Green Day has come to Broadway! The exclamation mark is not my own -- rather it's energy that's been punctuating the buzz around the new theatrical version of the album "American Idiot," originally released in the politically-charged election season of 2004. Every poster and promotional pitch seems to shout as though to let you know this will be really real, really fresh, really loud.
It was, in fact, very loud, which is fitting for a rock concert. The performers bounded and writhed and moshed and left every calorie they had to burn on the stage. There was something electric happening -- bright and flashy and moving -- and the angst they were wailing about mixed with shrieks of delight from enthusiasts in the audience.
Lots of electricity...but what was it charging? In the end, not much.
The show does a fine job creating a through-line among the songs with light a touch: bits of monologue tell of suburban youths filled with rage and angst and wandering. Ultimately, though, the story isn't that interesting.
So the musical lives or dies by how you connect with the music -- and in my case, that reaction was ambivalent. Much of the time, I was more engaged by the visuals on the overwhelming number of televisions that dotted the scenery than by the lyrics. The charm and strength of the performers pokes through but at times my attention wandered -- not a good sign in a 95-minute event. The only song you leave humming is cleverly positioned as an encore number (I'll leave the "unpredictable" choice unsaid) so you walk out of the theater with a tune fresh in your mind.
My mixed reaction probably had to do with my own expectations. Part of me had expected the show to transport back to 2004. Sounds strange to be nostalgic for a time so recent? Yet that was a year of protest, of election fever, of feeling like we were campaigning, fighting and, yes, singing for the future of our country. I was ready to experience 2004 again.
Other than a video montage at the top, the show provided no such nostalgia. Which may be OK for its overall success -- how many people feel that strongly about a 6-year time machine? Interestingly, the audience members shouting the loudest were probably in high school in '04 -- for whom an opera of angst may be the most nostalgic feeling of all.