CMU School of Drama


Sunday, April 24, 2011

American Idiot Closes on Broadway April 24; Tour and Film Are Next

Playbill.com: "The gang at Broadway's American Idiot packs up its bongs and its bus tickets and its dogtags on April 24, when the musical inspired by the Green Day punk album closes at the St. James Theatre. A national tour will launch this fall.

5 comments:

Jackson said...

I wasn't surprised when i heard American Idiot was closing, when Billy Joe Armstrong left the show the show took a huge hit in revenue. I think a large amount of the attraction of this show is seeing Billy Joe Armstrong and that is obviously about half of the fiscal draw. Because of this I think a movie could be successful if he was in it and a national tour could be as well however it is obvious this show couldn't survive on broadway much longer without him.

Ariel Beach-Westmoreland said...

What I find the most surprising isn't that the show is closing, but that they are making it into a movie. I suppose it is just because everything seems like its on a movie to broadway trend, and not the other way around. Maybe this is a sign that things are looking up for the broadway side. If it is true what Jackson mentioned about the show's success being because of Billy Joe Armstrong, it seems like a tour won't be very successful. Then again, the subscriptions to broadway tours helps a bit I imagine.

Joe Israel said...

I also am quite surprised to hear that this show is being turned into a film, because I don't think it is a particularly marketable franchise. I'm sure that the film will be relatively cheap to make, and although I'm sure they will use bigger stars than the Broadway cast, they probably won't want to pay for A-list names. At the same time, though, I can't see this movie doing particularly well, regardless of whether or not it actually is good. Musicals rarely do well at the box office, and I don't think there are enough Green Day fans out there to make the film a success.

JaredGerbig said...

its cool to see this show be such as success and although it is closing it had a great run and has a future in other mediums. the ability for artists to transcend genres is absolutely fascinating and this is a prime example of a successful story were a group of artists have broken the barriers between their medium and pretty much everything else. the ability for thier music to function in its origional form and be successful in both theatre and soon to be film just shows how universal thier work is.

Hannah said...

I hope the movies takes the original album and reinvents it differently. I hope the movie isn't just the show on dvd. First of all because I think the story will be weak as a movie and second I think for it to be turned into a movie they need to write it for film, obviously, but i think this will cause it turn out really differently. I'd would see the movie. Especially if like Milo Ventimiglia is in it or something. And I love the music. I would not see a tour without Billy Joe. I totally agree with Jackson that he brought in a huge chunk of the audience. People who are Green Day fans would be all over that, and the people seeing this show are mostly people who already know that they like the American Idiot album.