I wasn’t a fan of the first Australian production of Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ in 2018. It felt bombastic. This new production from theatrical.presents is more organic and focused back on the message.
‘American Idiot’ is a difficult story to deliver. Set after 9/11, it is centred around three disadvantaged characters, Johnny, Will and Tunny and the individual paths they follow to try to define their lives. However, life never favours the disadvantaged and every step forward is two steps back for them.
Johnny smoothers his pain in drugs, Tunny joins the army and loses a leg in the war and Will gets his girlfriend pregnant and suffers depression.
With a relatively unknown main cast of Mat Dwyer as Johnny, John Mondelo as Tunny and Ronald MacKinnon as Will and the intimate surrounds of Chapel Off Chapel (Melbourne’s Off-Broadway) the story isn’t distracted by the celebrity of the 2018 production. We get a much better understanding into the workings of the characters.
American Idiot the album was written as a rock opera in the vein of The Who’s Tommy and Quadrophenia and Pink Floyd’s The Wall as a guideline. The original album is expanded to fill out the story while the story is outlined in the book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer.
There is nothing feelgood about ‘American Idiot’. You walk away glad you are not any of the characters. It is a tough sell for a production company to put on. The escapism of most theatre shows is just here. It is dark, it is depressing and there is no happy ending. But it is powerful.
Melbourne’s Chapel Off Chapel with its 250 capacity worked much better for this production than the 1000+ Comedy Theatre show of 2018. This version is rawer, as Green Day would have intended, more like the original Berkley Theatre production of 2009. It is much more suited to the Green Day fan than.
American Idiot runs through until March 26 at Chapel Off Chapel.
SONGS
ACT 1
• American Idiot – Company
• Jesus of Suburbia – Johnny, Will, Tunny, Heather, and Company
• Holiday– Johnny, Tunny, Theo, & Company
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Johnny, Whatsername, Tunny, & Men
• Favorite Son – Favorite Son & Women
• Are We the Waiting – Tunny, Favorite Son, & Company
• No Friends, No Girls, I Need Both
• St. Jimmy – Johnny, Miguel, Declan, Theo, St. Jimmy, & Company
• Give Me Novacaine – Will, Tunny, & Company
• My Heart Is Like A Bomb
• Last of the American Girls/She’s a Rebel – Johnny, Whatsername, Gerard, Chase, St. Jimmy, & Company
• St Jimmy Makes It Rain
• Last Night on Earth – St. Jimmy, Whatsername, Heather, & Company
ACT 2
• Too Much Too Soon – Theo, Alysha, Will, & Heather
• Tunny Awakens
• Before the Lobotomy – Tunny, Joshua, Ben, & Chase
• Extraordinary Girl– Extraordinary Girl, Tunny, & Company
• Before the Lobotomy (Reprise) – Tunny, Joshua, Ben, & Chase
• When It’s Time– Johnny
• Know Your Enemy– St. Jimmy, Will, Johnny, & Company
• 21 Guns – Whatsername, Extraordinary Girl, Heather, Tunny, Johnny, Will, & Company
• Letterbomb – Whatsername & Women
• Wake Me Up When September Ends – Johnny, Will, Tunny, & Company
• Homecoming – Johnny, St. Jimmy, Will, Tunny, Heather & Company
• Whatsername – Johnny & Company
• American Idiot (reprise)
• Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Company
OVERVIEW
DATE:
9 March 2023 – 26 March 2023
Time:
Thursday 9 & Friday 10: 7.30pm (Previews)
Saturday 11: 1.30pm (Preview) & 7.30pm
Tuesday 14 – Friday 17: 7.30pm
Saturday 18: 1.30pm & 7.30pm
Tuesday 21 – Friday 24: 7.30pm
Saturday 25: 1.30pm & 7.30pm
Sunday 26: 1.30pm
TICKETS:
$49 Early Bird (available until 31 January)
$59 Standard
$55 Concession
$49 Preview performances (Thu 9, Fri 10 & Sat 11, 1.30pm matinee)
Duration:
Two hours (incl. 20-minute interval)
Act I: 46-minutes
Interval: 20-minutes
Act II: 48-minutes
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