American Idiot

The most recent discounted Broadway tickets available through TC were for a show called American Idiot. It's based on a rock/punk album of the same name by Green Day (with tracks from the following album as well) and the band was heavily involved in planning the show. American Idiot is one of my favorite albums, and so I was excited to see the show, even more so because the leading actor was in Spring Awakening, a show that I saw twice and loved before it went off Broadway.

The theater was absolutely packed. Music was played by a rock band that stayed onstage the whole time, and by several of the actors accompanying themselves on acoustic guitars occasionally when the plot called for it. My seat was pretty far back, but it was dead center and I could see quite well.

I won't say it was the best show I've ever seen, but I really enjoyed it. It was fun to know just about every word to every song, and I had to stop myself from singing along. The album definitely has a story behind it, but seeing the musical defined the story much better for me, so I think I'll listen to it now with a clearer picture of what the band was trying to say. After the curtain call, the curtain went down and then came back up a few seconds later. Each member of the cast, 20 of them, held an acoustic guitar, and in unison they played one more Green Day song before heading offstage. I've never heard that many guitars at one time before, and the effect was pretty cool, although I found myself wondering how many of them had to learn to play in their spare time after rehearsals so they could pull of the curtain call.