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John Gallagher, Jr. and Tony Vincent star as Johnny and St. Jimmy / Photo courtesy of mellopix.com
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>> 21st Century Breakdown
>> Top 10 All-Time Green Day Moments
>> Green Day's New Video: Fire, Helicopters and More!
>> Green Day Ready 'American Idiot' Musical
>> Green Day Musical Could Hit Silver Screen
>> Watch: Green Day's "21 Guns" Music Video
SNEAK PEEK: Green Day's 'American Idiot' Musical
Watch the trailer for the punk band's record-breaking foray into theatre!
By William Goodman 10.06.09 12:18 PM
John Gallagher, Jr. and Tony Vincent star as Johnny and St. Jimmy / Photo courtesy of mellopix.com
Green Day: Aficionados of fire and helicopters, high-powered machine guns, and … the fine art of theatre. As you may recall, a new musical based on the band's 2004 concept album American Idiot opened this September at Berkeley, CA's Repertory Theater. So what are you missing? Watch the trailer below!
The production's script was co-written by Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and Tony Award-winning Spring Awakening director Michael Mayer, and -- as the trailer connotes -- it closely adheres to the album's concept: a sonic melodrama following Ritalin-addled anti-hero protagonist Jesus of Suburbia and his pals, St. Jimmy and Whatsername.
The trailer shows the crew of spiky-haired teenagers dancing around, carousing, and dealing with the realities of their lives as presented in the album: the war in the Middle East ("Wake Me Up When September Ends") and the paranoia of post-9/11 America ("American Idiot").
MORE ON SPIN.COM:
>> 21st Century Breakdown
>> Top 10 All-Time Green Day Moments
>> Green Day's New Video: Fire, Helicopters and More!
>> Green Day Ready 'American Idiot' Musical
>> Green Day Musical Could Hit Silver Screen
>> Watch: Green Day's "21 Guns" Music Video
The play is already becoming a hit. Due to popular demand, its initial five-week run was doubled, with the show closing Nov. 15, 10 weeks after its debut. According to the Los Angeles Times, the American Idiot play has broken all of the 41-year-old company's box office records, and now holds the Berkeley Repertory Theater's records for top gross, biggest advance sale, and biggest single-day box office receipts!
And Green Day isn't stopping there: Armstrong is planning to take American Idiot to the silver screen!
But what's in store for the band's latest album, 21st Century Breakdown? No word just yet -- but it would work perfect as an opera!
WATCH:American Idiot trailer
whoa...there's good theater, then there's bad...and this isn't the good bad...this is really bad. this could be a 'producers' ploy...secretly hoping so because this made my coffee kick up...in my mouth.
I am without speech..I cant believe Green Day gave this the Green light (haha) But no..really..this is ridiculous. I really just hope Green Day pull their heads out of the sand and get back to making records without storylines and big ballads...At this point I dont think they can go back..Im sure the next step is solo records..ugh
What do you guys mean? It was written as a rock opera.
...this is (somehow) gayer than high school musical...i am so disappointed
Wow.... that was one of the worst things I've ever seen. I'm not ragging on those kids for being untalented, they can sing..... but wow... that was awful. This is just an other example of why not every idea needs to be followed through on.
Unless you've seen the actual musical then I wouldn't judge. This is just a 1 minute trailer taken from bits of a 80 minutes or so long musical, and this doesn't do it justice. And I'm glad Green Day approved this and they were actually involved in the development rather than approve it and see what it looks like on the other end, they went to workshops to see how it was progressing. And I think its great for Green Day to do this, The Who had Tommy and obviously Queen had musicals and what other band is going to try and expand their influence and turn into something like a musical or a movie.
I've seen it. It's good. Way better than that video clip shows.
I am still haunted by the experience of seeing it Sept 4th....I cannot wait until it tours (?)
i Love Green Day and By the looks and sounds of it, this musical is gonna be brilliant! I hope Billie does take it to the silver screen!!
I saw it and knew I had to see it again. It was incredible. I saw it just last week before it closed and I was blown away again. YOU MUST SEE THIS SHOW BEFORE YOU JUDGE IT! I was apprehensive when I bought tickets because I wasn't sure what to expect, but you must see it. It's fantastic.
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