Is AMERICAN IDIOT theatre?

[willrogers2008]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 10:21pm

If the answer is NO I'll ask you: what is theatre nowadays? AMERICAN IDIOT is one of the most amazing experience I've had in my life.Ps: I 've saw FOLLIES,GRAND HOTEL,A CHORUS LINE and many landmarks in previews.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 10:30pm

...Great!

...it really sucks when people get incoherent about/shill for shows that are actually good...

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 10:30pm

Welcome John Gallagher Jr!

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 11:13pm

In response to the poster: if I crap out food, is it still the food i ate 5 hours ago? of course its theatre.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 11:28pm

I didn't like the show, and I know others didn't as well, but I would never go as far as to say it wasn't theater. Where is this coming from?

Responding to the stuff about it not telling a story: It definitely tells "a story." Personally, I don't think it tells the story clearly or compellingly.

Updated On: 4/3/10 at 11:28 PM

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 11:44pm

"...Great!

...it really sucks when people get incoherent about/shill for shows that are actually good..."


THIS. So this. It's SO frustrating when stupid people try to champion things I love.

But yes, I urge people to not comment after this. Let this thread disappear into the darkness...

[HarryPotter01]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 3:55am

Sorry I'm replying and not letting the thread just die...which might have ben best, but...

The question I had after seeing it was this: Did I gain ANYTHING by seeing this as a musical performed on Broadway rather than as a concert performed by GreenDay, who were there the night I saw it? The answer, sadly, is no. As the non-theater-types who were with me said immediately following, "It wouldn't have been much different if GreenDay would have just gotten up and sang. I didn't really care about any of those characters at all, anyway."

So, while I think almost anything we do becomes theater the moment we stand up and do it in front of an audience, I don't think this material gains much of anything by being performed by actors on a Broadway stage -- other than the admittedly enjoyable experience of watching an enormous amount of actor-ly talent -- all of which could be better utilized in an actual musical rather than a Broadway "event" that ends up being little more than a concert version of an album I used to love.

[mc1227]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 9:41am

I have not seen this show yet but do plan on it soon. My definition of theater is watching a live performance that tells a story. If this show does that, then I consider it to be a theatrical experience. It may not be conventional or to everyone's liking but it is theater nonetheless.

[leefowler]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 11:02am

Complaining that American Idiot doesn't tell a story is a little like complaining that Sondheim On Sondheim doesn't tell one. Is the Sondheim revue "theatre" if it doesn't tell a story?

American Idiot does have a "story", but only in a very loose fashion, a lot like Hair. But I found the characters compelling, and it was a huge pleasure to hear the great Green Day songs sung with such passion.

American Idiot doesn't tell a story in the sense that My Fair Lady does, but I found it very dramatic none the less.

[musicalman2]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 11:09am

of course it's theater.

I agree with the reader above about Sondheim. AI has more plot than Cats, Spelling Bee, Chorus Line and many others. I think some people just don't like this type of narrative. I understand why some might not. But it feels pretty powerful to me.

[PReeves]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 11:43am

if you consider Sondheim on Sondheim to be "revue" theater then why wouldn't Fela! be considered the same thing. And the comments that American Idiot doesn't tell a story, or question whether or not it is theater seem to be the same arguments people are making about Come Fly Away. They are all theater to me.

[poochie4]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 12:58pm

"It wouldn't have been much different if GreenDay would have just gotten up and sang. I didn't really care about any of those characters at all, anyway."

This is exactly how I feel about the show.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 1:11pm

Where HAIR and American Idiot part ways is in the end you KNOW what HAIR's message is, it has a very simple but straight forward storyline and you actually care for the characters by the end of the show.. In American Idiot you just go "Huh?" and "i should care, why?". I wasn't quite sure the message American Idiot was trying to get across.

Though the Barbara Eden, Major Nelson mid air copulating did give me a giggle fit.

Updated On: 4/3/10 at 01:11 PM

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 1:14pm

It feels like the OP is, like so many other people do, letting opinions on the show ruin his experience. Why does it bother people so much that others didn't enjoy themselves? As long as you enjoyed it, why should you care?

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 2:52pm

Yes

Because brilliant acting takes place, so it is certainly theatre. I would be more understanding if members on here had a problem with it being called a musical?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 5:10pm

So, over the course of American Idiot, the following occurs (SPOILERS):
-A group of friends move to the city
-One's girlfriend gets pregnant and he stays home to raise it
-One character gets addicted to drugs with the help of a seedy pusher
-Another enlists in the army and falls in love with his nurse when he is injured in battle
-He has his leg amputated
-The father and his girlfriend grow apart and she leaves, taking the baby with her
-The drug addict gets strung out and threatens his girlfriend and himself with a knife
-She tries to help him but he breaks up with her
-The pusher is revealed to be a figment of his imagination

And over the course of Hair, this is what happens:
-Berger tears a shirt.

Now, I have no problem with Hair. But people seem to have this determination to take down American Idiot. Of course it's THEATRE. You sit down in a Broadway house and watch a story told through acting and music. This story does not have dialogue and isn't nuanced, but if it was, it would betray the very spirit of the show and of a ROCK OPERA.

