American Idiot (The SOB Review)
American Idiot (The SOB Review) – St. James Theatre, New York, New York*1/2 (out of ****)
Spectacular staging, adrenaline-pumping choreography, mesmerizing projection design (among a host of other truly impressive design elements), energized cast and an electrifying and often intriguing score should all add up to American Idiot taking its place among the year’s top musicals.
Yet with no intelligible book to deliver a galvanizing plot, the tuner -- based primarily on a platinum 2004 recording by pseudo-punk rockers Green Day -- loses its focus, as well as its way. And there’s nothing worse than being overcome with boredom thanks to youth disaffected for its own sake.
That this has been billed as the Great White Way’s first punk rock musical is wrong on so many levels, not the least of which is that the true spirit of punk would surely view Broadway as the antithesis of the specifically antiestablishment art form. It’s a complete sell-out of the highest order.
The punk aesthetic is sold-out even further in this production’s compromised conclusion when -- SPOILER ALERT! -- Johnny, the central character (John Gallagher, Jr.), ultimately eschews the punk lifestyle in relatively short order (the show lasts a mere 95 minutes).
All this makes American Idiot nothing but a mere poseur.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
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Labels: American Idiot, Broadway, Green Day, John Gallagher Jr., Musical, punk rock, The SOB Review
posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Sunday, May 02, 2010
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