The storyline itself is pretty thin but thanks to the outstanding vocal performances and incredibly emotive and shocking scenes, American Idiot provides a fun, feisty night out.
‘I am utterly beguiled’: AMERICAN IDIOT – Touring
Having seen the ways that people can come together in a crisis in the uplifting Come From Away last week, this week brought a more anarchic and nihilistic view of post-9/11 America from American Idiot, the rock opera based on the Green Day concept album of the same name.
‘Musically this is properly exciting stuff’: AMERICAN IDIOT – Touring ★★★★
The tenth anniversary tour of Green Day’s American Idiot kicks up a storm as this Selladoor production arrives at the Playhouse for a week.
‘As brash, raucous & punchy as you might expect’: AMERICAN IDIOT – Touring ★★★
This new production of American Idiot from Selladoor is as brash, raucous and punchy as you might expect and opens with all guns blazing into the title song. T
‘Bowled over by the layers to this show’: AMERICAN IDIOT – Touring ★★★★
My advice is if you like Green Day don’t you be an idiot, book now to see this production of American Idiot before it’s too late.
The Show People podcast: Mark Shenton is a theatre addict
This first episode on MyTheatreMates of the Show People Podcast, hosted by director and producer Andrew Keates, is with Mates’ own Mark Shenton – so a great one to start with!
FROM DOWN UNDER: America Idiot – Touring
Transplanting a punk pop album onto a musical theatre stage proves an inspired concept as Melbourne embraces the electric energy of Green Day’s American Idiot.
AMERICAN IDIOT – Touring
Explosive and full of energy, Edinburgh based youth company Shoogly Peg bring the house down at the King’s with rock’n’roll musical American Idiot.
Vanities: ‘Not a musical about three Mensa members’
After her success with American Idiot, director and choreographer Racky Plews returns to the West End with another American musical, Vanities, which receives its European premiere next month at Trafalgar Studios. What attracted her to the project?
AMERICAN IDIOT – Arts Theatre
Green Day’s anarchic and rebellious, teen-angst filled musical, American Idiot is back on the London stage with a star-studded cast who battle, and floor, the age-old scepticism of putting celebrities into a commercial show.
AMERICAN IDIOT – Arts Theatre
Green Day’s American Idiot is a celebrated punk rock concept Album written post 911. Wild speculation about who it is making reference to was rife at the time of release. Though fiercely denied by all (even in the shows programme), as we take to our seats videos are being projected of President George Bush’ various speeches.
AMERICAN IDIOT – Arts Theatre
A high energy and exciting interpretation of Green Day’s 2004 album has plenty to recommend it. Returning to London after a hugely successful UK tour, American Idiot is a story of how to find yourself and the direction your life takes as seen through the eyes of three friends, whose lives take extremely different paths.
NEWS: American Idiot returns to Arts Theatre in July, TICKETS ON SALE
Following on from its critically acclaimed 2015 London run and 2016 UK Tour, Green Day’s explosive Tony Award-winning musical, American Idiot will be returning to its London home at the Arts Theatre, for a strictly limited run from 8 July to 25 September 2016, with press night on Wednesday 13 July.
AMERICAN IDIOT – Touring
Green Day’s concept punk album explored something that teenagers around the world have been doing forever – questioning societal constructs and their own purpose in life, and feeling as though they are the only person in to experience this existential crisis. But, with a large focus on the post-2001 world, the 2004 release of American Idiot went even further, by ramping up the rage and frustration and channeling this into a highly charged and chaotic collection of thoughts and guitars.
BARBARIANS – Tooting Arts Club at Central Saint Martin’s
It has long been recognised that when writing about his world, Barrie Keefe’s finger is firmly on society’s pulse. With Barbarians however Keefe goes one step further, not just finding that pulse, but slicing it open in front of us, confronting his audience with those bloody, ugly realities that, skin-deep, continually surround us.
A 1970s trilogy of short plays, Barbarians follows three disaffected young men from their confused and sometimes angry adolescence into adulthood. Keefe’s deployment of irony is always a treat and the evening’s opening play, Killing Time is peppered with his trademark black humour as the teenagers, not long out of school, contemplate an evening of petty crime.
NEWS: Nikolai Foster directs all-new Legally Blonde at Leicester Curve
Curve today announces its spring 2016 season following record-breaking ticket sales, a surge in visitor numbers to the iconic building in the heart of Leicester’s Cultural Quarter and an increase in turnover to £7.8m – Curve’s highest figure since opening in 2008. The first under new leadership team of Chief Executive Chris Stafford, Artistic Director Nikolai Foster and Commercial Director Alister de Ternant, the season includes an all-new production of the award-winning West End and Broadway smash hit musical comedy Legally Blonde, directed by Foster and opening on 14 April, with previews from 11 April and running until 14 May.
Rock operas: How much does American Idiot owe to Tommy?
Birth-wise, more than three decades separate The Who’s Tommy and Green Day’s American Idiot, but location-wise, the distance is only three short train stops, from London’s Charing Cross to Greenwich. That is, for the next few weeks in any case. It’s a happy coincidence that these two “rock operas” based on groundbreaking “concept albums” are both […]
AMERICAN IDIOT – West End
Arts Theatre, London
****
Book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael MayerLyrics by Billie Joe ArmstrongMusic by Green DayDirected and choreographed by Racky Plews
Amelia Lily and Aaron Sidwell
It has been nearly three years since Green Day’s American Idiot played in the capital and Racky Plews’ take on the show, filling the summer slot at London’s relatively bijou Arts Theatre, delivers an energy and sound that is rarely seen in the West End.
The opening television sequence of various cable news snippets throws the audience into the story’s recent historical time, ingeniously drawing them into a single TV set which replaces the more lavish multiple-screen settings, typically found in a larger scale production. Sara Perks’ design work makes effective use of background art around the stage, mimicking a captive glued to the TV set and thus cleverly and appropriately setting the tone for the opening number, American Idiot.
The show’s distinctly modern-era story era follows three young men, Johnny, Tunny and Will, struggling to make sense of a seemingly directionless post 9/11 suburban wasteland, filled with nothing but misinformation, mediocrity and vacuous reality. As in nature so in life – vacuums are abhorred – and it is variously drugs, military service and disparate relationships with girls that fill the boys lives.
Of the three, Aaron Sidwell’s Johnny gives a solid lead performance, combining charisma, presence and humour. Steve Rushton as Will and Alexis Gerred’s Tunny manage to define the frustrations, anger and yet also the hope of their generation.
One of this musical’s curiosities is that the show’s girls, whilst vital to its plot, are also strangely marginalised in the narrative. The harshly named Whatsername is played by Amelia Lily (she of X-Factor fame and now making a creditable crossover into musical theatre) whilst Raquel Jones is stunning as the show’s Extraordinary Girl.
In what can prove a tough gig seeking to replicate a band, Mark Crossland does a stellar job as musical director. Alex Marschisone [drums], Brock Eddowes [Bass] and Tommaso Varvello [Guitar] combine to produce a sound that offers up a worthy tribute to the original band.
Plews’ vision of the show’s staging and dance is inspirational, reflecting a broad, hands-on grasp of modern popular culture. In her programme notes she speaks of having grown up to Green Day’s pop-punk sound and her work not only defines a respect for the music, it also evidences a profound understanding of Billy Joe Armstrong’s nuance. Powerful stuff.
Whether you’re a fan of quality new musical theatre or just love the music and want to experience the songs of a generation, then go. Green Day’s American Idiot is one of the most exciting and invigorating shows in town.
Runs until 27th September