Green Day’s American Idiot ‘rocked the house’ with pulsating live music, pop-video-styled choreography and rock concert lighting. Tenuously linked to a post-9/11 with pre show videos of the falling towers, speeches from President Bush and images of terror… but lives of the characters on stage seem to be more aligned to the world of Trainspotting that the world of a nation coming to terms with the biggest homeland tragedy in America’s modern history. A weak story and book, yes. A vibrant and punchy show full of powerful images and searing voices, absolutely.
Racky Plew’s sexy, high-energy, superbly cast young performers played at ‘level 11’ all the way through! A performance style akin to a rock concert with total commitment to delivering every single song to maximum affect. Such passion in character and delivery from Aaron Sidwell and Alexis Gerred was a tour de force in musical ‘rock’ theatre.
I cannot say that I came away with a story to pass on to fiends, but what I did come away with was a superb sense of staging, performance, design and delivery of Green Day’s iconic sound and lyrics. This juke-box musical delivers a bold punch in the gut to all those Green Day fans, and introduces soon-to-be new fans to the painful world of this international group.
Orlando Weston
