American Idiot

I love American Idiot, Green Day's 2004 rock opera that became a soundtrack for post-9/11 America. I love musical theatre, too, so it stands to reason I'd be a good candidate to love the stage version of American Idiot as well. I missed its Broadway run--I haven't been to New York since 2007, believe it or not--but was in the audience for the final preview of the brand-new North American touring production which launched last week at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. In the name of full disclosure, I was one of the people singing along with the cast.

I don't feel aggrieved that Green Day decided to make American Idiot into a musical; I decided beforehand I'd be satisfied as long as the resulting adaptation was intelligent, heartfelt, and faithful to the spirit of the original album. The musical's creators have succeeded on all three fronts. Of course, unavoidable issues arose from shoehorning existing songs into a brand new narrative ("Extraordinary Girl," for instance, seemed far-fetched), but for the most part the adaptation's so slick it's now impossible to imagine Billie Joe Armstrong writing American Idiot without this exact plot in mind. (He didn't, of course: the musical incorporates songs from 21st Century Breakdown, Green Day's follow-up to American Idiot, as well as "When It's Time," an outtake from the American Idiot sessions that Armstrong wrote for his wife when they were still dating.) There's an awful lot to like here, enough that I'd recommend American Idiot in spite of its flaws. In particular, the touring production's blessed with a young, energetic cast in which Van Hughes, Scott J. Campbell, and (especially) Jake Epstein excel as the three slackers yearning to cast aside their suburban chains. Michael Mayer (whose previous credits include another teenangstical, Spring Awakening) deftly pulls it all together, while Christine Jones' impressive design traps the characters within a suburban hell in which television rules over everyone's lives.

I liked American Idiot a lot. But I didn't quite love it, because all the push-button angst got to be a bit much. The show's creators needed to do a better job of trusting their audience and letting the piece speak for itself, instead of spending ninety minutes trying desperately to convince us that Important Emotions are being conveyed. I understand that Green Day deals in an aesthetic where attitude and volume trump all--but a Broadway stage isn't a punk rock club, and sometimes in the theatre small gestures speak loudest of all. Given that, it's not surprising that American Idiot's best moments are its quieter ones. "Last Night on Earth" is stunning, the tourniquet dance between Johnny and Whatsername by turns beautiful and unsettling, while "When It's Time" is a rare moment of tenderness amidst the sturm und drang. The harder everyone tried, the less I felt; as the music got louder and vocal chords became strained the cast jerked around the stage like marionettes I became numb to it all. Give me novocaine, indeed. I bought American Idiot the week it came out in September 2004, back when grad school was still a novelty and John Kerry seemed poised to become the next President of the United States. (On November 2, Bri Monster and I saw the American Idiot Tour in Toronto the same night George W. Bush was re-elected.) Against this backdrop American Idiot became as important to my life as virtually any other album, which largely explains my excitement for the stage version. In the end, it was more-or-less worth the wait--but I left the theatre wanting more. Last March I wrote of walking out of another musical, Billy Elliot, and "feeling as though I'd just seen a great near-miss." That's how I felt after American Idiot: I wanted to love it, and I did, kind of, but also like it wasn't quite as good as it should've been.