American Idiot Musical Summary

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googletagcmd.push(function() googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1420576007798-2'); );The hints of a plot in American Idiot: the Musical are threadbare, completed mostly by pantomime actions during the showcase numbers. The only spoken parts are brief, spoken postcard messages written by the main character. It would almost help if you read the detailed plot summary on Wikipedia, which explained a lot for me afterwards. If not, then theatergoers will receive as much character depth here as they would reading a four-panel newspaper comic strip.

In the story, three friends named Johnny, Will and Tunny (perhaps representing Green Day bandmates Billie Joe, Mike and Tre) tire of drinking beer bought from their small town convenience store and the inanity of television, so they prepare to take off for the city. Before they can, Will finds out his girlfriend is pregnant and stays behind. Once in the big city, a bored Tunny is enraptured by an advertisement for the Army. Thinking he has found purpose, he signs up and is apparently sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Johnny seeks love instead, and finds it, but he also finds a wild new friend, St. Jimmy, who gets him hooked on heroin.

In the end, if you need a night of bombastic rock and roll, modern dance fused with mosh pit motion and comfortable seats, then this will be the show for you. If you seek a true Broadway musical with depth, wait until Rent gets another revival.

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On the latest episode of Stitcher's Office Ladies podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the Season 6 episode, "Secret Santa," which features the popular Green Day song, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Since Fischer is close personal friends with Armstrong, she reached out to him to chat about the episode. On the podcast he read the "Secret Santa" episode summary for Office Ladies listeners, and later shared how he felt watching Dwight and Andy sing Green Day karaoke.

"Hello, Office Ladies listeners. This is Billie Joe Armstrong. Here's your summary for 'Secret Santa,'" he began. "It's Christmas time at Dunder Mifflin. Jim and Dwight are in charge of this year's Christmas party, and they're doing a pretty good job. Jim tells Phyllis she can play Santa, something she's wanted to do for years. This naturally causes Michael to spiral. Meanwhile, Oscar has a crush on a new warehouse worker, and Pam plays matchmaker. Andy has Erin in the Secret Santa gift exchange, but so far it's not going well. She's mostly just been attacked by birds. There is some potentially devastating news from corporate hanging over everyone's heads, but in the end, it's a great party with karaoke, a marching band, and even a little snow."

"Dwight is singing 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' by Green Day," Fischer explains. "Andy joins in with some perfect harmony. 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' is from Green Day's 2004 album American Idiot. So something that I know, because I'm friends with Billie Joe Armstrong. I cannot say it enough."

"I'm just so tickled every time I can say that. Billy had seen The Office, but he recently in 2019 did a big rewatch of the whole series," she continued. "And I asked him, 'When you did your rewatch, did you remember that you had given us permission to use this song?'"

"I just love it that he was surprised by his own song during that rewatch," Fischer said. Kinsey agreed, then explained there was a musical interlude to the karaoke that Ed Helms and Rainn Wilson had to vamp during.

"I mean, I know they already produced the musical version of American Idiot, but I'm saying, if you bring it back to the stage, you might want to add this 'riddit dit dit do.' You might want to because it's pretty great," Fischer mused.

"We've all been there. We've all picked a song for karaoke and then there's a big musical interlude and you're like, "What do I do?'" Kinsey said. "I'm just kinda bobbing my head. I mean, Ed crushed it."

Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.

An evocative trio if there ever was one. It's also a decent summary of My Window, Etheridge's Broadway show, whose opening night was the occasion on which we spoke. Through November 19, Etheridge takes the Circle in the Square Theatre stage to sing her hits and share the story of how she went from a young girl singing in Kansas bars to a young adult singing in California bars. Except this time, they were lesbian bars. Oh, and they ended up being her launchpad to the globally bestselling rock star status she continues to hold at 62.

The couple have known each other since their school days in Kansas, and they've been theatre fans just as long. Wallem recalled Etheridge's turn as Aunt Eller in a high school production of Oklahoma! (a musical that occupied the Circle in the Square four years ago).

Wallem went on to recall an even more full-circle moment: her own first Broadway show, 1979's Sweeney Todd, which she saw at the Uris Theatre with her childhood best friend, Joe Mantello. That theatre is now the Gershwin, where Mantello directs Wicked right next to the Circle in the Square.

With all this theatrical history between the pair, it's almost surprising that it took Springsteen's Broadway show to kick Etheridge's into high gear. Well, him and one more crucial woman to My Window: Amy Tinkham, a veteran concert director.

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