Skip to main content

Review of Green Day's American Idiot at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes

As the audience take their seats for Green Day's American Idiot, a television screen drip feeds snippets of media coverage of both the 9/11 terrorist attacks and President Bush's subsequent war on terror. It's a significant part of the storyline that follows, although the story of disillusioned youths attempting to find themselves is nothing new.

These three particular disillusioned friends are Johnny (Tom Milner), Will (Samuel Pope) and Tunny (Joshua Dowen). Johnny and Tunny drop their homes in pursuit of "finding themselves" in the city, while Will has more homely issues dealing with his now pregnant girlfriend Heather (Siobhan O'Driscoll).


It's a strong enough story to create a show around, and with Green Day's remarkable lyrics on American Idiot (and a few extra choice songs in the second act), it proves affecting sometimes in a surprising way. The first act is unquestionably the strongest, the best first act I have had the pleasure to see at Milton Keynes actually, the best songs are here, and the best pieces of choreography are also. This is often where the strength is on this show, in the musical set pieces.

Racky Plews, who both directs and leads choreography has created some vibrant pieces full of energy and it's amazing at times that the cast can maintain it for the entire show. The choreography is neat in that it feels perfectly in keeping with how these people would dance, full on rugged, and almost possessed at times, and weaving sexual acts into them at times, it both amusing and at turns probably leaving you grateful you are not sitting next to your gran.

The three leads Milner, Pope and Dowen are all equally strong, capturing their characters' emotions extremely well. It is all broad and exaggerated in its style as is keeping with the power of the music itself, so, there is little room for calm, and indeed when calm does come in the second act, as Milner's Johnny totally stops the pace of the show with his hard-hitting drug scene, it comes as so much more of a shock.

Dowen deals with Tunny's story with as much emotion as he can muster from what is virtually devoid of dialogue, he and the other leads force their actions through the lyrics of the songs as much as they can, and much of the time it is very effective. So, while more dialogue might have been beneficial at times, it also, as a result, would have broken the drive of the show, so, perhaps here the writers have got it about right.

Luke Friend as St Jimmy, is one of the pre-requisite nowadays it seems, an ex-X-Factor contestant, and he is both strong and weak, he has huge strength in the powerful numbers, but the softer moments of the songs he performs are lost within the music at times. Another X-Factor contestant though is much stronger, Sam Lavery as Whatsername is tremendous, remarkably powerful voice, one of the strongest in the show, and so incredibly effective in putting raw emotion into her performance.

The collections of songs are at their best in act one, the weaving Jesus of Suburbia is a stunning piece of evolving music over nine minutes, and the style changes put into the musical arrangement are amazing, including the haunting moment from O'Driscoll. Milner's delivery of Boulevard of Broken Dreams is also another highlight, as is Wake Me Up in September, the best moment of act two.

Sara Perks has designed a typically dowdy and dingy stage, which never moves through the show, with scene changes from props and windows of opportunity, a neat Rupenzel like appearance of Whatshername is extremely clever staging. The band occupy the upper tier and bring tremendous music to the entire show, and while you might expect it to be too loud, it never is. It's nicely balanced.

American Idiot was a surprise, I don't think it is for everyone, despite the surprising fact of how varied the audience was. It's perhaps one to chose your companion carefully with, but in equal turns, it's also maybe for all generations. It's rude, crude, abrasive throughout, but it's also tremendously good. It's more than just a rock concert bolted onto a thin storyline that you might be led to be believed by some, and from me, there is no question it comes highly recommended, if only for that quite stunning first act.

A stunning sensory overload of both brilliant music and choreography create an amazingly strong show.
⭐⭐⭐⭐½

Performance reviewed: Tuesday 23rd April 2019 at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes.
American Idiot runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 27th April 2019 before continuing its tour.
Further details about Milton Keynes Theatre can be found at http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/

Photos: Mark Dawson Photography
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Legally Blonde - The Musical at Milton Keynes Theatre

It is now a quarter of a century since Legally Blonde first hit the screens, featuring Reese Witherspoon in the iconic role of Elle Woods, and now 19 years since the film became a Broadway musical. Legally Blonde is back on tour and now at Milton Keynes for a fresh take on the show. So, in the hands of director Nikolai Foster, who often likes to shake things up, is this pink spectacle as relevant and enjoyable as it has been in the past? Legally Blonde tells the story of Elle Woods, a UCLA sorority sister who tries to get into Harvard Law School to win back her boyfriend, Warner. During her time at Harvard, Elle begins to realise that things beyond Warner are becoming increasingly more relevant to her progress in life. The role of Elle Woods is in the hands of Amber Davies, a now very big name beyond theatre, thanks to her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing . However, more significantly here, is being fresh from victory at the WhatsOnStage Awards for her performance in The Great Ga...
Read more

Review of Friends - The Musical Parody at Milton Keynes Theatre

The One Where 2026 starts in a world of confusion. And so, 2026 is upon us and for my first trip to the theatre this year, one of my most significant reviewing challenges was to occur. Touring to Milton Keynes Theatre is Friends - The Musical Parody , based, unsurprisingly, on that little American show that ran to a few audience members for ten years. However, I confess that I was not, and have never been in that audience, never having seen a single episode of the show. However, always up for a review challenge and doing my due diligence by having a Friends superfan as my plus one, I headed to Milton Keynes with anticipation. For those unfamiliar with the show, I could say I can’t help; however, a quick review of some of the information you might need (thanks, Google and my plus one). Running for ten years between 1994 and 2004 with 236 episodes (quiz question, you are welcome), the main characters consisted of Phoebe (ditzy, writer of sad songs), Monica (in possession of an unfeasibly...
Read more

Review of Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The Rambert Dance Company is the oldest such company in Britain having first performed in 1926. However, despite this, this was my first encounter with the group in my ten years of theatre-going. Coupled with this, it was also my first encounter with Peaky Blinders , having never seen the show, and only knowing a few vague things about it. My companion for the evening however was very familiar with the show, allowing some background behind the show. It turns out though,  Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby needs a little more than a good bit of knowledge of the show, as despite this production having incredible style, there struggles to be a cohesive structure to the show and the storytelling. Much more than other dance shows as well. The first act does a whistle-stop tour of the first five seasons and while it is a feast on the eye, and on the ear, it gets extremely confusing at times. The second act is freestyle and drifts away from the stories tol...
Read more