American Idiot

Billie Joe Armstrong and the men of Green Day wrote the rock opera American Idiot circa 2004, inspired — or pissed off — by the political climate of the Bush era. In 2008, they began a collaboration with Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer to bring Saint Jimmy and Whatsername to life in a musical adaptation. The punk-rock characters have kicked traditional Broadway characters off the stage with their leather studded boots, taking hundreds of audiences on an emotionally exhausting ride that still leaves them with enough energy for a standing ovation. The tale follows three disaffected suburban youth who flee to the city and find love, addiction, war and apathy.