American Idiot, The Green Day Musical, Will Be Bad
By Lindsay CutlerApril 21st, 2010, 2:15 pmComments (6)
When I heard Green Day was adapting their album "American Idiot" into a Broadway musical my first thought was "That sounds bad. But maybe there's something redeeming about it?" Then I checked out its Wikipedia page, and no - it will be very, very bad. Here's a little snippet of the plot:
"Frustrated by his friend's departure and his inability to find girls or fun, Johnny comes into contact with a charismatic, Marilyn Manson-like drug dealer who calls himself "St. Jimmy", and experiences the rush of heroin for the first time with Jimmy at his side ("St. Jimmy"). As Johnny medicates himself with heroin, Will sits on the couch as his girlfriend goes further into her pregnancy, drinking beer and begging for some kind of release ("Give Me Novacaine").
I like that they describe the drug dealer Jimmy as "Marilyn Manson-like," because it's important that I know that he's not just a bad guy, but also from 2002. Also, if they didn't name him Jimmy, playing "St. Jimmy" would not be a literal song explanation for what is happening onstage at that time, and I would be confused.
And it's not that I don't appreciate it when songs in movies or TV shows relate to the story. Playing Jefferson Airplane during Hunter S. Thompson's acid flashback in Fear and Loathing wasn't the most original choice, but it was a pretty damn good one. And it shouldn't have even crossed my mind that the musical for American Idiot, which is for fifteen year-olds, is going to guide you sweetly by the many-braceleted hand. But the line "Johnny and Whatsername go to a club and take drugs together, sharing an addiction" exists in the plot summary. It's there, people. The person who wrote American Idiot (musical) wiki page and the screenwriter for Monopoly the movie might be the same person.
But it officially opened on Broadway yesterday, and someone from NYT thought it was awesome. Then again, he also said things like, "Pop on Broadway, sure. But punk? Yes, indeed, and served straight up," and "And, really, have you ever worked your way through a canonical Italian opera libretto, line by line?" No, sir!
Maybe it's actually a fun show and I shouldn't read into, you know, its wiki page so hard. But it still sounds really, really bad.
Commentarium (6 Comments)
If only they had adapted 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours for the stage instead. "At the Library" would sound amazing and, judging by AI's literalness, be set in a library.
They should do a stage adaptation of Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water.
This is possibly the stupidest idea I have ever heard. I am going to go home and play my Stiff Little Fingers albums really loudly and try to forget Green Day ever existed, let alone made a punk (now that really is entertaining) musical.
I also thought it was going to be super lame, but I went to one of the previews with some friends who were in from out of town...I was surprised. It was really good. They managed not to totally bastardize the music while doing some decent covers of them. They also avoid dialogue overall, so it's not as corny as Rent or something.
I heard very good things about the previews as well from a Broadway loving friend who doesn't really like Green Day. Dancing and staging are great and the music is fun. It's a show, what more can you ask for?
Just saw it last week. If you are not in the mood for the conventional Lion King, P. of the Opera, et al. it's a good choice!