American Idiot on Broadway

Ever since I was the one and only blogger in America to break the news that American Idiot would be on Broadway, I felt compelled to see the show and praise the world with my opinion. So here it is.

First and foremost, I want to confirm what most people are probably thinking. There is absolutely no legitimate reason why this show needs to exist. For me, the only true purpose it serves is providing Green Day fans the surreal but awkward moment that occurs when they first realize their hero Billie Joe is actually acting. And I don't just mean acting as in "playing a character," I mean the full fledged over-the-top acting common to musicals. I mean the kind of stage acting that includes having fake background conversations and silly choreographed jumping around. Once this initial jolt wears off, you realize his presence is not so far fetched. In fact, he plays a character called "Jesus of Suburbia," an anarchist drug dealer who appears on stage for maybe 20% of the show and has very little dialogue. You get the impression this was not much of a stretch for a guy who regularly plays 2 hour concerts in sold out stadiums. This spectacle is the 20% of the show I would recommend to anyone. The rest of the show...well, have you seen the film Across the Universe? If so, you know that it was a 2 hour cliche'd farce about some kids having some identity trouble in post-Watergate, Vietnam-era America. Along the way they sing Beatles songs that contain a word or phrase relevant to the manufactured plot, but not at all relevant to the intent of the songwriter. Here's an example: The main character's name was Jude so that it would make sense to sing "Hey Jude." The whole thing begs the question, "am I watching this story because I like the songs? or do I like the songs because they compliment the plot?" If given a chance to think about it, 9 of 10 people would choose option 1. I think I saw this film on opening night though, so my audience is as much a reason for the films existence as the songs themselves. Such is American Idiot.

The non-Bille Joe Armstrong 80% of Broadway's American Idiot is Across the Universe set in post 9/11 America and containing worse music. It is for the hardcore fan of the American Idiot album and fans of stubborn attempts to create a plot out of songs that while written with a common theme in mind, were not written as a cohesive storyline. It is about 3 kids who play in a band together. Then one gets a girl pregnant and has to quit the band, another goes to Iraq and loses his leg, and the third--the primary character--falls into a deep, drug-fueled, depression. Every couple of scenes, Billie Joe's character stops by to be a bad influence and sell some drugs. The story is told by each of the three men through the lyrics of songs from both the American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown albums, and the acting and musicianship is generally very good throughout the show. If the play is not amazing, it is not for lack of decent acting. But the plot... As if the thematic parallels to Across the Universe--which we've established was an awful exploit of good music--were not enough, one scene in the play is a complete ripoff of THIS scene from the film. And that's really all I can say. In 2004 I listened to the American Idiot album exactly one million times and not once did I hear a story about a kid going to Iraq and having his leg blown off. But that's art, right?

Overall, though I'm sure this post has seemed overly negative, my only issue is with the plot. And since I'm convinced American Idiot was not written with Broadway in mind, I can forgive it. This is not high art, nor do I believe it was meant to be. I am not breaking any new ground by criticizing this, and my having gone to see it despite knowing it would lack a story illustrates the very reason it exists. The point is that this show does not NEED to exist on any artistic level, but I am glad that it does if only because I am a fan of Green Day, and I don't know if I would ever have gone to Broadway without its existence. The set is fantastic, the theatre very nice, and the overall atmosphere is very self-aware. It is not as if the producers of the show do not know that the plot rarely makes sense and is not important.

So will you like it? If you liked the album, yes. If you didn't like the album but would pay $75+ to see Billie Joe act, yes. If you are a fan of Broadway musicals like Rent, but have no idea who Green Day is, no.