While Jukebox musicals like Mamma Mia and Rock Of Ages have been very popular on the stage in recent years, one of the more ususual ones has been American Idiot, based on the music of Green Day – not a band whose songs you’d automatically think would fit into a stage show. However the 2004 album American Idiot was created as a sort of rock opera, inspired by the works of The Who, so there is a lot more logic to it than non-fans might suspect.
The show has been a succes on Broadway (although it’s now about to close) and so now Universal, along with Tom Hank’s Playtone Pictures, are developing it as a film, and Deadline says they’ve set Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black to handle the adaptation. The stage musical follows St. Jimmy, a disaffected youth who flees stifling suburbia and his parents’ restrictions to look for meaning in his life, and to try out the freedom and excitement of the city.
The Deadline report also the director of the stage version, Michael Mayer, is likely to direct, and that following well received runs in the Bradway version, Green Day lead singer Billie Jo Armstrong may take on the lead role himself, although that’s a long way from being confirmed.