Bridlington Spa – until Saturday 11 May 2019
Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
4****
Based on the music of American punk band Green Day, American Idiot is basically the story of three boyhood friends, searching for meaning in post 9/11 America. As thick as thieves, dropouts, with their puerile humour, they all decide to escape suburbia. This leads to different paths for all of them.
Johnny (Tom Milner) pushes the other two into leaving for the bright light of the city, Tunny (Joshua Dowen) and Will (Samuel Pope) are eager to follow, that is until Will’s girlfriend tips up to say that she’s pregnant, persuading Will to stay behind. Johnny and Tunny now in the city, react completely differently, Tunny finds it hard to adjust and spends all his time watching television, being seduced by what he sees and enlists into the army and is shipped off abroad to some conflict. Meanwhile Johnny realising that the grass is not greener on the other side, descends into a world of drugs. He is lead astray by St Jimmy (Luke Friend), pressurising him into taking hard drugs. St Jimmy mirrors Johnny the whole time. St Jimmy is so much more in every way, more intimidating, larger than life, outrageous. Each of the three friends’ lives descend into darkness, but for different reasons and in different ways.
The set was on two levels, with the live band on the top level. The band were superb delivering hit after hit, head banging aplenty. Milner manages to portray Johnny convincingly, as we follow his addictions, showing a vulnerable side to his character. His vocals are spot on and he is a strong lead. Friend portrays St Jimmy with an evil swagger, growling his way through his numbers. Dowen has obviously been spending a lot of the time in the gym in his portrayal and Tunny, he certainly looked the part of an American soldier. Pope was very believable as Will, wanting to be a father, but struggling to grow up and take responsibility. The whole cast are absolutely amazing in how much energy they have, they must have an awful lot of stamina to carry on for the whole show at the same level, night after night.
It is raw and doesn’t shy away in its explicitness. There is a powerful scene which captivated the audience, where we see Johnny injecting heroin, this is done in silence, the only sound to be heard is the slapping of skin in order to find a vein, before the hit.
American Idiot is a high energy show, with very little let up and can be chaotic at times, there is a lot going on, but it stays true to Green Day and their music and lyrics. I encourage anyone to give it a go.