Anywho, this afternoon I was checking one of the forums when I came accross this post by Green Day Community member Tripe. It was a detailed plot synopsis of the musical. What follows is the part of her post that relates to the plot. All credit goes to her, and Spoilers Ahead!
The musical itself - really great! As you've probably read, the story follows
three friends - Johnny, Will, and Tunny - and their parallel stories as they
separate and come back together at the end. Johnny (Jesus) is the main
character; his life is kind of shitty with his mom and stepdad, Brad. All three
of them want to get out of what they feel is a dead end life.
Will's
girlfriend (Heather) is unexpectedly pregnant, so he finds his plans changed by
having to stay home with her. Tunny gets signed up for the army from the
"Favorite Son," one of my favorite performances, and presumably goes off to Iraq
or Afghanistan. Johnny heads for the big city and hooks up with St. Jimmy. St.
Jimmy is played by Tony Vincent in this show and I couldn't imagine a better
casting! Great singing voice and an absolutely mesmerizing performance. The
perfect combination of evil charisma.
Novacaine was one of the first
standout songs to me during the show. It was so well choreographed, especially
with three different things going on at once. We watched Tunny in the desert
with the army, dodging bullets from the enemy, Johnny beginning drug use with
the eager assistance of St Jimmy, and Will in a stupor on the couch, overwhelmed
with the responsibilities of a soon-to-be-arriving baby.
Things get
worse: Tunny gets injured in the Army, Johnny (who has met Whatsername by now)
gets more into drug use and starts mistreating the girl he loves/getting her
hooked on drugs, and Heather leaves Will, taking the baby, since he can't handle
fatherhood. (Too Much Too Soon, which is sung to Will as Heather decides to
leave him with the baby.) There is a very moving performance of Last Night on
Earth sung by St Jimmy, Johnny and Heather.
Johnny also sings a very
tender version of "When It's Time" to Whatsername - just playing the guitar and
singing solo, much the way Billie Joe sang it in concert. The performance notes
discuss this song and how it was a tune BJ wrote to Adrienne way back when they
first met when he was 19 years old. So it's been around for awhile. Very lovely
in performance.
One of the standout performances has to be Before the
Lobotomy going into Extraordinary Girl. Here, Tunny is in the hospital, injured
in battle, and an "angel" comes down to him. Both actors are on "Peter Pan'"
type flying apparatuses (I'm sure there is more of an official name for this,
sorry), and Tunny arises from his hospital cot and they fly through the very
tall stage set as they sing to each other. Really, really well done. The angel
later takes the form of a nurse who helped Tunny get better after his injuries.
Johnny, in the meantime, is living a life of dissolution and partying
with St. Jimmy. Whatsername finally has had enough, and she gets angry. What
follows is a female singing performance of Letterbomb that is excellent. Anger
and rage and female empowerment - loved it!
Will sits on the couch
"watching Spike TV" and realizes he misses his girlfriend and baby. Too late,
Heather reappears as a hottie in a black dress along with her new rock and roll
boyfriend. He sings the Tre Cool part in Homecoming and it is one of the truly
most enjoyable parts of the show. I admit to sneaking a peek at Tre during that
part of the show to see his reaction. He seemed to enjoy it hugely!
Johnny comes to his senses, ditches St. Jimmy (or is it just the St.
Jimmy part inside of him, hmmmm?) and decides to go home. Tunny is coming home
from the Army with a purple heart medal and a new Extraordinary Girl/girlfriend.
The three friends meet up for the ending of Homecoming, which is one of the most
powerful parts of the show. Standing ovation at this point and it wasn't even
the end.
The final song is Whatsername....where Johnny waxes poetic on
his lost relationship with his former love.
There are probably lots of
things I have forgotten. The musical allows the songs to tell the story, so your
attention is constantly moving from song to song with very little break to
contemplate. There is a tiny amount of dialogue from Johnny, but it's in the
form of a verbal letter he is writing to his mother at home. All the songs from
American Idiot are performed. Know Your Enemy, part of Before the Lobotomy, Last
Night on Earth,and 21 Guns were performed from 21CB. And Favorite Son, When It's
Time, and Too Much Too Soon were included.
So, I hope you enjoyed that synopsis, and I hope that you, like me, will be able to one day see this apparently great musical.
--Michael Out!
1 comments:
Michael, i saw the show three times, and going a fourth time in February ... 3x's with Billy Joe Armstrong in it as St. Jimmy! Just wanted to let you know that a American Idiot movie is in the discussion stage, and will definitely happen b/c BJA wanted this to happen after writing it, he didn't expect a broadway show but did expect to have it become a movie ... so stay tuned!!! btw, awesome synopsis of AI that you found, thanks for sharing.
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