This weekend a friend had asked me to tag along and go see Green Day's American Idiot. I love me some musical theater so I gladly joined her. This particular show I wasn't in any rush to see, I am a fan of Green Day, but actually, American Idiot is my least favorite album of theirs. I was obsessed with them in the 90s, though. Nimrod, Dookie, those were the days. But anyhow, I won't turn down a chance to see any show,
especially one I may not order tickets to myself. Sometimes you just need that extra nudge.
How disappointed I was. And I didn't have a ton of expectations to begin with! This show was a look into the life of kids from suburbia who resent their privileged lives. Not inaccurate. There is plenty of that in the punk world. It begins with three young adults, who wish to leave Suburbia, America and head to the Big City. All three have very different situations and you follow them through their own paths. A solid commercial enough idea. Been there done that, but could offer plenty of points of view and scenarios, so let's go for the ride, why not?
Unfortunately, the execution was terrible. The entire show, to me, felt very uninspired. The songs, were Green Day's, so you knew them, but some of the lyrics felt forced in some of the scenes. There was one punk dance move that was used over and over and over again throughout the whole show. You knew which kids were punks, because they did this bent over head banging move. The rest of the show's choreography didn't exist. Whatever dancing there was didn't show any level of skill. Again, uninspired. Musical theater is just as much the dancing as it is the singing, and this show didn't have it. There were so many moments where there was no movement on the stage at all, even though most of the show was musical. And the few moments without song and there was some actual dialogue, the scene felt so slow and quiet without any affect on my emotional connection to the character or story. In fact, I didn't care about any of the characters throughout the entire thing. The dialogue was obvious and felt like amateur writing. And as far as I could tell, it wasn't trying to be ironic. Just wasn't smart like most shows you see.
Some of the scenes seemed to come from no where and there wasn't any explanation as to where they came from or what the heck they were. I don't want it explained to me in exposition, but maybe some more reference or,... anything. It was annoyingly stereotypical in its characters and scenarios. It felt like Rent, but if it were written by a high school drop out who saw Rent and Summer of Sam and thought to make American Idiot a rock opera while stoned and listening to the album.
I did appreciate one scene, when the character, who was a bum and never got out of bed, was channel surfing (which was displayed on the 50 tv's that littered the set design -- which did show some awesome graphics throughout the show) and when he hit an Army Recruiting commercial, it stayed on the american flag on screen, and the commercial came to life with actors on stage. Really cute. Great idea. Horrible choreography again.
Maybe part of it was that it was the touring show and not the cast you see ON BROADWAY. But I digress, you still have a level of standard and expectations even for off broadway shows. The singing and dancing just didn't seem professional level.
Plenty of people enjoyed it. Some people even gave it a standing "O." Thats excellent, and also the beauty of all things entertainment and art. Everyone has different tastes and appreciation. It just wasn't for me.
