August 15, 2011
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Spaceballs The Blow Torch
As you may or may not know I am a huge Green Day fan. It’s funny, I used to hate Green Day when they first came out with Dookie in 1994 but then they released “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” from the Nimrod album and I fell in love with the song. Still, I didn’t like Green Day so much. A few years later came the song “Minority” which I grew to like but I was still in my Green Day denial phase. Then came 2004 and the hugely successful American Idiot album which changed everything. The title track was an anti George Bush and anti redneck Republican song and of course it appealed to me. Then came quite possibly the biggest song from the album, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” which for many reasons, has special meaning for me and it very well might be my favorite song of all time, with apologies of course to “American Pie”. Soon though, the American Idiot album became my favorite album of all time and something I can never get sick of. So when I found out there was going to be an American Idiot Broadway musical, I knew I had to go.
As fortunes would have it, I wound up going to New York City for New Year’s Eve this past year and saw the musical on January 1 of this year. Now I’ve never been a fan of musicals in the least. In fact, I couldn’t stand them, but I love American Idiot so much so something had to give. If I ever was going to see a musical, this would be it. And I LOVED it and found a whole new appreciation of musicals, so much that I think I want to go to another one. Maybe it is finally my gay side coming out, but honestly, it was really fucking cool; there was just so much visually on that stage and then you throw in the music and holy fuck, you have some quality entertainment. Honestly, I don’t know why I’ve hated musicals so much, after all, I love to sing and love music.
So recently, I came across the CD release of the American Idiot Broadway musical. That’s right, they made a CD of a musical of a CD. Kinda redundant, don’t ya think? But, of course, the songs on the musical are, for the most part, in a different style of the original CD. I guess the best way to describe it is to say it’s kind of like if the cast of Glee did a cover of American Idiot. But, guess what? I love it and can’t get enough of it, just like the original CD. It is a way for me to fall in love with it all over again, kinda like an old married couple who renews their vows and takes a new honeymoon.
Could this be the start of my love affair with musicals? Well, probably not, but I no longer hate them and have a new appreciation for them and can certainly see myself going to more in the future.
Comments (1)
I’m not a big fan of musicals. And, honestly, I haven’t seen a Broadway production…. My musical favorites tend to be movies… LOL.. Like Grease, Hairspray… or maybe thats a John Travolta thing… idk.. I would like to see one though, just so I know for sure. I went to see the Nutcracker for the first time 3 years ago, a local production of it.. it was pretty cool, ok, nice… then last year we went to the Russian Nutcracker (not local)… I’m not even sure how to say that right… anyway… it was BREATHTAKING. So much different and more spectacular than the smaller production we saw… so yeah,… I’d like to see a big one, just to see.
(I love Green Day also… I feel like such an emo-teen when I listen though. Boulevard of Broken Dreams is one of my favs… and Good Riddance is the song my daughter has been instructed to play at my funeral.