American Idiot follows the exhilarating journey of a new generation of young Americans as they struggle to find meaning in a post 9/11 world, borne along by Green Day’s electrifying score. This high-octane show includes every song from the acclaimed album American Idiot, as well as several songs from the band’s Grammy-nominated new release, 21st Century Breakdown.
Green Day won two Grammy Awards for the groundbreaking rock opera American Idiot, which sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. Now Billie Joe Armstrong and the band collaborate with one of the theatre's most acclaimed creative teams, led by the Tony Award-winning director of Spring Awakening, Michael Mayer, two-time Tony Award-winning composer and orchestrator Tom Kitt, and Olivier Award-winning choreographer Steven Hoggett, to bring this explosive, iconic album to the stage.
It’s a self-described “rock opera” set in a self-created “Recent Past,” and it purports to evoke, with a single tear and a power chord, the confusing days of the terror-stricken early 21st century, when we yo-yoed from cowed powerlessness to inchoate fury. Well, confusing and inchoate this show most definitely is: Its version of youthful anomie is so far off the mark, and such a muddled conflation of vague Gen-X nostalgia and generic rebellion sample tracks, that the effect is almost comical. But mostly just irritating.
Rage courses through the Green Day-scored American Idiot and fittingly, this andrenalized gut-punch of a musical is bound to piss you off. Whether you’re a Broadway nostalgist longing for middle-of-the-road kitsch, or a sullen teen who vicariously thrills to the show’s grimacing, bird-flipping punks, your heart will pound, your pupils will dilate, you will sweat and breathe hard. Such a state is intense but not permanent: Anger is just a drug, after all. But for the 90 minutes that American Idiot has you in its white-knuckle grasp, it will electrify and overwhelm your senses. Here’s a musical to thrash to. Goodbye, orchestra pit; hello, mosh pit.
2010 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2011 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
2012 | US Tour |
National Tour [Non-Equity] US Tour |
2015 | West End |
West End Production West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Choreography | Steven Hoggett |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Michael Mayer |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Featured Actor in a Musical | Tony Vincent |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Featured Actress in a Musical | Rebecca Naomi Jones |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Musical | John Gallagher, Jr. |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Lighting Design | Kevin Adams |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Musical | American Idiot |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Orchestrations | Tom Kitt |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Scenic Design | Christine Jones |
2010 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Sound Design | Brian Ronan |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Michael Mayer |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Musical | American Idiot |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Tom Kitt |
2010 | The Hewes Awards | Lighting Design | Kevin Adams |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Kevin Adams |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Scott Delman |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Larry Welk |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Bensinger Filerman and Moellenberg Taylor |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Tom Hulce |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Ira Pittelman |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Ruth and Stephen Hendel |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Vivek Tiwary/Gary Kaplan |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Aged in Wood and Burnt Umber |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Scott Delman |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Allan S. Gordon/Elan V. McAllister |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | HOP Theatricals |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Jeffrey Finn |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | John Domo |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | John Pinckard |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Awaken Entertainment |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Berkeley Repertory Theatre |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Musical | Christine Jones |
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