FROM the opening number, the New Theatre rocked it out to the sounds of the Green Day music in the musical American Idiot.  The show, set in the recent past, tells the story of 3 friends from suburbia who follow different journeys to try and find themselves through pregnancy, drugs, and war.

It’s very hard to single out members of the cast as each one played their roles well, but Matt Thorpe is outstanding as Johnny performing his way through harrowing scenes without needing much dialogue.

Alexis Gerred’s performance as Tunney was very powerful especially during his rehabilitation from a war injury.

I did feel the versatile Steve Rushton was underused as the stay at home friend Will and his story could have been developed a little further in the show.

Amelia Lily stood out with her powerful performances of 21 Guns and Letterbomb.

While the stage and set were minimalistic they managed to convey every scene well and I really liked the way the aisles of a convenience store managed to become a bus for the next scene.

It would have been nice to see more of the band as it was just the guitarists that were on stage during the show and the band performed really well.

The show continues at the New Theatre until Saturday 23 April 2016.

Rachel Howells