good at standing still (and falling down)
May. 29th, 2010 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asimplechordOh, Michael Esper. ILU.
(In which I babble about American Idiot.)
First, some disorganized, spoilery thoughts about the production.
Was it always the intention that American Idiot would make its Broadway debut at the St James? I mean, yeah, obviously it was always a rock opera, but was St Jimmy always meant to make his appearance at that particular theater?
I liked the spare set. Yes, it's sort of reminiscent of Rent (although I have to admit I only saw the traveling production when it came through Houston, so maybe the Broadway set was different?), but it works. LOL @ the remote/TV timing being slightly off for Tunny's TV viewing before Favorite Son.
From the moment that Tunny stood up from his easy chair, pretty much whenever he was onstage, I was watching him. The only exception was when St. Jimmy also made an appearance. Hi, Tony Vincent. I would come back again and again just for you.
Random aside: LOL, did they deliberately put SSands in a shirt that's a size too small? Tunny's shirt buttons look like they're about to pop. Also, LOL at his upright military posture, there from the beginning.
I always thought that St. Jimmy was Johnny's alter ego/subconscious, but a bunch of reviews call him a sinister drug dealer. So I am somewhat confused. Which is it? He really only interacts with Johnny when he's on stage, so it could go either way.
Give Me Novocaine's incorporation into all three storylines: ♥, esp the combat
I know nothing about choreography, but the scene with Whatsername and Johnny and the tubing/shooting up? AMAZING.
I am not a fan of Know Your Enemy as it appears on 21st Century Breakdown, but I think that the transition from When It's Time into Know Your Enemy was beautifully effective.
Ditto for Letterbomb: it was always meant to be a woman's voice, but live it's even better than on the cast CD
Good Riddance was an appropriate ending. Again, not a favorite song, but it works with the end of the story.
Actually, I enjoyed the way Tom Kitt and Michael Mayer sort of reimagined Green Day songs, reworked them into something that was still Green Day, but noticeably different from the original album, putting percussion in place of strings, sometimes silence or simpler arrangements, sometimes MORE.
On another level: Green Day/punk on Broadway, and AI vs. Hair
I have to say here: 1) American Idiot is not my favorite Green Day album and was not my first exposure to them, and 2) I haven't seen Hair in years, and I only saw it once.
I know that a lot of reviewers have compared AI to Hair, but I don't really see a similarity outside of the fact that they are both rock musicals. Hair is a complete story even without the music, as I understand it; the music adds to the story. To me, AI was really an album first, that became a play. I think the lack of lines outside of songs is pretty telling. For AI, the music IS the story.
American Idiot is not nearly as political (minus Holiday) or subversive as Hair. AT ALL. It's just NOT a political musical to me, it's about suburban kids not knowing what to do, wanting to be/do something different, finding (or losing) themselves. A coming-of-age story, basically. Tunny joins the military but there's no commentary outside of the soundbites in the intro and humor in Favorite Son about the Iraq war. AI doesn't explore race or religion. Other than "good guys don't wear red, white, and blue" there's nothing about pacifism or patriotism. There's nothing groundbreaking in terms of protest (don't get me started comparing war protests for Iraq vs. Vietnam in the time of Hair), and I think by now drug use or (near-)nudity isn't a big deal, not the way it was when Hair was first produced.
IDK, I think Warning is far far more political an album than American Idiot, although it doesn't tell a story the way AI does.
Which is not to say that I did not love every moment of American Idiot. I did. I would see it again and again and again if I lived in the mid-Atlantic area.
I just don't see it being a cultural touchstone forty years from now the way Hair is.
When it comes to Green Day going mainstream, punk appearing on Broadway... IDK, is Green Day really punk? I'm serious here. I'm not sure what punk means anymore when it comes to music. Once upon a time it was the alternative, not-mainstream philosophy, music, way of life, and these three things were intimately related.
But it feels to me like those things have all diverged as media sources have changed and grown, as life as become steadily more plugged-in, between the 80s and now. Punk music (eh, pop-punk? punk rock? punk folk? post-punk? punk blues? I've seen all of these listed as genres for various bands to whom I listen) today as a genre/sound doesn't necessarily align with punk as a political or lifestyle statement.
The visual aesthetics? Yes. As music? Yes. The guitar riffs and the anti-establishment lyrics (*cough* Minority *cough*) and the stripped-down style.
But. I'm not so clear on the rest.
My first exposure to Green Day was when I was in college. My then-boyfriend was a DJ on the campus radio station, and he was into Green Day, so he introduced me to Kerplunk and Dookie. I love them. I have all their albums. But any band that's been steadily on MTV for over a decade? Are they really punk? I mean, I cannot imagine Converge, who I think of as hardcore punk, on Broadway. But Green Day doesn't surprise me. AI was always a rock opera, so this wasn't a big leap or a betrayal, in my mind.
