American Idiot...the movie?

Listening to: Green Day. All of it.

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Can Tom Hanks do for American Idiot what he did for Mamma Mia!??

American Idiot: the Movie. Just imagine! There actually are talks in the blog-o-sphere that Hanks may produce a film version of Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening)’s new hit Broadway musical. That would rock, as long as it doesn’t suck.

I wasn’t a fan of Mamma Mia. The cheese was overwhelming and sickening at times. The movie version of Rent didn’t make me want to puke as much as Mamma Mia did. Tom, please go that route, or better yet, more like Tommy (The Who)...thanks.

Anyway, more recently concrete news about A.I. - the 64th annual Tony Award nominees were announced yesterday. The only show out of the list that I’ve seen is American Idiot. Actually I’ve seen it twice: first on the very first night of previews (March 24, when Billie Joe and Tre were also in attendance), and again last week. 

American Idiot received 3 Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Lighting Design for a Musical and Best Scenic Design of a Musical.

Here’s my gripe. Even though the show is literally packed with a nonstop string of 23 total Green Day songs, the show was not nominated for any music-related awards (including the highly coveted “Best Original Score” category). According to the Tony Award Committee ruling on April 30, American Idiot's score does not qualify for an award because less than 50% of the score was written for the show. Guh!

It’s the songs that tell the WHOLE story, how many other musicals can really say that? (I honestly don’t know since I haven’t seen too many of the recent ones) They linked the songs together in such a clever way that dialogue wasn’t necessary - there are probably less than 30 spoken words in the entire thing. 

I don’t claim to be any sort of theater connoisseur, but as a Green Day fan I enjoyed the heck out of it. The biggest adjustment that I had to make was the initial shock of hearing the songs sung by someone other than Billie Joe. Some songs are even very effectively sung by the totally rocking female cast members, others not so effectively by a few other cast members. That’s all right, you win some you lose some. 

The set design, imagery and even some of the casts costuming are all similar to what you’d see at a Green Day concert. When you go, keep your eyes peeled for some classic G.D. icons appearing on the television screens and projected to the back wall.

A few of my favorite bits of the show: First, my favorite character is Johnny’s drug-dealer/alter-ego St. Jimmy (photo LA Times). Tony Vincent plays St. Jimmy and is amazing: the half-shaved head, goth makeup, and amazing voice - best voice out of the whole cast of guys, I thought. LOVE him. 

St. Jimmy leads Johnny down a dark self-destructive path of drugs and partying, all the while tearing him away from his girlfriend and my second favorite character: Whatsername, played by Rebecca Naomi Jones. If St. Jimmy is the devil sitting on Johnny’s shoulder, she’s the angel perched on his other. And she totally rocks.

Oh and the flying scene about three-quarters through the show is pretty stunning.  I've always said there's just not enough aerial choreography in rock operas. ;)

Fun fact: the song “When It's Time” is a previously unreleased song that Billie Joe wrote for his wife (then girlfriend) at 19. So sweet!


Buy tickets and go see it!

Check out the live performance by the A.I. cast with Green Day at the Grammy Awards on Youtube.


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 “I never thought being obnoxious would get me where I am today.” – Billie Joe Armstrong