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It’s amazing how long it takes us to change our view of something once it’s ingrained. Most people still think of New York City as dangerous, Starbucks coffee as bitter, Robin Williams as funny, and Broadway music as the exclusive domain of such songsmiths as Rodgers and Hammerstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber. That last one may change for good starting next week, when the musical American Idiot, based on Green Day’s 2004 punk-pop album of the same name, opens at the St. James Theater. The prevailing opinion was summed up fairly well by Bill Maher, who, when he interviewed Green Day’s front man, Billie Joe Armstrong, on his show last week, said, “[when I think] musical I think of Ethel Merman, Tommy Tune, Mr. Stephen Sondheim—I don’t think of Sid Vicious.”

American Idiot is neither an old-timey toe-tapper nor a radical reinvention of the musical form. It is an intense, 90-minute rock opera, powered by impassioned, creative renditions of Green Day’s songs and by the mesmerizing, evocative choreography of Steven Hoggett. As the show’s star, John Gallagher Jr., says, “It just goes and goes and goes until it can’t go any further.

Green Day's seventh studio album 'American Idiot' exploded on the scene in 2004 in a post 9/11 world filled with fear and media overload. Songs like 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' and 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' spoke to a generation who were left feeling unsure about the war. Hoping to expand the story that was woven through 'American Idiot,' Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool then wrote their next album '21st Century Breakdown.' So what's the next step for a chart-topping band like Green Day? How about opening a Broadway musical with a small cast that sings songs from both of their award-winning albums. Directed by Tony Award-winning director of 'Spring Awakening' Michael Mayer, 'American Idiot' brings some of the hottest young actors on Broadway together. Maybe you can't make it all the way to New York City? That's okay because we have the official Broadway cast recording for your listening pleasure right here, only on the Leak.

Listen to the entire new album at MTV's The Leak: HERE.