Green Day's American Idiot Underscores Broadway's Current Non-Star Practices

Green Day driving force Billie Joe Armstrong grew up listening to--and gleefully singing--show tunes. So it's little surprise that the 2004 American Idiot opus, which he and group members Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool composed as a rock opera, has transferred to the Broadway stage under the same waaaay-commercial title. It's also not surprising that director Michael Mayer, whose last Gotham blockbuster was Spring Awakening, has guided the 90-minute adaptation to the St. James after a couple of preliminary try-outs at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and at Vassar.

So what if the result--supplemented by cuts from more recent Green Day product--is a mixed blessing? That'll hardly deter the Green Day fans. They'll flock to the event and undoubtedly bring along as-yet-unconverted ticket-buyers. That eager and surely vocal crowd won't mind the story Mayer and Armstrong cooked up as an elaboration of Armstrong's initial thread about the travails of a misguided "Jesus of Suburbia" in contemporary maladjusted America. It's now the tale of three pals going haywire on their own bent paths and as such is a blatant retread of Hair, Twyla Tharp's Movin' Out and, yes, Spring Awakening.

Predictable from the moment Johnny (John Gallagher Jr.), Tunny (Stark Sands) and Will (Michael Esper) declare their discontent via harsh ditties "Jesus of Suburbia," "City of the Damned" and "I Don't Care," the production is redeemed from its familiar depiction of drug abuse, unwise young marriage and Iraq-war violence by Armstrong's melodically emo songs, which include the occasional lyric contribution by Dirnt and Cool.

It's also favorably marked by a ginormous cast of young troupers who muscularly carry out Steven Hoggett's choreography, which owes much of its unrelieved foot-stomping to Bill T. Jones's Spring Awakening movements. Kudos as well to the arrangements by Pulitzer Prize-winning Tom (Next to Normal) Kitt. Moreover, enough can't be said of Mayer's copious theatrical flourishes, constantly present in Christine Jones's towering set on which a vintage auto hangs and from which 30-plus monitors blare. Not to mention Darrel Maloney's mind-blowing projections eventually featuring the symbolic grenade-as-heart image prominent in the tuner's logo.

Talk about sensory overload--this is a rousing example. Likely to be a box-office bonanza that'll put Cheshire-cat smiles on the myriad producers responsible for its arrival and listed in various print sizes on the Playbill title page, American Idiot represents an additional telling example. In today's nervous Broadway mood, where the prevalent received wisdom is that offerings can only be hits if a star's name graces the marquee, American Idiot joins the list of offerings behind the axiom's corollary: If you can't flash a famous name above the title, put on a rock musical--jukebox, where the music is the star (though that didn't help the Elvis Presley-oriented All Shook Up or Lennon).

Although Gallagher won a Tony for his delightfully manic Spring Awakening performance, Sands shone in Journey's End on Broadway and Twelfth Night and The Tempest off-Broadway and Esper was a big plus for off-Broadway's The Four of Us, not one of them is likely to cause a ticket stampede--though it's possible Tony Vincent, playing serpentine drug dealer St. Jimmy, has a wallet-opening following.

The same can be said for the players in the several other rock musicals currently dotting the Great White Way map. There's Million Dollar Quartet, in which Eddie Clendening, Lance Guest, Levi Kreis and Rob Lyons play, respectively, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins--and work their instruments as if hurling great balls of fire. Yes, they originated their roles in the Chicago development period, but they haven't become b.-o. fodder. What about Chad Kimball and Montego Glover, who aren't recognized stars but unquestionably deserve the designation for their turns in unexpected click Memphis? Perhaps Alice Ripley is selling Next to Normal ducats for having won last year's Tony, but neither she nor her colleagues in the award-winning musical are genuine bold-face names as of now.

And quick! Name the current or previous draws at Rock of Ages, Jersey Boys, Hair, Billy Elliot or In the Heights--all of which are enjoying long runs and feature rock or hip-hop music. What about Fela! with its world music or Come Fly Away, which boasts Frank Sinatra non-rock voice-overs? Granted, Constantine Maroulis, whose American Idol fame precedes him, continues to adorn the Rock of Ages roster. (The fact that Maroulis and several other AI contestants have found their way to the theater when unmercifully caustic judge Simon Cowell has continuously expressed contempt for the outlet is a story for another time.)

In summary: Box-office magnets like American Idiot will keep coming alongside someone like Nathan Lane and whatever gobsmacking star salary he gets. For the foreseeable future, play-it-safe producers will count on rock and off-shoots to be the gold carrot at the end of the Broadway lower-budget stick.

 

Comments

[datagoddess50]

11:31 PM on 04/22/2010

Just FYI, Constantine Maroulis didn't make it to Broadway from Idol - he actually had just finished a 2 year touring production as Roger in RENT when he auditioned for American Idol. I don't think most people realize that he has a lengthy theater background.

So happy he got the opportunity to be the leading man in Rock Of Ages. He's sensational in the role! And what a voice!

[raker]

06:45 AM on 04/22/2010

American Idiot sounds like the kind of musical a businessman would wander, and then cut his throat. I used to love going to the theater. Today, going to the theater is on a par with flying; everything about it is painful: the preposterously high ticket prices, the dreadful visible microphones the actors wear, the overrated spectacles, the 90-minute wonders that play like they were written that morning on the back of a napkin, the small seats, cell phone conversations, the good seats gone to "premium seating," and the whole enterprise being aimed at the dumbest slug in the audience.

[WYHKTai-Tai]

12:59 AM on 04/22/2010

Wow, what a snarky review. It sounds like Mr. Finkle doesn't like Green Day, doesn't like Broadway musicals with big stars or without them.....Man, are you having a bad day?

My husband & I have been Green Day fans since Dookie. I think it's great to see them grow & evolve into such a solid, strong band and now our kids are crazy about them. We just saw them here in Hong Kong. Fantastic concert! I'd love to take them to see this if it has a good run and is still up by the time we get back to NY.

I don't see the problem with a musical having the music as the star, and audiences these days are our age, in our mid-40's, have grown up on Rock & Pop & even Hip Hop, so I it seems only natural that those genres would populate Broadway as well.

I don't get the negative tone in this review (?)

[rektruax]

08:29 PM on 04/21/2010

Village Voice pretty much said it sucked...

[AsheDambala]

04:27 PM on 04/21/2010

I think I'd rather sit through a Jethro Tull rock opera than read another grandiloquent review from this cat. Excuse me while I clear the mini-barf out of my throat.