Today, in the west end, I saw American Idiot. This isn’t my
first experience with this show or music (for anyone that doesn’t know me).
It’s probably in my top 10 favorite musicals and I’ve seen it four times on Broadway.
I knew this production wasn’t a carbon copy of the Broadway production and I
was excited for that. I really wanted to see a British perspective of a musical
so intertwined with American culture. But it truly was it’s downfall but I will
get to that later.
First off, American Idiot is personally one of my favorite
albums. Growing up in New York, living through 9/11, and dealing with its
aftermath, that album truly made me feel like someone else got it. I know a lot
of my generation feels that way. I still remember my dad blasting it in his car.
Even as time went on it was always an album that I would constantly run back
to. Some friends even thinking I was very much like Whatsername. So it is very
personal and heart wrenching for me. So when the moment I found out about it
being turned into a musical I freaked. I begged my parents to take me to see it
in Berkeley (they said no) then luckily (and not surprisingly) it moved to Broadway.
I scored a ticket with my parents and sat only a few rows away from Green day
themselves. I was elated and enthralled. While I do admit there were some flaws
in the production, I loved it and saw it an additional 3 times. It was a solid show
and shuttered much sooner then it should have. That being said, the west end production
left me unsatisfied.
I will admit being American and a New Yorker also gave me a
much harder perspective. I felt as if I was watching a caricature through British
eyes of 9/11 and America during those years. With the cast I never felt anger,
rage, and sorrow of what was happening around them. I do dislike comparing it,
but with the Broadway cast you could feel the rage coming off them through their
voices and physicality. The detachment of the cast not being American kind of
threw the material for a loop. I am not saying the cast wasn’t talented but
they didn’t seem to feel the story. “Rage and love, the story of my life,” Is
truly any anthem for so many Americans my age. I never once felt that. Maybe,
the trauma of 9/11 only hit us and only then can we truly tap into that emotion.
Or it just could have been the end of the performance week lag. I’ll probably
never know. It did also make me question how the rest of the world sees us.
They used clips of the towers falling (on repeat for half an hour), and Bush
and his ever so stupid remarks. I heard a few chuckles and made me realize how
much this piece will only truly effect us and how it’s just story for them but
it’s our everyday lives. It’s a terrifying notion of human experience.
Moving onto the cast, the chemistry was not there. I never
believed Johnny and Whatsername loved/lusted for one another or even the
character of Whatsername being this badass who didn’t take shit from anyone.
Even technical things irked with the characters. The American accents were
extremely forced and everyone seemed to try to sing rock-ish but only kept
coming off as musical theatre like (perfect singing/contained). The band
sounded good but not aggressive enough. Green Day is loud and angry like most Americans
at that time. They didn’t use this aggression. I was also disappointed when
some of the cast was off beat of the songs. I’m trying to blame this on being
the last show of the week. The chorography aloes was way too perfect. One of my
favorite things from the Broadway production was the almost unconscious movement
of breaking down every detail of your body to the sound. Doing ballet turns
ruined the moments of anger. Using gimmicks such as creepy masks made me so
displaced I considered leaving. None of these characters I cared for as I had
previously. Even little nitpicky things began to drive me nuts like the use of
cell phones for texting. The only redemption it had was a few moments of
replacing Johnny with St. Jimmy to hammer in the point that they are the same
person. But even that was muddled with not enough angry and deepness of
Johnny’s darkness. The only honest moments of the show for me came with “Wake
Me Up When September Ends.” They just played guitar and sang. Only a few moments
of throwing leaves but it was honest and raw unlike the rest of the performance.
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