"American Idiot" begins its run at the Bushnell in Hartford on Tuesday.
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"American Idiot" begins its run at the Bushnell in Hartford on Tuesday
Every once in a while a show comes along that rocks Broadway to its very soul. Think “Hair,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Godspell,” “Grease” and “Pippin” to mention a few.
Count “American Idiot” – which opens on Tuesday for six days at The Bushnell in Hartford – as one of those phenomenons.
Based on Green Day’s Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum punk rock album, “American Idiot” daringly took the American musical where it had never gone before when it opened on Broadway back on March 24, 2010. Taking the band’s music and the lyrics of its lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong and expanding the story for stage, the hit musical tells the story of three lifelong friends, forced to choose between their dreams and the safety of suburbia.
The show opens to a 20-minute “temper tantrum” as the audience sees Johnny, Will, and Tunny frustrated by the images being fed to them on television as they live passively in suburban America. Craving excitement and freedom, they make plans to move to the big city together. But everything falls apart first when Will’s girlfriend discovers they’re going to have a baby and he must stay behind. Then Will finds himself not adjusting well to city living and enlists in the army where he gets shipped off to Iraq. Johnny, now alone, plummets into a world of drugs and into his alter-ego of St. Jimmy who is a manifestation of his self-destruction.
“When we unveiled our 2012-2013 Broadway season last February, we held our breath when the time came to announce ‘American Idiot.’ We know our audiences love traditional musicals, but sometimes we forget how eclectic they are and that they also hunger for the experience of newer, more cutting-edge Broadway shows. As we announced the titles, ‘American Idiot,’ along with ‘Billy Elliot,’ got the most applause of the evening ... It seems our audience is eager for the wonderfully inventive emotional journeys being forged by these new American musicals,” said Paul Marte, communications manager for The Bushnell.
With direction by Tony Award-winner Michael Mayer of “Spring Awakening” and music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom Kitt of “Next to Normal,” the play went on to win two Tony Awards and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.
In speaking to Playbill.com just prior to the play’s official Broadway opening on April 20, 2010, Mayer said, “Green Day’s iconic album is one of the most brutally honest, eloquent, and poetically theatrical responses to the post 9/11 world that I have encountered. I hear in these amazing songs the frustration and anger and dreams of a lost generation of Americans. Collaborating with Billie Joe (Armstrong) and the band has been a mind-blowing thrill from day one.“
In the same story, Armstrong lauded the director by saying, “Experiencing ‘American Idiot’ on stage in Berkeley (during an engagement at Berkeley Repertory Theater) was incredible. We have really enjoyed working with Michael, Steven, Tom and the cast. The energy and chemistry of the group is contagious. Michael Mayer was able to bring life to the characters of ‘American Idiot’ and Tom Kitt’s musical arrangements are breathtaking. We’re so proud that the show is coming to Broadway.“
Featuring the hits “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,“ “21 Guns,“ “Wake Me Up When September Ends,“ “Holiday,“ and the blockbuster title track, “American Idiot,” the play ran for just over a year closing on April 24, 2011. Its first national tour launched less than a year later in December in Toronto, Ontario.
When Green Day released “American Idiot” in 2004, Time magazine called the band’s seventh album, “a masterpiece“ with Amp welcoming it to “an elite list of albums including The Who’s “Tommy,” Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” and The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band” that successfully weave a narrative through music.“ The album – which has sold well over 12 million copies – went on to win two Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album and Record of the Year for the hit single “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”