STAGE WEST
  • Home
  • About David
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Theatre Reviews
  • New Page

Theater reviews

Stage West

Anger, angst and music

1/1/2013

0 Comments

 
​To my mind, Green Day’s style of punk has always seemed a bit prefab. So I was unmoved by the 2004 album “American Idiot” upon its release, even as critics and Green Day fans gushed like a knocked-over fire hydrant. When the album became a stage musical a few years later, I was admittedly amazed at its staying power.
         Now I’ve seen American Idiot, the musical, and I’ve got to say, it’s a memorable theater experience. Credit mostly the music itself, which somehow has grown on me since that album debuted so long ago. While the few ballads are nothing to get excited about (“Wake Me Up When September Ends” being the possible exception), the fiery title song and numbers like “She’s a Rebel,” “Extraordinary Girl” and “Too Much Too Soon” rock big-time. The staging of American Idiot, too, is impressive, from the backdrop of frenetically flashing television sets in full post-9/11 exploitation to Tunny (Thomas Hettrick) and the Extraordinary Girl herself (Jenna Rubaii) “flying” from a great height in downtown’s Civic Theatre.
         If the story is a familiar one – three angry young men going in different directions at a crossroads in their lives – it is generally swallowed up by the music, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It was interesting to observe the all-ages crowd at the Civic Wednesday night being strafed from the stage with F-bombs and fist pumps and in general beholding fare unlike what most of them were used to beholding.
         Maybe it was the same way on Broadway when American Idiot opened a couple of years ago. Imagine: Billie Joe expanding minds. Just for that, I’ve changed my mind about the album. It wasn’t idiotic of me not to love it, but possibly a little hasty.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    David L. Coddon is a Southern California theater critic.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    August 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    January 2016
    January 2015
    December 2014
    January 2014
    January 2013
    January 2012
    January 2011

    Categories

    All
    Theatre Review

David Coddon

About 
David Coddon Fiction
Theatre Reviews

Support

Contact
FAQ
Terms of Use
© COPYRIGHT 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • About David
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Theatre Reviews
  • New Page