During my recent visit to the Big Apple I decided to catch a Broadway show, I got it into my head that I really wanted to see American Idiot the brand new show based on Green Day’s most famous album. I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t get the Green Day thing. Yeah, I like some of the hits but never found it as revolutionary as everyone makes it out to be. People like Bono and Chris Rock proclaimed them the “Best Band in the World.” I saw them perform 21 Guns on the Grammy’s with the Broadway cast and was sold on the idea of seeing the show.
It desperately wants to be the “Rent” of this generation. We have the disaffected youths and the drug angle but the show lacks the one thing Rent had going for it – a soul. Watching this show felt like a hallow experience. There were too many things going on at once and at times I felt like this show was made for people with ADD. The staging just felt off. On one hand we were supposed to focus on the main character, Johnny (John Gallagher, JR) who was angry for no apparent reason and we’re supposed to feel his righteous indignation. But I just couldn’t bring myself to care. On another end of the stage was his friend, forced to stay behind and deal with his pregnant girlfriend and on the other side was the friend who sold out and went into the military.
As an audience member, we’re supposed to follow all three of these characters, in many instances at the same time, after awhile I wanted them to stop, focus on something and stick with it for more than a minute. At 90 minutes long it seemed like it was the shortest show on Broadway – where the average length was 2 1/2 hours. I wondered how they could get a show so short, turns out it’s easy when the producers don’t really bother to create a real story around the music. This production is music AS the story and that’s the problem.
I never got a chance to know these people as characters. The reason for their angst is never explained, we never see if these people have any kind of drive or ambition to do something. At least, for all my hatred of the self-involved people in Rent, at least they had a reason to be angry and they all had a desire to leave a mark in the world before they died. Here it’s “I’m mad as hell and I want everyone to know it, and I don’t care if you know why. I just am, dammit!”
When the lead guy (I never did catch anyone’s name) gets sucked into the world of heroin and drug addiction I could have felt sorry if the show took a few moments to make us care about him but it’s one disjointed song after another. None of the major moments of the show are earned.
This show is essentially a Green Day concert, nothing more, nothing less, which is fine if you are a fan of the band. All the performances are flawless but lack any heart – it’s too technical. There’s an amazing rendition of 21 Guns, Before the Lobotomy, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and an awesome encore of Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) where the entire cast comes out playing acoustic guitar. I did not get the Letterbomb thing At All.
John Gallagher, Jr has an amazing voice and was spot on with all the big Green Day numbers. I came away not liking this as a show, but came away loving most of the music in this. Fans of Green Day who just want to see a concert should be happy with this. The cast does the music justice. I just wish they took the time to create a real story to go with it.
Final Grade B-
EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted 6.13.2010