American Idiot Cast Recording Release Set to Coincide with Opening Night

Looks like April 20 is shaping up to be a huge day for Green Day and the original cast of American Idiot. Not only will the show open at the St. James Theatre, but Reprise Records is set to release the show’s original cast recording on the same day.

Based on Green Day’s album of the same name, American Idiot follows the story of three young friends as they struggle to make sense of their lives in a post-9/11 world. Led by Johnny (John Gallagher Jr.), the self proclaimed “Jesus of Suburbia,” the friends attempt to purge themselves from their frustrated small-town lives, only to find themselves mixed up in a world of drug use, violence and emotional numbness.

The show's cast recording, produced by Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, features every song from the original American Idiot album as well as several songs from Green Day’s hit follow-up record 21st Century Breakdown.

American Idiot co-stars Michael Esper as Will, Stark Sands as Tunny, Rebecca Naomi Jones as Whatsername, Tony Vincent as St. Jimmy, Christina Sajous as The Extraordinary Girl, and Mary Faber as Heather. The actors are joined by their 17 other cast members on the album.

Tony winner Michael Mayer directs the show, with the score credited to Green Day, and the book a collaboration between Mayer and Armstrong.