ForeverAutumn
01-06-2012, 07:49 AM
I've been dying to see American Idiot since it first opened on Broadway. Last night I finally got the chance to see it, as the first stop for the first touring company, and all I can say is WOW! It was worth the wait.
I love the original album and I love the Broadway soundtrack, so I knew the music would be killer, but would the story hold up on stage? The answer is an unequivocal YES. In fact, brining the music to stage brings life to it and fills in the storyline much more than the album, probably, ever intended.
When the play first started I was a bit unsure. I thought that I might walk away disappointed, but as the story progressed I was drawn in, even shedding a tear or two. The characters start off a bit goofy but then progress into, I thought, totally believable troubled youth. It's a story of three friends bored with suburban life and looking for excitement and meaning in their post 9/11 world. 9/11 doesn’t play a key role in the story but there are subtle references to it. There was one staging technique where the lighting created the illustion of paper flying through the air. It reminded me so much of those TV images after the towers fell. I don't want to say more than that because I don't want to give away too much.
I thought that the original album was a 21st century masterpiece and now I think the play is the same. Hubby and I see a lot of theatre and this really is, IMO, the first great play of this century. We live in a new political age and while the story could easily be transposed to just about any post WWII timeframe, the music is uniquely current. This play has guts and energy. If tickets weren't so damn expensive I'd see it again before it leaves town.
In addition to the play, much of my entertainment came from listening to the people around me talk about Green Day. I would say that I heard comments from more people who were not very familiar with Green Day and had never heard the album than those who were fans. However, that might also have had to do with the price range where we were sitting.
My favourite conversation however was one that I heard between two women walking behind us as we were leaving the theatre.
Woman 1: This was very political. This must have been, like, Green Day’s political statement or something.
Woman 2: Oh yes, the album is political, that’s the story of it. This was Green Day’s big relaunch album (wtf is a “relaunch” album?). American Idiot really relaunched their career.
Then she continued on for several more minutes about the big relaunch. I wanted to turn and ask her where she thought GD had been that they need to be relaunched? But I thought better of it and kept my mouth shut. Sure it had been four years between Warning and American Idiot, but just look at how they spent those four years; creating a ****ing masterpiece!
I love the original album and I love the Broadway soundtrack, so I knew the music would be killer, but would the story hold up on stage? The answer is an unequivocal YES. In fact, brining the music to stage brings life to it and fills in the storyline much more than the album, probably, ever intended.
When the play first started I was a bit unsure. I thought that I might walk away disappointed, but as the story progressed I was drawn in, even shedding a tear or two. The characters start off a bit goofy but then progress into, I thought, totally believable troubled youth. It's a story of three friends bored with suburban life and looking for excitement and meaning in their post 9/11 world. 9/11 doesn’t play a key role in the story but there are subtle references to it. There was one staging technique where the lighting created the illustion of paper flying through the air. It reminded me so much of those TV images after the towers fell. I don't want to say more than that because I don't want to give away too much.
I thought that the original album was a 21st century masterpiece and now I think the play is the same. Hubby and I see a lot of theatre and this really is, IMO, the first great play of this century. We live in a new political age and while the story could easily be transposed to just about any post WWII timeframe, the music is uniquely current. This play has guts and energy. If tickets weren't so damn expensive I'd see it again before it leaves town.
In addition to the play, much of my entertainment came from listening to the people around me talk about Green Day. I would say that I heard comments from more people who were not very familiar with Green Day and had never heard the album than those who were fans. However, that might also have had to do with the price range where we were sitting.
My favourite conversation however was one that I heard between two women walking behind us as we were leaving the theatre.
Woman 1: This was very political. This must have been, like, Green Day’s political statement or something.
Woman 2: Oh yes, the album is political, that’s the story of it. This was Green Day’s big relaunch album (wtf is a “relaunch” album?). American Idiot really relaunched their career.
Then she continued on for several more minutes about the big relaunch. I wanted to turn and ask her where she thought GD had been that they need to be relaunched? But I thought better of it and kept my mouth shut. Sure it had been four years between Warning and American Idiot, but just look at how they spent those four years; creating a ****ing masterpiece!