"American Idiot" by Heanor Musical Theatre Company.

Mansfield Palace Theatre.

“American Idiot” is the story of three boyhood friends, Johnny, Will and Tunny, each searching for meaning in a post 9/11 world. The show features the music of Green Day with the lyrics of its lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong and book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer. Can you believe that the Green Day album that this jukebox musical is based on is 20 years old this year?

Andrew Bould plays Johnny, the main protagonist of the story. On his journey, he experiences nihilism, drug abuse, and lost love in Whatsername. With Andrew you feel the anger from his character and channels it through his singing. People think that singing rock music is easy, everyone can belt out a rock song, right? Wrong! As with most singing styles there are different breathing methods to match the style With the exception of a few singers like Freddie Mercury and Dan Vasc, singing anything other than rock music is not easy, when you are known for rock music. Andrew, and the other leads in this musical show that rock and musical theatre styles of singing can be blended to sound faithful to the genre.

Curtis Salmon is Tunny who accompanies Johnny to the city, but soon joins the military and is sent to war and suffers serious injuries. During his rehabilitation, he falls in love with his nurse Extraordinary Girl, played by Evie Burke, and she returns home with him. Last time I saw Curtis in this musical he played Johnny. Curtis has a voice that you can pick out, he has that something, which works well with the songs in "American Idiot". It's not that often that you see Curtis in a choreographed routine, but again he shows that he is very capable of dance; an all rounder.

Arden-Caspar Jennison  plays Will who plans to leave town with the group until his girlfriend, Heather, played by Katy Gaskin, reveals that she is pregnant with his child. Will stays at home in an alcohol and drug-infused depression. Most vocalists prefer to sing upright, but even sitting and lying down, the smooth flow of Arden's voice is unhindered. This again shows the importance of breath control for a performer, and magnifies the work that the Musical Director has done with them.

Jack Readyhoof revisits his role as St Jimmy and gives a playful performance. St Jimmy is an interesting character to play because you're never really 100% sure that Jimmy is real, or just a drug-addled image in Johnny's head. Jack reprises his role and is just as manic and exciting as when I first saw him in this role  some five years ago. I've commented in the past that Jack gets to play some wonderfully unhinged characters, and with the help of the giant projections we experience an almost comic book characterisation of St Jimmy. I know what a good singer Jack is, and there's one very short section where Jack sings falsetto which was completely jaw dropping, sounding similar to Justin Hawkins of The Darkness.

Alana Moran plays Whatsername, and along with Emme Gunn as Alysha, Katy Gaskin as Heather, Candice Curnow-Newland as The Recruiter - a role I can't remember from other productions - and Evie Burke as Extraordinary Girl, they all give brilliantly powerful performances, matching the attitude and passion of their male counterparts. Needless to say, their vocals are also powerful and, when required, full of attitude. There's fire with all of these ladies.

 Theo, played by James Hallam is another interesting character with a slightly devilish image. When The Recruiter is recruiting Tunny into the armed forces, we get to see Theo as the all American army role model in a giant on stage projection. I hope that James won't mind me saying but he looks an awful lot like a younger Jonathan Ross, something I certainly had not noticed before, but when your image is about fifty foot high on stage, you can't help but notice.

Filling the Mansfield Palace stage even more are the Ensemble consisting of Megan Hill, Chrissie Smyth, Courtney Bowles, Charlotte Swindells, Jade Eaton, Charlotte Bell and Shannon O' Donnell, providing even more rocking girl power.

The show includes the hit songs “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, “21 Guns”, “Wake Me Up When September Ends”, “Holiday”, “Give Me Novacaine”, " Good Riddance (The Time Of Your Lives)" and the blockbuster title track “American Idiot”. Also included are several songs from Green Day’s 2009 release 21st Century Breakdown, and an unreleased love song, “When It’s Time”.

Directed by Kheenan Jones who has made a few very subtle changes to this musical, which you'd not really acknowledge in the usual bracket of a jukebox musical. The Directorial amendments may not be visible to anyone who doesn't know, or may not have seen the musical before, but they have been smoothly applied and actually enhance what is already a fantastic piece of musical theatre. A piece of theatre that I've been a fan of for many years.

Choreographed by Shannon O' Donnell. We get all the expected rock dance moves; the moshing, the extended one arm in the air with the two middle fingers folded, the head banging, but we also get some lovely soft choreography as well. Choreography that brings the excitement to the stage, especially in the opening number and title track of the musical. The energy in the choreography will mean that none of this cast will need to visit a gym this week at least because the calories burnt on stage will far outweigh any high velocity workout.

Musical Directors are Tom Bond and Tim Yearsley. I've already alluded to the work that any Musical Director would have put into this genre of musical, especially the breathing. But Tom and Tim aren't just any Musical Directors, and this isn't just any jukebox musical. After the opening number, we saw just how the main cast members were out of breath, and that is a full on choreographed and vocal number, showing the intensity needed for the cast and Musical Director, because it wasn't long before the next number arrived.

Green Day are not just an American garage band. In these arrangements you can hear the raw rock but you also get a taste of Billie Joe Armstrong's musical influences. There are lush, symphonic sections as in "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and there are Motown sounding breakbeats and rhythm sections. The closing number "Time Of Your Life" accentuates the Beach Boys style of harmony, especially from this large cast and ensemble. Tom Bond and Tim Yearsley manages to magnify these influences to glorify the music of Green Day.

I will also name check the band because they did an incredible job. Tom Bond on keys, Tim Wright and Rob Holsman on guitars, Marcus Cain on bass, and on drums, beating up a storm, is Harry Greatorex.

Lighting design is by Stephen Greatorex who brings the classic rock lighting alive. Brilliantly operated by Matt Sheridan and Follow Spot, which is not the easiest of stage lighting to operate, is operated well by Brett Waller.

I couldn't see a credit for the Sound Designer or Operator, but apart from just a few clipped mic cues, the sound, for me, was everything I'd expected from a musical of this genre; loud and powerful but not overbearing. So, whoever the mystery sound person is, you did a cracking job, because sometimes the sound at Mansfield Palace is not as consistent as the sound was on opening night.

I've also mentioned earlier the projections in this production and Technical Director Paul Young has enhanced the visual side of this musical with the projection designs. These are the things that you would see on a touring West End show, using the back screen and four columns in front of the band to project onto. I've seen projection used for this musical before, but this takes the art to another level. Paul also designed the set.

The musical runs for ninety minutes straight through, which was the right decision not to break the flow of this story by having an interval, which also means that the cast also work that little bit harder as well.

"American Idiot" is at Mansfield Palace Theatre until Saturday 27 April, and in my opinion, you'd be an idiot to miss this production.