And since when does every show need to have a clearly delineated message? The cast of Hair basically marches around for two and a half hours talking about free love and whatnot. Does that constitute a message to you?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 5:15pm

Now, that's not necessarily true. Over the course of HAIR, the protagonist tries to explore everything their is to explore after receiving his draft card. In the end, he decides that unity to his country is more important than unity to his friends, and he dies because of it.

If anything, HAIR is a very conservative-mined piece of theater. Minus the parts involving hippies, pot, LSD, homosexuality, heterosexuality.

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 5:32pm

"Where HAIR and American Idiot part ways is in the end you KNOW what HAIR's message is, it has a very simple but straight forward storyline and you actually care for the characters by the end of the show.. In American Idiot you just go "Huh?" and "i should care, why?". I wasn't quite sure the message American Idiot was trying to get across. "


A show not having an easy to digest "message" is not a negative, just as it having one is not a positive.

And really? What is HAIR's "message"?



I found a similar amount of resonance at the end of AI as i did at the end of HAIR. *vague spoilers*

These three characters have all taken vastly different journeys, but at the end of the day, didn't achieve that much, and have become the very "American Idiots" they rail against at the beginning of the show. A huge amount of youth in their mid-twenties (and older) throughout the country fall into where these characters are at the end of the show (and during it), and most of them just settle into their complacency and go on with their lives. I think the core of AI gets at the disaffected nature of huge segments of that particular generation, and I was quietly knocked out at the end of the show.



And for the record, I wouldn't have felt NEARLY as impacted had Green Day just performed the songs on stage. A huge part of what I loved about AI was the exciting, energetic, visceral, 'wow' nature of the production, which I thought worked perfectly in tandem with the music and performances (and the way the songs were used were uber-creative, in my opinion).

But whatever. Even if I had hated the show, it would still be "theatre," and this thread would still be stupid.

[musicalman2]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 6:11pm

MiracleElixir and Piragua: Right On! Well said.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 6:40pm

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate American Idiot, I just don't like it much. There are moments of brilliant theatre onstage, the bus trip comes to mind. I have a problem with the in your face directing style. I didn't care for Spring Awakening for the very same reason...( what is with the rising platform for all the sex scenes anyway?) Perhaps to the volume of the piece and not being familiar with the Green Day Album the lyrics were all but lost in the mix. When the show wasn't constantly in your face the quieter "emotional" numbers boarder lined hokey....I had a bit of a problem with the lighting,the video and what was happening onstage fighting for attention, though I did like the live video camera work.
No, every show doesn't need a message but I felt AI was trying to put one across and I just wasn't sure what that was. If it was, the World today sucks and we all end up back home, fine,then cut the very last song which seemed tacked on anyway.
Ultimately, I think it will do very well. For how long, who knows? I just know it is not a show I will revisit.

[dwb0102]

Posted: 4/4/10 at 12:00am

yes. the real question is whether or not it is any good. i say its good but not great. i saw it tonight. i was entertained but not moved.

[musicalman2]

Posted: 4/4/10 at 12:22am

Snafu, I felt like it captured a snapshot of a certain segment of youth wasting their youth attempting to be rebellious and finding that they cannot escape what has been set out for them. I especially liked the somber and quiet end. In contrast to the raucous opening. No more fire in them. I thought it was a nifty progression. I am not sure it is an actual "message" any more than HAIR had one.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/4/10 at 3:21am

Hair has a very strong anti war,anti draft message. It was a celebration of life and a plea to end the war and draft which robbed young men and our protagonist of their most precious possession. We grew to now the characters during the course of the show. We got to experience Claude's crisis of conscience and soul search. In American Idiot we didn't really get to know the three main leads. Their lack of characterization seemed to keep them at arms length. We were given three rather sketchy story arcs with no real emotional attachment.

Updated On: 4/4/10 at 03:21 AM

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 4/4/10 at 4:48am

Claude's conflict is just as "sketchy." We don't really get any emotional involvement until the last 15-20 minutes, and even then, there's still not much in the way of character development. I'm not saying this as a weakness -- HAIR is a great show -- but only as an example of how there's more to what makes a show than whether you got an easy-to-process, preachy "anti-war" message, or if you felt the characters had a completely fleshed-out arc.

I'm as anti-war as the next gay liberal, but I don't think a show coming out against the Vietnam war makes it more resonant or emotionally affecting than a show that strives to give a voice to -- or at least, depict -- scores of passive, disaffected Americans. The message isn't "life sucks" -- but again, and I'll repeat myself as many times as I have to, PREACHING A SIMPLE, STRAIGHTFORWARD MESSAGE ISN'T NECESSARILY A VIRTUE.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/4/10 at 6:44am

.

From what I know about AI (the album), there isnt necessarily a message. Whoever said it is a snapshot seems to be right. I think GreenDay was trying to capture the disillusioned youth that is now running rampant in our society. I cannot speak to how successful (or not) the production is....I won't see it for two more weeks.

Snafu...in SA the platform only rose one time...for the hayloft scene, which is the only sex scene we see. They are in a HAYLOFT, thus they are up high. The second one is just a replay of the first and is on a platform which glides forward. I can't tell you WHY it moves forward, probably because it can