's 2004 concept album American Idiot opened this September at Berkeley, CA's Repertory Theater. So what are you missing? Watch the trailer below!
The production's script was co-written by Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and Tony Award-winning Spring Awakening director Michael Mayer, and -- as the trailer connotes -- it closely adheres to the album's concept: a sonic melodrama following Ritalin-addled anti-hero protagonist Jesus of Suburbia and his pals, St. Jimmy and Whatsername.
The trailer shows the crew of spiky-haired teenagers dancing around, carousing, and dealing with the realities of their lives as presented in the album: the war in the Middle East ("Wake Me Up When September Ends") and the paranoia of post-9/11 America ("American Idiot").
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The play is already becoming a hit. Due to popular demand, its initial five-week run was doubled, with the show closing Nov. 15, 10 weeks after its debut. According to the Los Angeles Times, the American Idiot play has broken all of the 41-year-old company's box office records, and now holds the Berkeley Repertory Theater's records for top gross, biggest advance sale, and biggest single-day box office receipts!
And Green Day isn't stopping there: Armstrong is planning to take American Idiot to the silver screen!
But what's in store for the band's latest album, 21st Century Breakdown? No word just yet -- but it would work perfect as an opera!
WATCH:American Idiot trailer
10 Comments
Click here to comment- Posted By idolhands
10.06.09 1:05 PM
I am without speech..I cant believe Green Day gave this the Green light (haha) But no..really..this is ridiculous. I really just hope Green Day pull their heads out of the sand and get back to making records without storylines and big ballads...At this point I dont think they can go back..Im sure the next step is solo records..ugh
- Posted By ColdBeverage
10.06.09 1:13 PM
What do you guys mean? It was written as a rock opera.
- Posted By Ricky Stevens
10.06.09 7:10 PM
Wow.... that was one of the worst things I've ever seen. I'm not ragging on those kids for being untalented, they can sing..... but wow... that was awful. This is just an other example of why not every idea needs to be followed through on.
- Posted By Anonymous
10.09.09 8:13 AM
Unless you've seen the actual musical then I wouldn't judge. This is just a 1 minute trailer taken from bits of a 80 minutes or so long musical, and this doesn't do it justice. And I'm glad Green Day approved this and they were actually involved in the development rather than approve it and see what it looks like on the other end, they went to workshops to see how it was progressing. And I think its great for Green Day to do this, The Who had Tommy and obviously Queen had musicals and what other band is going to try and expand their influence and turn into something like a musical or a movie.
- Posted By Anonymous
11.18.09 6:30 PM
I saw it and knew I had to see it again. It was incredible. I saw it just last week before it closed and I was blown away again. YOU MUST SEE THIS SHOW BEFORE YOU JUDGE IT! I was apprehensive when I bought tickets because I wasn't sure what to expect, but you must see it. It's fantastic.
10.06.09 12:50 PM
whoa...there's good theater, then there's bad...and this isn't the good bad...this is really bad. this could be a 'producers' ploy...secretly hoping so because this made my coffee kick up...in my mouth.