About the work
American Idiot is a rock musical with music by Green Day, lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong and a book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer, based on the band's concept album of the same name from 2004. Following its Berkeley premiere, the Broadway premiere came in 2010. Loud, angry and high-energy, it translates the punk-rock sound of an entire generation into an uncompromising stage show about disillusionment in post-9/11 America.
Plot
Three frustrated young men from American suburbia – Johnny, Will and Tunny – dream of escaping their dreary hometown. But their paths diverge: Will stays behind when his girlfriend becomes pregnant; Tunny enlists in the army and goes off to war; and Johnny throws himself into city life, where he is torn between a new love and a descent into drugs and his destructive alter ego "St. Jimmy". Through intoxication, disillusionment, loss and homecoming, the show tells of growing up in a disoriented time – carried by pure rock energy.
Cultural significance
American Idiot successfully brought the spirit of punk rock and a politically charged concept album to the Broadway stage and appealed to a young audience often distant from the traditional musical. With hits such as "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "21 Guns" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends", it combined stadium rock with a critical assessment of the American mood of the 2000s. The show is regarded as a striking example of the modern, rock-driven jukebox musical and of the anger and longing of an entire generation.