In addition to releasing and touring behind 21st Century Breakdown, Green Day has somehow found the time to also turn 2004's American Idiot into a musical. The play, which runs from September 4 - October 11 in Berkeley, CA, is directed by Michael Mayer, who won a Tony Award for Spring Awakening.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Billie Joe Armstrong said that he didn't want to come off as pretentious when describing American Idiot as a rock opera after its release. Armstrong would tell interviewers, "This record has more in common with Rocky Horror than Leonard Cohen." After an American Idiot movie "fell through the cracks," Green Day found out that Mayer had suggested that "he'd love to do the musical of American Idiot" and the play started to come together.
Armstrong says the
American Idiot musical has "
no intermission. It's just blasting straight through for 75 minutes. It's not a long play. He stuck to the spirit of the record, which is pulverizing."
Mayer also told Rolling Stone that the musical will be comprised of the entire American Idiot record, two of its b-sides and four songs from 21st Century Breakdown. "Every song on the album will be played in sequence. But the sequences will be interrupted by other songs and text."
In other Green Day news, the video for their new single "21 Guns" will debut this Sunday, June 21 exclusively on MySpace. The video was directed by Mark Webb, who has shot videos for Weezer and My Chemical Romance, as well as the upcoming film (500) Days Of Summer.
Thanks for the report to FMQB.com.
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