So, yeah, are they really punk? Educate me, please. Seriously.
(In which I babble about American Idiot.)
First, some disorganized, spoilery thoughts about the production.
Was it always the intention that American Idiot would make its Broadway debut at the St James? I mean, yeah, obviously it was always a rock opera, but was St Jimmy always meant to make his appearance at that particular theater?
I liked the spare set. Yes, it's sort of reminiscent of Rent (although I have to admit I only saw the traveling production when it came through Houston, so maybe the Broadway set was different?), but it works. LOL @ the remote/TV timing being slightly off for Tunny's TV viewing before Favorite Son.
From the moment that Tunny stood up from his easy chair, pretty much whenever he was onstage, I was watching him. The only exception was when St. Jimmy also made an appearance. Hi, Tony Vincent. I would come back again and again just for you.
Random aside: LOL, did they deliberately put SSands in a shirt that's a size too small? Tunny's shirt buttons look like they're about to pop. Also, LOL at his upright military posture, there from the beginning.
I always thought that St. Jimmy was Johnny's alter ego/subconscious, but a bunch of reviews call him a sinister drug dealer. So I am somewhat confused. Which is it? He really only interacts with Johnny when he's on stage, so it could go either way.
Give Me Novocaine's incorporation into all three storylines: ♥, esp the combat
I know nothing about choreography, but the scene with Whatsername and Johnny and the tubing/shooting up? AMAZING.
I am not a fan of Know Your Enemy as it appears on 21st Century Breakdown, but I think that the transition from When It's Time into Know Your Enemy was beautifully effective.
Ditto for Letterbomb: it was always meant to be a woman's voice, but live it's even better than on the cast CD
Good Riddance was an appropriate ending. Again, not a favorite song, but it works with the end of the story.
Actually, I enjoyed the way Tom Kitt and Michael Mayer sort of reimagined Green Day songs, reworked them into something that was still Green Day, but noticeably different from the original album, putting percussion in place of strings, sometimes silence or simpler arrangements, sometimes MORE.
On another level: Green Day/punk on Broadway, and AI vs. Hair
I have to say here: 1) American Idiot is not my favorite Green Day album and was not my first exposure to them, and 2) I haven't seen Hair in years, and I only saw it once.
I know that a lot of reviewers have compared AI to Hair, but I don't really see a similarity outside of the fact that they are both rock musicals. Hair is a complete story even without the music, as I understand it; the music adds to the story. To me, AI was really an album first, that became a play. I think the lack of lines outside of songs is pretty telling. For AI, the music IS the story.
American Idiot is not nearly as political (minus Holiday) or subversive as Hair. AT ALL. It's just NOT a political musical to me, it's about suburban kids not knowing what to do, wanting to be/do something different, finding (or losing) themselves. A coming-of-age story, basically. Tunny joins the military but there's no commentary outside of the soundbites in the intro and humor in Favorite Son about the Iraq war. AI doesn't explore race or religion. Other than "good guys don't wear red, white, and blue" there's nothing about pacifism or patriotism. There's nothing groundbreaking in terms of protest (don't get me started comparing war protests for Iraq vs. Vietnam in the time of Hair), and I think by now drug use or (near-)nudity isn't a big deal, not the way it was when Hair was first produced.
IDK, I think Warning is far far more political an album than American Idiot, although it doesn't tell a story the way AI does.
Which is not to say that I did not love every moment of American Idiot. I did. I would see it again and again and again if I lived in the mid-Atlantic area.
I just don't see it being a cultural touchstone forty years from now the way Hair is.
When it comes to Green Day going mainstream, punk appearing on Broadway... IDK, is Green Day really punk? I'm serious here. I'm not sure what punk means anymore when it comes to music. Once upon a time it was the alternative, not-mainstream philosophy, music, way of life, and these three things were intimately related.
But it feels to me like those things have all diverged as media sources have changed and grown, as life as become steadily more plugged-in, between the 80s and now. Punk music (eh, pop-punk? punk rock? punk folk? post-punk? punk blues? I've seen all of these listed as genres for various bands to whom I listen) today as a genre/sound doesn't necessarily align with punk as a political or lifestyle statement.
The visual aesthetics? Yes. As music? Yes. The guitar riffs and the anti-establishment lyrics (*cough* Minority *cough*) and the stripped-down style.
But. I'm not so clear on the rest.
My first exposure to Green Day was when I was in college. My then-boyfriend was a DJ on the campus radio station, and he was into Green Day, so he introduced me to Kerplunk and Dookie. I love them. I have all their albums. But any band that's been steadily on MTV for over a decade? Are they really punk? I mean, I cannot imagine Converge, who I think of as hardcore punk, on Broadway. But Green Day doesn't surprise me. AI was always a rock opera, so this wasn't a big leap or a betrayal, in my mind.
So, yeah, are they really punk? Educate me, please. Seriously.
