Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Green Day's hits turn into Berkeley Rep musical
SF Gate: "Green Day, the chart-topping pop-punk band born in Berkeley, is morphing into a collective playwright, and it will unveil its first effort at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in September, the group announced Monday. The musical titled 'American Idiot,' based on Green Day's 2004 Grammy-winning, multi-platinum album of the same name, is being developed in collaboration with Michael Mayer, the Tony-winning director of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's 'Spring Awakening.'"
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4 comments:
I'm very interested in how this turns out. I'm fond of rock musicals and Green Day's music has a specific emphasis on lyrical content which I feel meshes well with theatrical storytelling. The reaction probably will be mixed from all sides; Green Day is too commercial for "real" theater and Green Day fans may feel that the band is selling out even further.
Myself? I don't care - I just like good music and good theater. : D
I have ridiculously mixed feelings about this. While I'm intrigued by the idea of "modern" theater that will appeal to the masses, especially the youthful masses, I'm not so sure how I feel about this. While I have objections to Green Day just as a musical entity, I'm sure people had objections to The Who's "Tommy" when it came to the stage. Tommy, however, because an incredibly successful and powerful rock musical, impacting the industry greatly. Perhaps with Mayer's guidance, he can morph the somewhat average album into a story worth telling.
When the album first got released, a lot of people thought it was extra-important because "Well it's also a whole rock opera!" Which I didn't really get from the music (then again, I don't really get the music at all.) I've wondered since then if that was actually how they made it, or if it was a marketing idea that stuck. I guess we'll see soon.
Another rock musical. Though I love the idea of taking popular songs and putting them to a story, as with Queen and Abba, I wonder if Green Day's material is perhaps a bit too current, too raw and capable of hitting too close to home. I think for them, in a time when record sales may be lower than usual, they have a common sense of desperation. I get it. But I doubt I'll see the show.
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