ON THE RECORD
If you were in California right now, you could drive over to Berkeley tonight and watch a staged version of Green Day’s cash cow, Grammy-winning album “American Idiot.” Say what?
It’s true. The men of Green Day have collaborated with Michael Mayer, Tony Award-winning director of the relentlessly acclaimed “Spring Awakening,” to bring the hit anti-Bush record to the stage in the form of a rock opera. Hailed as a masterpiece by all kinds of journalism outfits (Rolling Stone, I’m looking at you) and catapulting Green Day back into the mainstream, it was only a matter of time before someone got the idea to turn the loosely-narrative album into a show.
It has been in vogue on Broadway, at least commercially, to mount shows based on the music of popular acts. For instance, “Mamma Mia!” — the sappy musical based on the ever-danceable catalogue of ABBA — has been a ticket sales juggernaut in New York as well as on tour. It even spawned a god-awful feature film (the ultimate fate of any truly successful stage musical). Similar efforts have been made, with varying degrees of success, to bring the music of The Four Seasons, The Beach Boys and Elvis to the stage. It’s a proven business model. People love popular music, and these shows (along with the film-adaptation variety) bring to the theatre droves of people who otherwise might never drop their cash there.
If shoe-horning a dozen or so popular songs into a generic musical-comedy plot can make so much money, why not turn to more ready-made material like Green Day’s pseudo-rock opera? After all, it worked with “Tommy” back in 1992. That’s the comparison which people have been consistently drawing for “American Idiot” since its release.
And maybe it’s a fair one. Let’s be clear here. I would never compare the album “Tommy” with “American Idiot.” One is a masterpiece of rock ‘n’ roll music and the other is, at least in my humble opinion, not. Still, that is not to say that “American Idiot” couldn’t actually be good on stage. What makes a great piece of musical theatre is decidedly different from what makes a good rock album.
Take the case of “Tommy.” It is a great musical. However, in the transition from record to stage, the “Tommy” album became something else entirely.
The narrative became more coherent, more grounded (something American Idiot will sorely require). The music changed — not just its component parts, but the spirit of it. Listen to the original overture from “Tommy.” Then listen to the overture from the musical’s cast recording. Technically, they are very similar, but the latter is a study in precision, while the former is loose and free. The Who’s version would probably be considered sloppy in a Broadway theater, but it is transcendent on record.
Pete Townshend even wrote new music for the show. An entirely new song, “I Believe My Own Eyes,” was added to the second act. It is many things, but a rock song it is not. It would be out of place on the original album, but it works on the stage and it’s quite a good song in the oeuvre of Broadway.
Musicals are about narrative first and foremost. Concept albums, rock operas — whatever you want to call them — are not. They are about the music, first. “Tommy” is truly great in a generally impoverished genre because it also has a brilliant narrative arc, but even that didn’t wholly survive the transition to the stage.
At the end of the original “Tommy” album, the crowds worshipping Tommy leave him because they decide they have no interest in following a false god. At the end of the musical, on the other hand, Tommy refuses to be deified, and this is what angers the crowd. Rather than revolutionary masses championing their individuality, we are given a rabble that is desperate for something to believe in, even if it’s false.
Purists were outraged by the change, but I would suggest that the second version is a lot more interesting. However, it leads the show into an extended and pretty uninteresting re-hashing of a lot of previous music. This works on stage because of the story, but it would be an entirely forgettable ending for the album.
Perhaps “American Idiot” will meet a similar fate when it makes its way to the stage. For those like me who were underwhelmed by the album, that may be a good thing. Maybe Michael Mayer, Billie Joe Armstrong and company can forge a real show out of “American Idiot’s” disjointed narrative, or maybe they can’t.
Ultimately, though, whether we like it or not, the show will probably succeed. But it will certainly be a very different animal than the album it’s based on.
You can reach this columnist at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
