The American Idiot Musical
On March 29, 2009, just two months before Green Day's next studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, was released, the New York Times released an article titled "Punk CD is Going Theatrical." The article discussed Green Day working alongside Spring Awakening director Michael Mayer to turn their American Idiot album into a full musical stage production.
Mayer had approached Green Day's management with his idea to turn the album into a musical after listening to the album daily on his drive to and from wherever he was working (he was directing a film, 'Flicka', at the time, and was producing 'Spring Awakening' at that time). Billie Joe, Green Day's management, and some other friends and colleagues agreed to fly out to New York and meet with Mayer and watch Spring Awakening. In an interview with Playbill, Mayer recalls,
Billie Joe worked with Michael Mayer to develop the story, and Mayer introduced the idea of adding more characters to the story, including Will and Tunny - who would be the best friends of Johnny (the lead character from the album, renamed from Jesus of Suburbia). Aside from the general story line, Green Day gave Mayer the freedom to build out his ideas on creating the world the story took place in and the characters involved. While this was happening, Green Day was working on their 8th studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, and Billie Joe frequently sent demos to Mayer to see if any of these songs could be incorporated into the musical. Michael Mayer told the New York Times in April 2010,
Some reactions from our forum members on the previews include:
On September 16th American Idiot officially opened to the public and audiences were floored by what they saw on stage and how well the album had come to life. Reviews included comments such as:
Billie Joe said at the time,
The musical was later again extended until November 15, 2009. It was announced that Green Day's American Idiot musical was the most successful musical that was ever performed at the Brekley Rep.
Green Day recorded the whole recording process on video and realased a music video for the reworked vierson of 21 Guns on February 1, 2010. The cast even preformed the song alongside Green Day at the 2010 Grammy Awards.
The American Idiot Musical was then set to launch their preview performances on March 24th. A little over a month later the musical would officially open on April 20, 2010.
So far American Idiot has had a very successful run on Broadway winning many awards including two Tony Awards for Best Scenic Design of a Musical and Best Lighting Design of a Musical.
In September 2010, it was announced (by Billie on Twitter no less), that Billie Joe would be joining the musical cast for a week to perform as St. Jimmy. Billie Joe's performance got some very impressive reviews, and helped the musical earn nearly $1.1 million for the week he was there. At the time, he was only able to perform one week, as the following week the band kicked off their 2010 South American tour.
People speculated that he might return, and sure enough, on November 30, 2010 it was announced Billie Joe would be coming back to play 50 performances, for the entire months of January and February of 2011.
After a successful 50 show run in February, it was announced that Billie Joe would be making another 50 show appearance as St. Jimmy from April 5th through April 24th. On the same day it was also announced that American Idiot would be closing it's doors at the St. James Theatre for the last time on April 24th. Ticket sales had declined dramatically from about $1.3 million to $400,000 in the weeks before Billie's final run was announced making it financially impossible for the show to stay on Broadway.
On closing night of American Idiot on Broadway there was not a dry eye in the house. The amount of applause that the cast received after each song was incredible. After the show came to a close one of the producers of American Idiot came out and said that American Idiot would be going on an international tour staring in 2012. After a few speeches Green Day came out and played a ten song set. ("Only Of You", "Murder City", "Holiday", "Burnout", "Letterbomb", "Welcome To Paradise", "Longview", "Spiderman" [Cartoon Theme Tune], "Walking Out On Love" [Exploding Hearts cover], and "Jesus Of Suburbia")
You can read our full review of closing night by clicking here
From here on all the rest is history. The American Idiot movie is currently 'under development' with Tom Hanks producing and Michael Mayer directing. American Idiot has sure been a fun journey and the story will just keep on writing itself as more doors and possibilities open for the album, musical, and movie.