Theatre Review: ‘American Idiot’ at The National Theatre

By Kyle Osborne

Seeing the Broadway musical American Idiot, currently playing at The National Theatre through February 23^rd, is a lot like seeing a Green Day concert…only with better diction and more harmony vocals. This is a good thing, mind you.  All of the songs from their CD of the same name are included, as well as many stand outs from their follow up album, 21^st Century Breakdown.

Don’t look for too much plot, or dialog, for that matter. This is mostly a sung-through show about three disaffected young men (are they distant stand-ins for the bands three members?) who want nothing more than to get out of suburbia and find their way in the world—or at least find a different setting.

One ends up spending most of the musical on the couch—the price paid for getting his girlfriend pregnant. Another ends up joining the military and paying serious consequences. But the main protagonist is Johnny, played with a smug, but not insincere disposition. His journey takes him through the Holy Trinity: Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll. Jared Nepute gets to sing some of the more well-known songs, accompanied by his own acoustic guitar playing. The kid can sing—his voice is prettier than Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong could ever do, but, hey, this is musical theatre, folks. Some allowances must be made.

Though not as many as you’d expect—the onstage band plays the music loud and note-for-note (although fellow guitarists know that it’s not so much notes as it is bar chords—lots and lots of bar chords), which is refreshingly raw, again, by theatre standards.

Besides enjoying these great songs in a different context, audiences will love hearing as many as a dozen or more voices onstage at once—adding layers of harmonies that are rich and textured and aurally exciting.

With costumes by Hot Topic and a set by RENT (okay, I exaggerate, but only a little) only the choreography seems truly original. It’s an in-your-face take on Modern Dance moves that some will like and others might giggle at–I dug it.

Seeing characters shooting Heroin, so soon after Philip Seymour Hoffman’s untimely death, stung a little, but it’s not like they played it for glamor. It’s just bad timing.

Rock hasn’t always translated well to musical theatre, but American Idiot succeeds because it compromises so little. It’s almost like being there.

American Idiot is at National Theatre through February 23. Running time is about 90 minutes, with no intermission. Tickets ($48 to $93) are available via National Theatre’s website