Direct from Broadway, the smash-hit musical American Idiot tells the story of three lifelong friends, forced to choose between their dreams and the safety of suburbia. Their quest for true meaning in a post 9/11 world leads them on the most exhilarating theatrical journey of the season. Read more …
Based on Green Day’s GRAMMY® Award-winning multi-platinum album, American Idiot boldly takes the American musical where it’s never gone before. The result is an experience Charles Isherwood of The New York Times declares ‘Thrilling, emotionally charged, and as moving as any Broadway musical I’ve seen this year!’
Featuring the hits Boulevard of Broken Dreams, 21 Guns, Wake Me Up When September Ends, Holiday and the blockbuster title track, American Idiot features the music of Green Day and the lyrics of its lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong, direction by Tony Award® winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening), choreography by Olivier Award winner Steven Hoggett (Black Watch), music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), Tony Award® winning set design by Christine Jones and Tony Award® winning lighting design by Kevin Adams.
It’s the single most exciting and original live rock musical I’ve ever seen.
American Idiot is a knotty and challenging piece that adroitly skirts cheesiness, and bravely eschews the easy option of a pat, happy ending. It's another unexpected triumph for a band that have consistently taken more left turns than they are usually given credit for.
Played and sung with electric energy and conviction, American Idiot is Rent for this generation.
It’s the musical numbers, from 21st-century protest songs to anthems for doomed youth, that are the stars of this rollicking, thunderous but frequently moving show.
Thrilling stuff.
The lead characters struggle to be anything other than one-dimensional...and their personal journeys are hackneyed and all-too-obvious. That said, it's entertaining nonetheless.
Opinions often differ according to your own musical taste and experience and if you are Adult, like punk music, flashing lights and life in the raw then it’s for you.
It’s an intense musical and visual experience; and in its anger, its despair, and its sense of a helpless tension between numb conventionality and garish self-destruction, it seems to speak for a generation, and for our time.
Despite its drawbacks it's still a bold, flashy punk opera for the 21st century.
Full casting announced for UK run of American Idiot musical
Green Day musical arrives in Scotland to bring punk ethos to musical theatre
American Idiot The Musical to liven up The Playhouse for five days
Dare to be different.
Alex Nee: Interview
Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh from Monday October 22, 2012, until Saturday October 27, 2012. More info: www.edinburghplayhouse.org.uk
Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow from Monday October 29, 2012, until Saturday November 3, 2012. More info: www.secctickets.com
RSS feed of Theatre reviews