Wednesday, June 20, 2012

American Idiot, at the Orpheum

(Van Hughes and Joshua Kobak helm the touring production. Photo by Doug Hamilton.)




In my last post about podcasting, I said I wanted to become more comfortable being critical when I'm reviewing with my co-critic, Benjamin Wachs. That comfort was not hard to achieve with American Idiot, the Green Day musical whose national tour hit SF last week. Benjamin found the piece merely boring; I found it offensive and gruesome, and not just for the reasons I describe in our podcast. I also felt deep frustration that so many people will see this show and consider it good or representative of American theater just because it's a Broadway musical. There are so many more shows out there, some even with artistic integrity! But how many audiences will know that?


American Idiot continues through July 8 at the Orpheum Theatre; info here.

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