On only its second day of previews at the St. James, the audience roars its approval. Unfortunately the roar was for the three members of Green Day taking their seats and not for the mess of a musical about to unfold, “American Idiot”.
Nominally the story of slackers in Dubya’s 00s USA, one of the best friends stays in suburbia, one, the hero, moves to the city and the thir joins the army and is shipped off to Iraq, the book is hardly there at all and the story while not just a clotheshanger for the songs, mostly taken from the 12 million copy selling American Idiot veers awful close to being a “Jukebox Musical”.
It starts with a bang, against a bank of TV sets flashing images from the immediate past the ensemble roar into “American Idiot” the song and it is exciting as you might imagine but slowly you begin to realize that is essentially their only idea. Production values are around zero, the dancing is nothing much. It is the same set through out and while it is smart the way they arrange with so much ease how you are in different locales, nothing here is remotely as smart as the way Director/Book Michael Mayer changed a set into a classroom by turning round chairs in the vastly superior “Spring Awakening”.
“Spring Awakening” had little production values as well but what it did have was a great book and although Bilie Joe’s music is superior to Duncan Sheiks, Sheik was writing a specific score for a musical and not the cut and paste job Armstrong has here. Sheik’s score works better as a musical score.
The musical lasts an hour and three quarters without interruption and after the post-“American Idiot” song let down it builds up through a headlong momentum that while draggy for time to time keeps you in a grip. It is all of a piece and it emerses you in its world. And while it includes one of the worst moments in recent musical history “Before the Lobotomy” -in which a wounded soldier is hoisted into the air to sing along with an angel or something, it also includes the absolutely thrilling “Know Your Enemy” (off the vastly superior 21st Century Breakdown -“Last Night On Earth” is also here): a delirium tremor of a production number.
The performers are uniformly excellent working with very thin material. Johnny, performed by John Gallagher Jn,(who became a star with “Spring Awakening”) does a miraculous piece of acting. He is just brilliant in an impossible to act lead role. And you can’t blame the performers for what my friend Mike dubbed, the “high school musical” dance routines.
The rock band is the best I have heard not featuring Stewie on a Broadway Stage. Two guitars, drums, cello, keyboard, accordion, viola, percussion. Congratulations for remaining an authentic rock band while playing a musical score. I, unlike Helen Bach, like Green Day, though they said more about the human condition on “J.A.R.” than they do in this entire show. I saw em at MSG last year and you can search for my very positive review if you like.
So what’s going on here? “American Idiot” wants to be one part “Rent” -the story of a generation, one part “Spring Awakening” -an exploration of young adults in crises.
But it lacks the cohesion of the former and the imagination of the latter. Everybody has beaten em to it.
Finally both “Rent” and “Spring Awakening” were FUNNY. They had a sense of humor and fun within the drama. “American Idiot” is a relentlessly bleak vision. It was okay and it held me, but in the end I just plain didn’t enjoy it.