American Idiot - Broadway's Newest Classic

It was about 10:30 in the morning, and my dad had ran into my room screaming about something. I really don't remember what. I was tired; I had gone to bed at 5 am because I was trying to keep my boyfriend company on his 7 hour drive home from Maryland. Anyways, my dad threw a piece of paper in my face. It said:

'American Idiot, row J seats 110, 111, Orchestra. $127. July 17, 2010. 8 p.m.'

So I mean, I was freaking out, and have never gotten up and ready quicker than I did that day. Before we got to the city -I live about two hours away- we had to go to a Verizon store in Ledgewood, New Jersey, because my phone had broken YET AGAIN. Well, this time it was my fault. I hit it with a drumstick on accident while playing Jesus of Suburbia on expert.

So we got to the city like, forever early. We got our tickets from a smiling man at the St. James theatre service desk, and then went and saw a King Tut exhibit. After having some really good NYC pizza, we waited in the 'ticket-holder' line for the show. Needless to say, we were first.

We got into the theatre, and a really nice older man told us that we had one of the best seats in the house, besides the first balcony's front row. (St. James theatre is kind of huge, it has a large first floor, with a roomy balcony, and then a third story balcony above that.) There was such a large variety of people there: both couples to either side of us were elderly. The man next to me even questioned me about Green Day. He was impressed with me and gave me his Handbill for it, so now I have two. Woohoo!

Then the show started. At first, I didn't even realize what was going on. The lights went out and a man said "Please excuse this interruption for a CNN news break: North Korea has just successfully detonated a nuclear weapon..." Then, the entire cast burst out into the amazing melodic version of American Idiot that we've all heard a billion times.

Everything about the show was amazing. Though there was a small lack of character development, the lights, sounds, and general set made up for that. The set was actually a huge wall filled with newspapers - but if you looked at it for a while, some of it was actually something far more interesting - I even saw an old Gilman St. poster advertising Rancid.

The characters were intriguing. There were a few main characters, and then some minor. There was Johnny, AKA Jesus. He had his two buddies Will and Tunny. Will had a girlfriend, Heather, who got pregnant within the first five seconds of the show. And then of course were St. Jimmy and Whatsername. Every character took it to a new perspective - most even got teary eyed at the end of the show because of our standing ovation.

If you live anywhere near the city, or are ever going to be anywhere near the city, I STRONGLY suggest going to see this. It's worth the money. Even my conservative middle-aged father was blown away by it. And I wouldn't worry about not being able to go right now. The show I was at sold out, as did the performance my English teacher saw the week before.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. I've seen many plays before, including The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Rent, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and The Phantom of the Opera. American Idiot was the most incredible.