American Idiot Musical

A few months ago, Rolling Stone included an article on a new musical that will be coming out in the near future: American Idiot.

The musical will include ALL songs from Green Day's 2004 album American Idiot and two tracks from their recent album 21st Century Breakdown. The director from Spring Awakening decided to take on the project. When he first heard the album, he knew he wanted to do something with it. He called up the band, and they were thrilled to have their album adapted to the big stage.

The director, Michael Mayer, developed the plot around all of the songs on the album. The musical will deal with the same underlying themes on American Idiot: "disillusioned teens coming of age during the Bush years." There will be very little dialogue--most of the musical will be mostly using Green Day lyrics and song.

I bet the musical will be ultimately successful because of its major themes and newer music. Green Day is a very popular band; it's even reaching younger audiences in this younger generation as their songs sound very pop-ish and are being played on pop radio stations. Not only does Green Day appeal to their older fan base, but now they have a younger generation that will love to see their music live!

Does anyone see this move as sell out for this punk rock band? (Just wondering out of curiosity)

I will be very interested to see how this plays out and how they will construct this musical. I do know that the musical will be divided into three stories: one soldier who goes to Iraq and two teenagers who stay at home and try to make sense of post-9/11 America. There are 19 actors who sing the various songs of Green Day and act out the various scenes involved in the play.

I wish the American Idiot musical the best. Does anyone know what it will be called? Will it just be called American Idiot?

So what do you think of the musical?