Green Day’s American Idiot Is No Alfred E. Neuman, He Is Worried

There was an article in the Times about Green Day's musical, American Idiot, coming to L.A. They are worried because unlike Broadway which gets a lot of walk-ins and tourists, the rest of the country’s theater audiences are subscribers who don't like Punk Rock. They even had people walking out on the Broadway production after the first song. They're hoping the subscribers stay home and give their tickets to someone who will like the show. Theater and rock don't really mix that well, yet.

Jersey Boys, a musical about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, has Sixties style pop and doo-wop and was a hit and of course Dreamgirls was a big hit and featured Motown music but the Billy Joel and Beach Boys shows didn’t do very well and Yoko’s Lennon musical was a huge bomb.

Do tribute bands constitute theater? Tim Piper and Working Class Heros’ show, Just Imagine, does well in its L.A. engagements but at what point does a concert become musical theater? Just Imagine has more dialogue, premise and dramatic arc than a mere concert but does a show like David Brighton’s David Bowie show which has costume changes and involves a musical Bowie history lesson qualify as theater? Certainly, Las Vegas has shows that are strictly singing and dancing without any kind of story to them as Vegas Strip show staples.

How old am I that I now have reached the point in time when Punk Rock is being regurgitated for musical theater? Rock of Ages has Eighties Metal so I imagine the next phase has got to be Rap, The Musical. Ugg!

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