American Idiot tells the exhilarating story 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. With an 8 member onstage band and a cast of 19 led by Tony Award-winner John Gallagher, Jr., this high-octane musical includes every song from the acclaimed album American Idiot, as well as several songs from the band's Grammy Award-winning 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: 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.
THE ROAD TO BROADWAY
In 2004, the band GREEN DAY released their 7th album entitled AMERICAN IDIOT. Time Magazine proclaimed it "a MASTERPIECE", Amp welcomed it to "an ELITE list of albums including The Who's TOMMY, Pink Floyd's THE WALL and The Beatles SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEART'S CLUB BAND that successfully weave a narrative through music", Rolling Stone acclaimed it as "FEARLESS" and "POLITICALLY ASTUTE", "a RICHLY MELODIC song suite that gives voice to disenfranchised suburban Americans" and Entertainment Weekly celebrated its "IRRESISTIBLE PASSION and INTENSITY". The album went on to win two Grammy Awards: Best Rock Album as well as Record of the Year for the hit single ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams', and has sold over 12 million copies to date.
Almost two years ago, in June of 2008, fueled by a passion for the story embedded in the album and possessed of a desire to unearth and expand upon it, acclaimed Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer and Green Day began a collaboration to bring AMERICAN IDIOT to the stage. Mayer assembled an extraordinary team to join them: two-time Tony Award-winning composer and orchestrator of NEXT TO NORMAL Tom Kitt, Olivier Award-winning choreographer of the National Theater of Scotland's acclaimed BLACK WATCH Steven Hoggett, and Tony Award-winning actor and star of SPRING AWAKENING John Gallagher Jr. Over the next 9 months, the project was developed in a series of workshops culminating in an invitation from California's Berkeley Repertory Theater to present the world premiere, just minutes from the famed Gilman Street concert venue where Green Day first came to prominence.
In September of 2009, with a 19 member cast led by Mr. Gallagher and an onstage band of 8, the first stage incarnation of AMERICAN IDIOT opened at Berkeley Rep. The sold out engagement was extended twice, breaking all box office records, and was enthusiastically praised by the critics. The New York Times proclaimed it "THAT RARE CREATURE, A TRUE ROCK OPERA", with "LUSHLY MELODIC MUSIC, POLISHED AND PRECISE direction", a "SPECTACULAR SET", and "a vision of wasted youth that HOLDS US IN ITS GRIP". The San Francisco Chronicle called it "WILDLY ENTERTAINING", the Mercury News called it "EXPLOSIVE, AN ADRENALINE RUSH of a piece that SLAPS THE TRADITIONAL BROADWAY MUSICAL UPSIDE THE HEAD", the Herald Examiner proclaimed it a "MUST-SEE PRODUCTION", and the LA Times called it "DAZZLING", a "VISUALLY MESMERISING FANTASIA".
Now this extraordinary piece comes to the St James Theater on Broadway.
