When Green Day announced that their platinum selling album “American Idiot” would be adapted for the stage, it surprised both the musical theater community and the band’s punk rock fanbase.
But just as the 2004 concept album cemented the band as a stadium filling rock act, the musical went on to become a huge hit on Broadway. “American Idiot” won two Tony Awards, its soundtrack picked up a Grammy and touring versions of the show have seen been launched in cities from London to Tokyo.
And now, the punk rock opera is being staged by Wilmington’s City Theater Company.
Set in the middle of the last decade, “American Idiot” is a show about three young men and the different choices they make. It touches on war, pop culture and addiction, all set to a modern punk-pop soundtrack. The concept of a Broadway musical set to rock music is hardly a new one. The show “Hair” debuted in 1968 and paved the way for musicals like “Jesus Christ Superstar” and later, shows like “Rent” and “Spring Awakening.”
The show’s music director Joe Trainor, thinks “American Idiot” will appeal to a wide audience.
“The album is over 10 years old now so it’s not necessarily going to be a super young audience but a younger audience than somebody who might say come to see Sondheim,” he says. “You’re going to get a Gen X crowd I guess. That’s the hope anyway and hopefully people who just like theater regardless of the genre and also the people who like what we do here at City Theater, which is unique to any other theater company in the state.”
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has said the band took inspiration for “American Idiot” from concept albums by The Who like “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia.”
“American Idiot’s” narrative of teen rebellion struck a chord with City Theater Company’s Brendan Sheehan. The actor was still in high school when the CD was first released and says it made a big impact.
“It’s that period of your life when you’re eighteen, nineteen years old and you’re rebelling against everything,” he notes. “I was very anti-establishment at that point in time, so this show, with the angsty teenage anger and would speak to anybody in that age bracket and it’s nice to revisit that now that I’m a little older.”
City Theater Company’s “American Idiot” runs at The Black Box at Opera Delaware Studiosthrough April 25
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This story is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.