A stage adaptation of Green Day's 2004 album American Idiot opened on Broadway last week. Here are some of the plot highlights from this boy-pursuing-his-dreams-in-the-big-city story:
- A towering crescendo, rotating stage platform, and flashing klieg lights simulate the simultaneous pain and elation of having one's nose pierced
- Love interest reveals she's a Bush supporter moments too late, when the couple has just finished making love and singing about it
- The chorus refuses to stay on stage just because that's what they were told to do, so they totally mosh in the aisles as punk-colored balloons fall
- Early hit "Hitchin' A Ride" is performed with plenty of vocal razzle-dazzle as originally intended
- Main character calls everything he likes "Tré Cool!"
- The Angel of Punk Rock turns out to be a disfigured roadie who lives in an underground lair beneath the old CBGB
- Chorus dancers wearing leotards with the letters D, U, and H never manage to line up properly
- The protagonist ultimately realizes that fulfillment doesn't come from rigid societal conformism, but from a mild, inoffensive brand of nonconformism that is easily digestible—even widely marketable—to the masses