Melissa Etheridge to Play St. Jimmy in American Idiot

Melissa Etheridge, a famous American rock singer-songwriter and musician is set to play the role of St. Jimmy in Green Day's American Idiot musical during Billie Joe's week break between the 1st to the 6th of February.

AI Musical director, Michael Mayer said :

“Billie Joe and I always believed that it would be incredible to have a woman take on the role of St. Jimmy. This character is seductive, thrilling and dangerous. Melissa Etheridge is all that and so much more. She’s a rock icon and we couldn’t be more thrilled that she’s bringing her immense talent to American Idiot.”

You can read the full article at NTTimes.com way Click Here.

Interviews Billie Joe In The New York Times about performing in the musical

The New York Times recently (as in last week) sat down with Billie Joe just before his performance on 'American Idiot' to talk about him performing in the musical .It's a really great Q&A with him

These are excerpts from that conversation.

How did your band mates in Green Day feel about losing you to the show for a few weeks?

"They were like: “Do it. We need to take a break. Get away from us for a while.” They’re totally into it."

What do you do during your downtime from the show?

"I have an apartment and I do demos during the day, just writing songs and stuff, and I have this night thing. I like the fact that I can be on stage at night and be physical and in front of people, while I go home and write at the same time. It’s not like doing it in a tour bus."

Are those songs that could turn up on another Green Day album?

"Right now, I’m at a stage where it’s just for fun. I’m not sure yet. When I get home in March, I’ll just hang out with my band mates, and we’ll pick through the piles. But I’m always writing for the next Green Day record, for sure."

Is this kind of performance something you think you might stick with? Would your rock ‘n’ roll skills apply to it?

In your head, you’re always thinking, how can I improve? What can I do differently? That’s their craft. I was making this analogy, that if you master one form of kung-fu and you want to learn a different technique, that’s almost what it feels like. But I don’t know, I’m not a kung-fu master. [laughs]

You can read the full interview on the NYT site.

Billie Joe back into St.Jimmy!

Guess who will return to the stage musical drama American Idiot? yup St.Joe or Billie Joe Armstrong is back playing as St.Jimmy!

Billie joe will start acting again on 1 January 2011 until 27 February. You can see the full schedule BJ on Broadway by Click Here.

St.Jimmy original cast, Tony Vincent will finish its work on 30 December.

As we know, during his debut on Broadway, in a week Billie Joe attracted the attention of many audience and ultimately American Idiot gets an income of $ 1,092,334 in a week!, So maybe the same strategy was repeated to again attract an audience.

You can view the full article Here.

Source : Idiot Club Indonesia

On December 12th Billie Joe will be attending the Stage and Film Gala in New York

New York Stage and Film will be honoring actress Laura Linney and Jujamcyn Theaters President Jordan Roth on December 12th in New York City. Billie Joe and Michael Mayer will be attending as Honorary Gala Chairs.

The event will take place December 12 at the Plaza Hotel. More information can be found on the New York Stage and Film website.

Source : Green Day Authority

Billie Joe and Michael Mayer on Theater Talk

Recently Billie Joe Armstrong and the director of the American Idiot musical, Michael Mayer sat down and did an interview for CUNY TV's Theater Talk.

Part 1 :


Part 2 :


Part 3 :

American Idiot nominated for 3 Tony awards

'American Idiot' has been nominated for Best Musical, Best Scenic Design (Christine Jones), and Best Lighting Design (Kevin Adams) at this year's Tony Awards. The ceremony will take place Sunday, June 13th on CBS. Check out the full list of nominees here.

This is what TonyAwards.com had to say about the musical:

'American Idiot tells the exhilarating story of a new generation of young Americans as they struggle to find meaning in a post-9/11 world, in a journey borne along by songs of the band Green Day. The musical follows working-class characters from the suburbs to the city to the Middle East, as they seek redemption in a world filled with frustration. The cast of 19 is led by past Tony Award-winner John Gallagher, Jr.'

'American Idiot' has also been nominated for a couple Drama Desk awards. Director Michael Mayer is up for Outstanding Director of a Musical and orchestrator/arranger Tom Kitt is up for the Outstanding Orchestration award (he is also nominated in that category for the musical Everyday Rapture).

The full list of nominations can be viewed here.

The Onion reviews 'American Idiot', Regis and Kelly

The Onion (a satirical news organization) recently published an article with some plot highlights from the American Idiot musical (don't worry, no spoiler alerts). Of course, these highlights were written in the famous Onion style and have been altered to be humorous. I find these "highlights" to be quite hilarious and hopefully some of you will get a kick out of them as well.

The article can be read by clicking here.

In other news, American Idiot cast members John Gallagher Jr., Michael Esper, an Stark Sands were on the morning show, Regis & Kelly last Monday. The trio performed 'Wake Me Up When September Ends.' The video can be watched below.

AI Musical Cast on David Letterman

Last night, the cast of the American Idiot musical performed the song 'Holiday' on the Late Show with David Letterman. The performance was great to say the least. Below you will find a video of it as well as a download of the performance.


Cast of AI Musical - Holiday from gdkid2010 on Vimeo.

Download an iPod-ready version by clicking here


 

American Idiot Cast to appear on Letterman tonight

Tonight, the cast of the American Idiot musical will be making an appearance on the David Letterman show. The show airs at 11:35 EST on CBS.

We will have a video of the performance posted as soon as possible.

In other news, the official site for the American Idiot musical has set up an online store where you can buy all sorts of American Idiot related merch. Click here to go to the store.

 

Musical tops Broadway box office

Variety posted the list of broadway show box office numbers, and listed American Idiot at the top for increasing sales of 67% over the past week.

Here's an excerpt from this MTV.com article

'After opening last Tuesday, the musical treatment of the band's landmark 2004 album brought in a hefty $777,860 during the week ending Sunday. Those numbers were up from the previous week's take of $464,946, when the show was still in previews, according to the Wall Street Journal.'

This is a very positive start for the show, and hopefully as more crowds get to see it and recommend it, the show will continue it's success.

Here's a related article from NYMag.com