AMERICAN IDIOT Reviews — Page 5

Who? Is that a name that should be familiar?

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I was at opening tonight and was very touched to see Green Day come on stage at curtain to hug and congratulate the cast...They seemed genuinely thrilled at the fact that their creation was being so warmly welcomed at a Broadway Opening Night.

I'll also add that, while I'm a little in conflict -- because I think the show has great artistic integrity and yet I don't really want Broadway to become the new dumping ground for concept album shows at the expense of new original book musicals - I have to admit that seeing actual mainstream music find serious theatrical expression on Broadway in a non-derivative way (i.e Moving Out, Mama Mia, etc) is both a compliment and a return to a new relevancy for the musical theater as an art form. It's very much a testament to the fact that it's alive and well and available to speak to a broader, non-traditional theater audience.

Updated On: 4/21/10 at 12:48 AM

where is the Wall Street Journal? i though the NY Times was the last to post?

The only other one I can think of on the top of my head is My Chemical Romance with "The Black Parade," which I adore.

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haha. While I love Muse, I don't know if I would want to see a musical by them. Gah, that would be one trippy experience.

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"..There's no way that can be a bad thing!"

No, I didn't say it was, The first part of the sentence -- a wholesale trend of concept albums substituting as theatre instead of new book musicals -- refers to the part I would not want.

To the previous comment about bands not releasing concept albums anymore, I shall give y'all exhibits A-C against this...

A: Cursive: Almost every album by this Emo band has a very well defined structure and thematic construct... Personally, I have a vision to stage their album Happy Hollow as a classic touring religious tent revival.

B: David Byrne: He recently released the album "Here Lies Love" a 22 song meditation on Imelda Marcos. Admittedly, this was conceived from a more theatrical perspective (he worked with Marianne Weems on staging concepts) but this was also his homage to "the death of the album".

C: Sigur Ros: While there is no lyrical cohesion to their albums (heck, most of () was famously sung in "Hopelandic") you will be hard pressed to deny both the extreme theatricality to their music and cohesion in the records. Personally, I view their records as rather long through-composed pieces of music.

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Yup, this smells like a poor copy of 2008:

Addams Family is Young Frankenstein, Memphis is Cry-Baby, American Idiot is In The Heights, Fela! is Passing Strange...

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(I didn't see this posted, but if it already was, my apologies)

Theatermania is a rave, and marks Sands as the stand out.
Theatermania.com: American Idiot

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NY Daily News gives it 3 out of 5 stars, but is very Mixed.


http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2010/04/21/2010-04-21_green_days_american_idiot_more_like_a_breakneck_event_than_a_broadway_musical.html

Not much of an accomplishment to be "the most talked-about new musical of the season." At least not in ,i>this season.

Congrats to all on some good notices. I still regret what appears to me to be the utter banality of this work.

One other thing -- I think Tony Vincent is certainly Tony-nomination worthy.

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