American Idiot – review

Mayflower, Southampton

4 / 5

  • The Guardian,
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American Idiot
Spectacular … Jenna Rubaii and Thomas Hettrick in American Idiot. Photograph: John Daughtry

The jukebox musical is a 21st-century rock phenomenon. Yet while Queen, Abba and Madness's extensive back catalogues may lend themselves easily to theatrical interpretations, veteran US pop-punks Green Day initially appear far less likely candidates for a stage extravaganza.

  1. American Idiot
  2. Mayflower,
  3. Southampton
  1. Until 13 October
  2. Box office:
    02380 711811
  3. Then touring

The exception to this assumption is the trio's audacious 2004 album American Idiot, an unabashed rock opera in the mould of the Who's Tommy, which went multi-platinum on both sides of the Atlantic. This stage adaptation, co-penned by band singer Billie Joe Armstrong and director Michael Mayer, ran for a year on Broadway in 2010 and is now embarking on a lengthy British tour.

It's a remarkable career progression for a band widely dismissed as cartoon punks and Clash wannabes when they first emerged, but Green Day have spent two decades honing their craft and getting much better at what they do. If the American Idiot album was an unexpected tour de force, this incarnation is also a flawed, but fascinating production.

Its plot – never remotely as preposterous as the Queen show We Will Rock You – hangs around Johnny, Will and Tunny, three hapless teenage rebels desperate for a cause in post-9/11 small-town America. Mayer's deft direction captures that dark era's brittle paranoia as George Bush and Dick Cheney stare malignly down at the gyrating cast from the banks of TV screens surrounding the stage.

Flanked by a black-clad band firing out Green Day's muscular, driven rock, the trio of antiheroes seek a purpose and come up short. As one impulsively joins the military and one sinks into alcoholic inertia, Alex Nee as Johnny becomes the play's focus as he juggles the twin imperatives of love and heroin.

The all-American touring cast turn in a dynamic and exuberant performance, although the understated Nee is outshone by Trent Saunders as St Jimmy, his druggy and charismatic alter ego. Angst-ridden Green Day anthems such as Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Wake Me Up When September Ends lend a charged poignancy to the drama's bumpy narrative, while a bizarre scene wherein a hallucinating, war-wounded Tunny is treated 20ft above the stage by a flying nurse named the Extraordinary Girl is genuinely spectacular.

American Idiot is a knotty and challenging piece that adroitly skirts cheesiness, and bravely eschews the easy option of a pat, happy ending. It's another unexpected triumph for a band that have consistently taken more left turns than they are usually given credit for.


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