American Idiot is the stage musical of Green Day’s famous 2004 album about adolescent malaise and disillusionment. The ‘punk rock opera’ follows the Jesus of Suburbia through post-9/11 America. He falls into a series of self-destructive vices whilst his friendship group is beset by dwindling social prospects and war-mongering propaganda churned out by the Bush administration.

Your mileage with this one is entirely contingent on how much you like pop-punk and the work of Green Day in particular. I must confess to not being in either of those camps. American Idiot certainly offers bombastic renditions of Green Day’s tunes but for those seeking a fiery polemic on American hypocrisy and cultural depravity, American Idiot is not that.

Pop-punk is a contradiction in terms. To be commercially popular is to be endorsed by the Establishment, and to be endorsed by the Establishment is contrary to being punk. All the controversial aspects of Greenday are paper-thin gestures in vulgarity that offer no real challenge to the values of the society around them. American Idiot seems to think flipping the audience off, swearing, and occasionally miming sex acts is the height of counter-cultural provocation rather than at best adolescent posturing and at worst a cynical commercial ploy for ‘edginess’.

I also have deep issues with the cliché of American Idiot as a concept album and stage production. Drifting young musician lacks direction and falls into hard drugs is neither original nor particularly interesting. Elements around the background with mid-2000s US politics and the War on Terror are certainly present but nothing of substance is being said. There’s, like, a war on, and people are, like, divided about it, man, and it’s, like, confusing to be growing up right now, you know? Forgive me if I don’t find this a compelling or articulate analysis of the socio-political climate of that era.

My antipathy towards Green Day does not of course diminish the skill of performance on display here. If you are a fan of their work, these are faithful versions of Green Day’s songs and delivered with a degree of stagecraft and coordination you might not otherwise get from a straight concert. Green Day is not my cup of tea, but I can’t deny the strength of the musicians; and the elaborate ways the lyircs are embellished by abstract scenes is often interesting and impressive. The highlight for me on this front was Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

A caveat to those who are dedicated to Green Day is that American Idiot is not truly a stage musical. Very little has been done to craft a clear narrative or characters out of what already existed in the concept album. The plot is fairly disjointed as result: there is not a clearly defined arc narratively or thematically to follow through. This is not necessarily a problem if you are happy to view this as a theatrical elaboration of Green Day, a staging of the album, rather than American Idiot with a story added.

I can strongly recommend this one to fans of Green Day. Casual music-lovers who reminiscence about pop-punk for yesteryear will surely be entertained too. American Idiot will do nothing to win over sceptics like myself and those expecting a conventional musical may be disappointed. I will say that the show sheds any pretension of story very quickly so it manages those expectations well: it is all about the music. So the show has a broad popular appeal… that’s not very punk, is it?    ★★★☆☆    Fenton Coulthurst    3^rd July 2019

Contains strong language and drug references – not suitable for under 14s.