Tuesday , March 19 2024
If you can keep a good thing going, why stop? Green Day's first rock opera is now three years into its run as a touring musical.

Green Day’s American Idiot Enjoying Successful Run

The kings of ’90s punk rock revivalists, Green Day, is currently on a world tour performing over two hours of their finest power pop and pure punk rock hits, along with a mix of selections of songs from their trio of new studio albums (¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!) that were released late last year. While that is going on, their 2004 rock opera album, American Idiot, is enjoying a long run as a touring musical after a Broadway production. It was first performed in 2009 but officially debuted in April 2010 and has since had successful runs in America and in the U.K. and Ireland, with well over 400 performances to date. The 90-minute-long Tony Award-winning stage adaptation of this Grammy-winning album is well into another stateside run and will keep running until early May of 2014.

The plot for the musical, centered around three friends (Johnny, a.k.a. “Jesus of Suburbia,” Tunny, and Will) who are disillusioned with the state of the Union (in “Jingletown, USA”) and aim for adventure and success in the big city, is a bit more sophisticated than on the album (which is based on one main character, the anti-hero St. Jimmy, who in this musical is revealed to be a manifestation of Johnny’s id). But they get themselves into situations and introduce themes throughout the play that are relatable to and identify with life in America in the 2000s, such as drug use/abuse, pregnancy, self discovery, and modern day warfare (the Iraq War).

The musical’s cast sings the entire album, but also features non-American Idiot tracks, including b-sides and about a handful of cuts from the follow-up to that album, 21st Century Breakdown (their second rock opera and first album to be produced by legendary producer Butch Vig). By the end of the show, the main characters’ lives have changed for good, and not necessarily for the better for all of them.

For updates on Green Day’s activities, including releases and current tour dates, visit their official website and buy yourself some American Idiot tickets to upcoming performances in the States.

About Charlie Doherty

Senior Music Editor and Culture & Society (Sports) Editor at Blogcritics Magazine; Prior writing/freelancing ventures: copy editor/content writer for Penn Multimedia; Boston Examiner, EMSI, Demand Media, Brookline TAB, Suite 101 and Helium.com; Media Nation independent newspaper staff writer, printed/published by the Boston Globe at 2004 DNC (Boston, MA); Featured in Guitar World May 2014. Keep up with me on twitter.com/chucko33

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