American Idiot...Broadway Cast???

[ForeverAutumn]

This morning I got an email from Amazon to pre-order the Broadway Cast version of Green Day's American Idiot (http://www.amazon.ca/Brdwy-Cast-American-Idiot-Green/dp/B003FS0SO2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1273236663&sr=8-1).

When did this hit Broadway? Does anyone know anything about it?

[ForeverAutumn]

Okay, here we go. http://americanidiotonbroadway.com/

If this lasts long enough, I may have to plan a trip to NYC to see this!

[Finch Platte]

It's been all over the news around here since Green Day live in the Bay Area, close to me, so yeah, knew about it, Didn't appeal to me, so I yawned & moved on.

Tickets are $265, btw. :p

[rob_a]

"American Idiot" is a good term to describe the people who listen to this rubbish. :out: But, what other way are you going to get Kids to go to the theatre??? :aureola:

[Stone]

I've been getting emails about this "rubbish" musical from SPIN. I wonder what the reviews of it will be like.

[Finch Platte]

I've been getting emails about this "rubbish" musical from SPIN. I wonder what the reviews of it will be like.


"It was fantastic," Berkeley Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Tony Taccone exclaimed after Tuesday's Broadway opening of the Green Day musical "American Idiot."

Taccone isn't an objective observer. "Idiot" had its high-profile world premiere at the Rep last fall, and the company is one of the producers of its third Broadway transfer of the season. Adapted from Green Day's album by the band's Billie Joe Armstrong and director Michael Mayer, it's essentially the same show as seen here, with cast changes in only one principal role and a few chorus and band members.

Given the all-star Broadway audience - which included the likes of Tom Hanks, Tony Kushner, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg and Cyndi Lauper - it's no wonder the exhilaration of the Rep's contingent at the opening was palpable even shouted over cell phones in a noisy crowd. And that was before they'd seen the reviews.

The New York Times' Charles Isherwood, who'd reviewed "Idiot" favorably in Berkeley, led the pack, calling it "thrillingly raucous and gorgeously wrought" and defending its "brash, primary-colored" archetypes as well within the operatic tradition, "rock or classical." "The show is as invigorating and ultimately as moving," he wrote, "as anything I've seen on Broadway this season. Or maybe for a few seasons past."

Not every critic agreed. Rob Harvilla in the Village Voice called it "somewhat inarticulate, spraying its boilerplate discontent at no one in particular," and the Boston Herald's Jed Gottlieb objected to the very idea of profaning punk rock by putting it on Broadway. "It's fun," Jesse Oxfeld wrote in the New York Observer, but "it's also, amid all the booming rock, a little dull."

But unlike the Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck, who called it "a tough sell" and compared it negatively to "predecessors like 'The Who's Tommy,' " most of the "money" reviews were positive. Newsday's Linda Winer praised its "seamless, high-concept theatricality," calling it "a worthy son" to Mayer's Tony-winning "Spring Awakening."

USA Today's Elysa Gardner gave "Idiot" 3 1/2 stars (out of four) as "the feel-good musical of the season." If Associated Press Broadway veteran Michael Kuchwara agrees with Scheck that the show will appeal mostly to Green Day fans, he joins the chorus praising the songs, cast and stagings. The Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones ("a thick, gorgeous head rush of a musical soundscape") calls it "a heart-pounding, punk-rock opera that sounds the unmistakable siren of generational shift" - a sentiment seconded by the Toronto Star's Richard Ouzounian ("The first great musical of the 21st century has arrived").

It's too early to say how all this will translate at the box office, though the Rep's Susie Medak, reporting from the opening-night crowd, said that advance sales "are really good." Taccone was more focused on how "Idiot" has evolved since its Berkeley run.

Though Mayer and Armstrong haven't added any lines, he said, "They've split up the dialogue among the three guys a lot more," which clarifies the focus on the central relationships. "It's deepened the show. It was always a thrilling event, but they've made it much richer."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/22/DDPS1D0H0O.DTL#ixzz0nHFfyAWW

[rob_a]

I've been getting emails about this "rubbish" musical from SPIN. I wonder what the reviews of it will be like.

There was a sneak peak of it on the Grammy's?? I believe, maybe the clip is on youtube. But I'm sure it will have mixed review, pending on how the reviewer feels about Green Day or being called an American Idiot. :mad:

[3LB]

nuthin against Green Day, but I wouldn't cross the street to see this, much less pay $265.

[ForeverAutumn]

nuthin against Green Day, but I wouldn't cross the street to see this, much less pay $265.

You should know better than to listen to Finch. :frown2:

I checked prices and top price for a Saturday night performance is about $120. I don't know how that compares to other Broadway productions, but that's about what I would expect to pay here for Orchestra seats for the theatre. Which is why I seldom get Orchestra seats. :)

I would actually consider a trip to NYC to see this. I'm very intrigued!

[Finch Platte]

nuthin against Green Day, but I wouldn't cross the street to see this, much less pay $265.

Lol. You dork (and I say that with fondness). :22: