Download - American Idiot Playbook
PLAYBOOK 1
2 ON BROADWAY || AMERICAN IDIOT
PLAYBOOK 3
Viewer discretion advised - this show contains scenes with loud
music, flashing lights, strong language, violence, partial nudity, and drug
paraphernalia.
Photography, and video and audio recording of any kind is strictly
prohibited.
WARNING
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ABOUTa guide for the uninformed viewer
PLAYBOOK 5
ABOUTGreen Day meets musical
theatre? Harmonies and excessive
eyeliner? A badass, all-female creative team?
Welcome to BU On Broadway’s production of
American Idiot.
This punk rock musical tells the story of three
rebellious friends—Will, Johnny, and Tunny—
who are unhappy with suburban life and grow
frustrated with the state of society. All three
make a plan to escape from the suburbs and
embrace the fast-paced life of the city, but just
before their departure, Will’s girlfriend Heather
tells him that she is pregnant and he’s forced to
stay behind while Johnny and Tunny head to the
city with a band of other restless teens.
While in the city, Johnny becomes infatuated
with a girl he spots in the window named
Whatshername and Tunny, feeling empty and
numb in his current life, enlists in the army.
After injecting heroin for the first time, Johnny
grows dependent upon the local hero and drug
dealer St. Jimmy who gives him the courage
to pursue Whatshername. Tunny is deployed
to a war zone where he becomes gravely
wounded, and Will continues to sit at home
and commiserate as Heather becomes more and
more pregnant.
As Johnny’s love for Whatshername grows, St.
Jimmy’s power and the power of drugs controls
him and the actions he takes. Separated and
conflicted, these three finds seek meaning in
their lives while being held back by reality and
the harshness of life.
a guide for the uninformed viewer
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PLAYBOOK 7
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Though the story revolves around Johnny and company,
we’d like to take the time to characterize Saint Jimmy’s
twelve disciples. As Saint Jimmy welcomes the Jessu
of Suburbia into his following, we want you to look at
the stage and realize the depth of Jimmy’s power. These
aren’t just ensemble members - these are individual
people with specific personalities in Saint Jimmy’s cult.
Can you escape his grasp?
PLAYBOOK 9
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Meet Phantom. He was sixteen when he
ran away. He ran away and never looked back. No
home. No job. No money. Just a dream and a guitar.
On the city streets he feels at home and free. In the
shadows of the skyscrapers he feels alive - like a
blast of cold air that shocks you awake in a winter
morning. Back then, it was just Phantom, his music,
and the night. Now he’ i nineteen. Still alone with
nothing but his guitar and his new found needle.
Where there once was a dream is now a need for
drugs and the comfort of Saint Jimmy. Whatever
happened to his dream?
PLAYBOOK 11
You want to know who Miss Identified
is? Well, she’s still looking for her. With a mother
with a drinking problem and a father who spends
most of his nights “in the office working late,” Miss
Identified kept mostly to herself. Life wasn’t perfect
but it was bearable. After escaping to the city, she
joined a band of misfits longing for shelter and
a place to call home, but the guilt of leaving her
mother weighed heavy, so she turned to drugs to
forget. Running away didn’t save her but maybe St.
Jimmy will.
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Burnout has completely given up. There’s a
war going on, not only out in the world, but in his
own home. And everybody in his life? They’re same
morons who are happy to live their lives the same
exact way every single day - and his heart is tired
of it. He’s thrown his emotions in the grave - hell in
this town, who needs emotions anyway? To him,
suburbia means nothing, just an eternal purgatory.
But he fucking loves it. He loves that it’s nothing.
It’s the only road he’s ever known, and he’s where he
belongs - in a wasteland of broken dreams.
PLAYBOOK 13
Pretty In Punk grew up in a conservative,
uptight suburb where she was homeschooled by
her parents. Her only friend was her neighbor
Aleah who went to public school. One night, they
got high and after that, she was hooked. They left
town to find people who loved drugs as much as
they did. When she’s not high she feels guilty and
ashamed, and when she’s high she feels alive and
free. She’s not sure where she’s going to end up or
how she’s going to continue living like this, but
she knows she’s never going back. She’s found her
family.
