American Idiot

Last night we went to see Green Day’s American Idiot musical. It was amazing! Beyond amazing! It’s the best thing we’ve done all year. And we’ve done a LOT. We thought there would be loads of goth/punk types there and were prepared to death stare them into oblivion for out gothing us. No. There were a couple but we were the most dressed up, as usual. Our chunky knuckleduster and chain boots put everyone’s to SHAME! 😀

We’d never been to the Millennium Centre before so were really nervous. Inside it was stunning. We couldn’t stop stroking all the different textures and art displays. Everyone else was in the bar or the foyer, acting like they were in an airport. We were wandering around, mouths open like gasping fish. At one point we discovered the ridged door pads sounded like washboards when you ran your nails up and down them so we stood there for a bit making music. Then some guy walked past and stared at us. Move on, nothing to see here. Then we discovered a mirror with patterns over it so were stroking it to see if we could feel the ridges. The same guy walked past. Seriously? Can’t we stroke a building in peace? Beginning to see why Ryan is embarrassed by us…

We’d forgotten which tickets we’d booked, as we bought them in December. Turned out, it was front row centre. We got all excited when the usher told us that. She must’ve thought we were mad. We were trying to persuade Ryan to get up and do his pelvic thrust dance to entertain the masses before the show started. Think he was tempted. Especially in the interval. We were hoping he’d get up on stage, start dancing then the curtain would go up & he’d be stuck in the performance. No such luck. Turned out, one of the guys did Ryan’s dance. Ryan was gutted at his missed opportunity. We didn’t know what to expect as our only experience of musicals is Rocky Horror. We somehow doubted the cast would be dancing around in basques and suspenders. Though it was close.

The whole show was incredible. As huge Green Day fans, we were worried about them doing the songs justice but bloody hell, they did. The cast were amazing, full credit to them. We’ve never been more in love with the American Idiot album than we were last night. The choreography was brilliant! Especially where they were using fire escapes and scaffolding to dance on and didn’t fall off. And they were even playing their own guitars (we watched the strings). Alyssa DiPalma who played Whatsername even dressed like us 😀 It was amazing how much Alex Nee, who played Johnny looked like Billie Joe Armstrong. And we got to see him in just his pants! Which was very nice of him. Ryan wasn’t too keen on him standing right up front in his just his grey shorts but Johnny was just giving the people what they wanted. And if we ever have the fortune to meet him, the ice is already broken. We can be like ‘we’ve already seen you in your pants, you have nothing to worry about.’ C L Raven, making hotties uncomfortable since records began.

The set was fantastic. We particularly loved the way they lowered the scaffolding while Johnny and Tunney (Thomas Hettrick) were top of it and turned it into their bus. The storyline was superb, you really feel the characters’ pain and disillusionment as their lives fall apart in front of them and they begin to lose not only their friends, but their dreams and even themselves. We couldn’t pick a favourite scene, it was all brilliant. Normally our attentions spans are quite short, we get bored and fidget. We sat there, completely rigid for the whole thing. Which just proves how good it was. We had to resist the urge to air guitar to American Idiot. It was the first song and we weren’t fully comfortable in our surroundings. Had it come at the end, we would’ve been air guitaring and head banging with the best of them.

The cast which includes Casey o’Farrell as Will, Kennedy Caughell as his girlfriend, Heather and the rest of the cast, Aurie Ceylon, Carson Higgins, Antwaun Holley, Daniel C. Jackson,  Brandon Kalm, John Krause, Alison Morooney, Turner Rouse Jr, Jamal Shuriah, Dustin Harris Smith, Ashley Tobias, Chelsea Turbin and Jared Young all deserved the  standing ovation we gave them. St Jimmy (Trent Saunders) looked directly at us two and did devil horns! \m/ \m/ yes we got devil horned by St Jimmy himself! Sadly, we were so enraptured, our response was too slow and we didn’t devil horn him back. Bugger! THEN after the encore, the girl who played Tunney’s girlfriend – Extraordinary Girl (Jenna Rubii) (who did an amazing flying dance routine) came right to the front of the stage and gave Cat her plectrum! Then St Jimmy tossed his to Lynx! We got plectrums off the cast! Haven’t stopped smiling about that. They’re on our bedside cabinets, where they’ll stay forever. The only bad thing about the musical? That we don’t have tickets for every night.