![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
healingmirth(Yeah, this isn't really any of those posts either. It's also putting the cart before the horse a bit - or maybe not, given how much I've said about the show already - but it's yelling in my head at the moment, so it gets dibs.)
I had an epiphany tonight sitting in the YMCA parking lot, about why I love this musical so much, despite what are arguably some pretty glaring flaws, and it has everything to do with being in fandom - and no, I don't just mean that I want to stare at Stark Sands, but that's true, too.
It's not news to any of you, I'm sure, that being a transformative-works-type fan (whether you are a participant with others, or whether your imagination just runs wild on its own) changes how you interact with media. In the broad sense, it wasn't news to me either, but I didn't put words to the fact that it was working behind-the-scenes in my brain here, until tonight.
There's a lot about American Idiot that I love and would recommend without qualification. I already loved the music. Now I also love the arrangements and the stage and the costumes, I love the performances, I love the choreography, and I love the characters they've teased out from the more-or-less single narrative of the original Green Day album, and I'll defend the quality of any of those against pretty much all the musicals I've seen.
The plot, however. The plot's got some depth-of-development issues. It's an outline, at best, snippets of exposition mixed in with emotion or sometimes lack thereof. Things happen fast, and sometimes several things are happening at once. I don't know if it's supposed to cultivate a sense of urgency, or they just wanted to get through it without an intermission, or they ran out of songs. I never had enough time to sink in to where a character was at, with the possible exception of Will, and pretty much all he does is sit on a couch for 90 minutes, so I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on his arc.
(and I still, really, truly, have no idea what the point of Extraordinary Girl, as staged, is. I think it's gimmicky as hell, and doesn't do even the slightest bit of selling me on either their relationship or Tunny's pain, disillusionment, longing, or whatever it is that he's supposed to be feeling. Also, doesn't really sell me on him being high on pain or morphine, except in the heavy-handed sense of the fact that he is clearly not actually flying. But I digress.)
American Idiot is not Les Misérables. Obviously. Bits of it may be tragic, but it is not a Great Tragedy. There's a war, but it's not about the war. As far as I'm concerned, everyone who survives Les Mis goes on to own a shop or work on a farm or something, gets married, has some kids, and lives out the rest of their life relatively happy in relative quiet.
For the Idiots, this is not the end of their story, any more than my life right now is the end of mine, and I think that's part of why the show seems to be getting a pass on its weaknesses. That might have been enough on it's own, but its hard for me to distinguish now, because I have been so busy telling myself bits of stories that we'll never get to see onstage.
In my head, it is okay that the show doesn't sell me on how the Extraordinary Girl and Tunny fall in love, because it doesn't have to last, or maybe it does last, but the foundation is still under construction when the curtain falls. In my head, Whatsername goes on to be a community organizer or a social worker or a graphic designer or runs her own business. Will gets his act together and stops writing really horrible emo poetry and finishes college and maybe a graduate degree, maybe teaches creative writing at the community college while he works on an endless series of novels. Tunny realizes how important it was to him to be part of something, even though it ended horribly. Maybe he gets some sort of IT certification and becomes a big brother in his spare time, or joins a murderball team. Maybe he gets married and has three kids and manages to be the awesome dad that he didn't have.
Maybe none of that happens, and they all drown in the three-inch water of their vague discontent. Maybe they feel like they got their hand slapped for trying once, and they never try again. I'm okay with any of the possibilities, or all or them, because I no longer expect stories to be finished when the lights come up. In some ways, I prefer it, because it saves me the burden of having to write my way out of a happy-ending corner in order to tell another one.
I love the show because it gave me characters to play with, and because it, itself, took something that was "finished" and made it something more.
I had an epiphany tonight sitting in the YMCA parking lot, about why I love this musical so much, despite what are arguably some pretty glaring flaws, and it has everything to do with being in fandom - and no, I don't just mean that I want to stare at Stark Sands, but that's true, too.
It's not news to any of you, I'm sure, that being a transformative-works-type fan (whether you are a participant with others, or whether your imagination just runs wild on its own) changes how you interact with media. In the broad sense, it wasn't news to me either, but I didn't put words to the fact that it was working behind-the-scenes in my brain here, until tonight.
There's a lot about American Idiot that I love and would recommend without qualification. I already loved the music. Now I also love the arrangements and the stage and the costumes, I love the performances, I love the choreography, and I love the characters they've teased out from the more-or-less single narrative of the original Green Day album, and I'll defend the quality of any of those against pretty much all the musicals I've seen.
The plot, however. The plot's got some depth-of-development issues. It's an outline, at best, snippets of exposition mixed in with emotion or sometimes lack thereof. Things happen fast, and sometimes several things are happening at once. I don't know if it's supposed to cultivate a sense of urgency, or they just wanted to get through it without an intermission, or they ran out of songs. I never had enough time to sink in to where a character was at, with the possible exception of Will, and pretty much all he does is sit on a couch for 90 minutes, so I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on his arc.
(and I still, really, truly, have no idea what the point of Extraordinary Girl, as staged, is. I think it's gimmicky as hell, and doesn't do even the slightest bit of selling me on either their relationship or Tunny's pain, disillusionment, longing, or whatever it is that he's supposed to be feeling. Also, doesn't really sell me on him being high on pain or morphine, except in the heavy-handed sense of the fact that he is clearly not actually flying. But I digress.)
American Idiot is not Les Misérables. Obviously. Bits of it may be tragic, but it is not a Great Tragedy. There's a war, but it's not about the war. As far as I'm concerned, everyone who survives Les Mis goes on to own a shop or work on a farm or something, gets married, has some kids, and lives out the rest of their life relatively happy in relative quiet.
For the Idiots, this is not the end of their story, any more than my life right now is the end of mine, and I think that's part of why the show seems to be getting a pass on its weaknesses. That might have been enough on it's own, but its hard for me to distinguish now, because I have been so busy telling myself bits of stories that we'll never get to see onstage.
In my head, it is okay that the show doesn't sell me on how the Extraordinary Girl and Tunny fall in love, because it doesn't have to last, or maybe it does last, but the foundation is still under construction when the curtain falls. In my head, Whatsername goes on to be a community organizer or a social worker or a graphic designer or runs her own business. Will gets his act together and stops writing really horrible emo poetry and finishes college and maybe a graduate degree, maybe teaches creative writing at the community college while he works on an endless series of novels. Tunny realizes how important it was to him to be part of something, even though it ended horribly. Maybe he gets some sort of IT certification and becomes a big brother in his spare time, or joins a murderball team. Maybe he gets married and has three kids and manages to be the awesome dad that he didn't have.
Maybe none of that happens, and they all drown in the three-inch water of their vague discontent. Maybe they feel like they got their hand slapped for trying once, and they never try again. I'm okay with any of the possibilities, or all or them, because I no longer expect stories to be finished when the lights come up. In some ways, I prefer it, because it saves me the burden of having to write my way out of a happy-ending corner in order to tell another one.
I love the show because it gave me characters to play with, and because it, itself, took something that was "finished" and made it something more.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 08:29 pm (UTC)(I love your icon, and I have no idea why, but those Day in the Life photos are simultaneously so precious, and make me feel like such a creeper, even though they were legitimately proshot. My brain has issues. I approve of your icon though! Also? It was totally 70 degrees all that week in New York, so it is bonus precious and confusing that he's all bundled up. They must have gotten up realllly early.)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 12:35 am (UTC)LOL, Stark the cold blooded. Makes for good snuggles :D