You guys. Yesterday I got to see American Idiot at the Oriental Theater.
Squeee.
I know. The crack team behind Dookie, the ones with multicolored hair and names like “Tre Cool,” cranked out a Broadway show. There wasn’t even a secret song about masturbation at the very end. I was as shocked as I’m sure you are.
I joke because I adore Green Day. Dudes are legit. Dookie won itself a Grammy, you know. Plus, are you familiar with the Foxboro Hot Tubs? Wowza. Dudes are LEGIT. American Idiot (both the album and the show) is only further proof that Green Day really knows what it’s doing when it comes to music. Even more plus? They don’t release “clean” versions of their music, even though some retailers won’t sell music with those hideous “Parental Advisory” stickers. I respect the shit out of that.
Okay, enough gushing. On to the show.
Every generation needs a rock musical to scream what they’re living through. The counter-culture hippies of the 1960s had Hair. The artsy types who watched all their friends die of AIDS in the 80s had Rent. The disillusioned millennials who came of age right around September 11 have American Idiot. And whether it’s Let the Sun Shine In, Seasons of Love, or 21 Guns, audience members feel like somebody somewhere took what they feel and put it into the perfect music that they needed. Watch the casts of these shows as they emotionally connect with the music to the point of tears. It’s beautiful.
Plot- good. American Idiot follows a group of friends from their boring suburban dead-end lives. Three decide to leave together. One ends up staying home with his knocked-up girlfriend. The other two leave. In the big city, they both feel lost and alone. One fills the loneliness with joining the army and heading into combat; the other fills it with drugs. If you come from a small town, or even a whole lot of generic suburbia around this country, you know every single one of these characters. The one who knocked up his girlfriend sits on the couch with her during her entire pregnancy, for a while after it, and until she gets up and leaves him, so sick of the couch and him. Army guy is wounded and falls in love with his hot nurse, just like Lieutenant Dan. The junkie loses the girl, loses the drugs, and sells everything he has to get back home. Seriously, we ALL know these guys.
There is almost no dialogue whatsoever. The main character, Johnny, does a little bit of narration to let you know the date and his feelings or something, but not much. You have to pay attention to which character is which to see what’s happening. It wasn’t hard for most of the people in my viewing party. Little Brother, however, is only 23. He had a hard time following along. He doesn’t know these characters yet. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
There’s no intermission. The show is short and loud. It’s Green Day: they have Bored-Kid-Angst down to a science. My uber-conservative Other Brother, the one who’s even socially conservative and apparently actually thinks that Jesus really was born on December 25 (o.m.f.g.) wasn’t a huge fan of the politics of the show. Obviously. Some might argue that he IS an American Idiot. I will give him the benefit of the doubt. He was awfully hungover, and the loud show with tons of bright lights and seizure warnings probably didn’t help.
Music- fantastic. Helloooooo, it’s Green Day. You know these songs. You bop your head along with them, waiting for the next musical rift that you know is coming. The singers are exceptionally talented little Broadway Babies, so they make Billie Joe’s voice sound lousy in comparison. They don’t try to sound like him. And they take these songs that you know so well as played by Billie Joe and Mike and Tre, and they add in strings and harmonies and full chorus. Lead vocals get tossed around willy-nilly between the characters – every person on the stage had at least a line or two of at least a song or two to solo on.
Set- good. For this tour, the stage is backed by a wall of televisions. The tvs show what the show needs them to show. Sometimes it’s a closeup of a character as currently being filmed by another cast member. Sometimes it’s generic television error messages. And sometimes it’s clips from real tv – President GW Bush saying that you’re either with us or against us; Jerry Springer; South Park; etc. There’s also some great scaffolding and stairs that the show made great use of. The “main” set is a couch and a mattress. They move around the stage as needed. Oh, and sometimes there is aerial work. Always fun. The set feels like basements you used to spend time in, which feels just about right considering those basements belonged to the guys described above.
Dancing- great. This is angst-alterna-rock dancing. Angry hate-fuck dancing. High energy, nonstop movement. The kind you want to get up and join in with, and for a hot second you feel like you almost COULD, and then you realize they’ve been doing moves you couldn’t do when you were 13 over and over and over for 7 minutes, and they’re still jumping around with nonstop energy after 30 minutes of similar moves and angst while you would be collapsed on the floor unable to breathe. Loved it. And it fit the music PERFECTLY.
Cast- great. The show is about these three guys as they drift through life, while the other people who drift in and out are almost nameless and faceless. Women especially- the knocked-up girlfriend had a name in the program but was never referred to it on stage; the nurse is called “The Extraordinary Girl,” and the girl the junkie loses is named “Whatsername.” In lesser directing hands, or in the hands of a lesser cast, this would have been a serious problem. Instead, you knew the girls and saw them and understood them. The clarity given to the audience isn’t visible to the people on stage. It’s fascinating. Every person on the stage is a hell of a singer, a hell of a dancer, and LOOKS the part in their flannel and skinny jeans and headbanging. The main three guys pick up guitars from time to time and accompany themselves. That takes a lot of skill, even for Broadway Babies. At the end, the entire cast grabs guitars and plays together. Color me impressed.
Overall- great. Honestly, it’s a concert. A rock concert, held in a classical music concert hall. It’s loud and the lights are all over the place and the music is angry and angsty and fabulous. It was quick, too. 90 minutes max. The only real shame is that you’re stuck in a fancy theater surrounded by fancy theater-going folk in a nice sit-down theater chair. You’d much rather be moshing your head off, even though you KNOW you’re too old for that shit.
I loved it.