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With both his parents dead at a young age,
he was labeled a foster child before he even knew
how to read. Growing up in foster homes, he has
always been the black sheep. Every experience he’s
had in life he’s went through alone. No dad to teach
him what the hell the birds and the bees are, no
friends to hang out with, and no real family. “The
bullies only bully to hide their own insecurities”
therapists would say. The Lone Wolf thinks that’s
bull shit. Bullies prey on the weak and they come
in packs. That’s why he never needed a pack - until
he met Saint Jimmy.
PLAYBOOK 15
Null Void wasn’t always this way. He used
to be an ordinary boy, but then the suburbia got to
him. The dull monotony of everyday life chipped
away at him until he finally snapped. Cereal and
milk turned into marijuana and beer, which then
turned methamphetamine and vodka. Out of the
ashes of the unfulfilled life and into the sky of
constant debauchery and inebriation. But he wasn’t
like the otheres - he had talents and skills. He could
play the shit out of drums. Even strum the guitar.
He has dreams, but he needed the high that Saint
Jimmy got him. How could he ever get tired of that?
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Pyro’s best friend is fire. Have you ever
looked at fire? Like, really looked at it? It moves with
a sort of finesse. It’s smooth, and fluid, and warm.
It doesn’t discriminate. One day his mother threw
one of his favorite toy cars in the fire. It was his
father’s. It was one of the only things he left behind.
He was so mad he hit her. And she kicked him. He
fell back and singed his hair on the fire. He still has
a scar. He later on went to get many more scars. He
left suburbia a long time ago. Some say his mother
didn’t even notice he wasn’t home. Some say she’s
still waiting in the dirt with only ashes and cinders
to comfort her buried corpse.
PLAYBOOK 17
What’s a Bonnie without her Clyde? They
ran away together to Chicago at sixteen with no
intention of looking back, but things didn’t work
out like they do in the movies. They were poor and
hungry. One day Bonnie stole a bunch of apples...
and they tasted good...almost better because they
were stolen. After that the duo was hooked on the
high of stealing. One day Bonnie and Clyde got in
a fight and Clyde stormed off. And he never came
back. Turns out he was shot by a convenience store
owner after attempting to steal. Bonnie replaced
the high of stealing with the high of drugs but still
thinks about Clyde. She’s trying to get better and
start over.
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Life had no meaning until Killer Queen met
him. He was the singer in a stupid emo garage band
with bad eyeliner, a tattoo of a Chinese symbol on
his arm, and a faux hawk. Then she got pregnant -
it was one of the happiest days of her life. But his
band got better, and he didn’t want the baby, and
he just left. He just left. So she tried to forget about
him. She got rid of everything that reminded her of
him - their child included. She took to drugs, she
took to alcohol, and she took to the only one who
was there for her - St. Jimmy.
PLAYBOOK 19
There’s this common belief that all tattoos
need to have some kind of deep,meaningful back-
story to truly be appreciated. A funny coincidence
is that most people who believe this have never
gotten a tattoo in their life. Ink has a lavender that
he paid for with birthday money from his grand-
mother (she still doesn’t know, so don’t tell). At first
he told people who asked him about his tattoo that
it represented luck and the promise of new adven-
ture, but that got boring after a while. Now when
people ask him he just says he wanted it.
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Pandora always felt out of place at school,
with her friends, and even at home. So at eighteen
she ran out of suburbia and right into Saint Jimmy’s
arms. She was always proud of feeling emptiness
in sex and booze, but with drugs she felt less than
empty. Less than lost. She felt like something, like
he could take care of her. She’s accepted that she’s
too far gone, but with him, she feels like she can
still prove she exists. And when she does, she’s
ready to fuck shit up.
PLAYBOOK 21
Let’s play two truths and a lie. 1) He once
traded a bag of coke to get a tattoo of the Easter
bunny punching out G dub Bush in the face. 2)
He hates The Notebook. 3) He used to get straight
As in high school and a 2110 on his SAT. Can you
guess the lie? He fucking loves The Notebook. And
he hates the fucking man - because it’s all a matter
of time before society takes everything away from
you. So take your coke in bags or take it all at once.
Who fucking cares?
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