Broadway Idiot
Broadway Idiot
ARTc3
Broadway Star Joined: 8/5/13
#1Broadway Idiot
Posted: 4/14/14 at 10:20pm
Just watched, Broadway Idiot. I highly recommend this documentary for anyone interested in the construction of a Broadway musical and/or American Idiot. Having seen the show on Broadway, the documentary was able to take me back to those fond memories and to offer insight in to how the project was shaped by both Green Day and the Broadway creatives. 4 stars.
Sorry about the post on the Off Topic board. I decided it was better posted here.
ARTc3 formerly ARTc. Actually been a poster since 2004. My name isn't Art. Drop the "3" and say the signature and you'll understand.
#2Broadway Idiot
Posted: 4/14/14 at 10:42pm
My only problem with the doc was that it wasn't long enough. Disappointed that no mention was made of Melissa Ethridge's week covering Billie Joe's vacation (she was amazing, and having a woman play St Jimmy added a whole new dimension), because it only covered up to Billie Joe coming into the show.
Hope some of that- and the incredibly fun closing with Green Day playing for over an hour after- is included in the DVD extras!
I felt the best scene in it was Tom Kitt (the MD) discussing with Billie Joe how his early background in singing Broadway songs has influenced his writing- whether he knew it or not.
"What- and quit show business?" - the guy shoveling elephant shit at the circus.
ARTc3
Broadway Star Joined: 8/5/13
#2Broadway Idiot
Posted: 4/14/14 at 10:48pm
The extras are deleted scenes and unfortunately, neither Melissa Ethridge or the band playing closing is included. 
ARTc3 formerly ARTc. Actually been a poster since 2004. My name isn't Art. Drop the "3" and say the signature and you'll understand.
#3Broadway Idiot
Posted: 4/14/14 at 11:06pm
I really enjoyed this documentary. It really made me fall in love with the passion Mayer brought to the show. I lived in the Bay Area when the show played in Berkeley, so I saw it a few times there. So, I never saw Stark Sands in it only Matt Caplan.
I also went to the last Berkeley show, and ended up two rows in front of all of Green Day and their families/wives and Mayer behind them. The whole cast coming out with guitars for the encore and playing Time of Your Life, which I think stayed with the show after that, hadn't been in the show before and was a surprise that night. Many people there that night had been to multiple shows and no one saw it before.
When I turned around, Mayer, and all three members of Green Day were balling their eyes out watching it, and after that, I got to meet them briefly before they were all smuggled backstage (unless you sat near them, they were not easy to meet. There was a very easy path for them to get backstage past most of the crowd.
After that performance, I sort of never wanted to see it again, since... it was kind of too beautiful and perfect. Better to just remember it like that. So that documentary was kind of a nice cheat of seeing it again, but not really seeing it... 
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#4Broadway Idiot
Posted: 4/15/14 at 2:01am
(Pssst: BAWLING one's eyes out. Thought you might want to know. Balling one's eyes out, must be pretty violent.)
Great story though, I can see why you would want that to be your last memory.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#5Broadway Idiot
Posted: 4/15/14 at 4:17amCan't wait to watch this. I saw the show three times in one week when it played my city back in 2012. This is one of those shows that is more than a night in the theatre, it is an experience, and an all out feast for the senses and emotions.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
DigificWriter
Leading Actor Joined: 1/23/12
#6Broadway Idiot
Posted: 5/17/14 at 11:14amI've been a long-time Green Day fan, and fell in love with the Broadway soundtrack to American Idiot the first time I heard it, but getting a chance to see the documentary and learn the behind-the-scenes details of how the production came about, how much involvement Green Day and Billie Joe actually had in its development, and what led to Billie Joe's own turn as St. Jimmy - and get a feeling for the actual context of the songs in terms of their story relevance and who sings what - has officially cemented it as my second-favorite Broadway score behind Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll and Hyde.
#7Broadway Idiot
Posted: 5/17/14 at 12:04pmReally want to see this. Is it available on Netflix?
“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
``oscar wilde``
Adair Haywind
Leading Actor Joined: 4/2/14
Alessio2
Broadway Star Joined: 11/15/13
#9Broadway Idiot
Posted: 5/18/14 at 3:14am
Yes this is available to stream on netflix. Just finished watching it. Saw the show a few nights ago May 15 at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. Though there were many things I really enjoyed about the show, I do wish it had more of a fleshed out story. I loved all the music and was very familiar with all of it before seeing the show. All the arrangements and harmonies are absolutely gorgeous! The young cast was also very talented and full of energy with the exception of Taylor Jones who ironically played Extraordinary girl and was anything but!
The documentary was great and gives alot of insight into the process of taking this incredible concept album to Broadway. Having just watched it, i really wish I had seen it on Broadway, especially with Billie Joe playing St.Jimmy which I'm sure added a whole new dimension to the show.
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#10Broadway Idiot
Posted: 5/18/14 at 7:50amLiked American Idiot. LOVED Broadway Idiot. I suppose that's due to the background info, the journey and certainly the emotional experience of Billy Joe. Watching him experience his material being re-imagined, hearing his newfound connection to and love of theater and the community was incredible. I think his reactions echo what theatre means to most of us.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
DigificWriter
Leading Actor Joined: 1/23/12
#11Broadway Idiot
Posted: 5/18/14 at 12:18pm
One of the things that I enjoyed the most about Broadway Idiot, in addition to getting to see and hear the process of how American Idiot the Musical was conceived and put together was getting to see and hear Billie Joe's own personal journey that led him to take on a role that is really not that big of a stretch for him.
Green Day and Billie Joe are essentially doing a sung-through musical performance every single time they hit the stage (the only difference between what they do and what Broadway performers do is that there are no sets and no real costume changes when Green Day performs in concert), and he's as talented both as a composer/lyricist/songwriter and singer/performer as anybody who's ever hit the 'Great White Way' in the past, so it actually makes perfect sense that he'd take to theater like a duck to water and fall completely in love with the medium and the way that Michael Mayer adapted his and Green Day's material into the musical form.
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