REVIEW: Green Day's American Idiot, Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, until Saturday, October 13.

Three lifelong friends go their separate ways as they seek meaning in today’s America, all against the powerhouse musical backdrop of Green Day’s iconic concept album.

Whether the music itself is terribly original is debatable. You’ll hear The Beatles in there, plus The Who, The Undertones, a bit of Meatloaf and possibly even a snatch of Adam & The Ants.

This is music which seems to have absorbed pretty much everything around it – but it is superbly delivered by a phenomenally-talented cast, energised by its driving rhythms as the three lads at the centre diverge, learning by the mistakes they make in a challenging world where there seems to be precious little to hang on to.

We gets drugs, sex and war and everything else in between slung at us in a tale which often lacks clarity in the story-telling but more than makes up for it in the collective oomph of a cast which gives it their all and then some.

The staging is top drawer; the choreography dazzling; and the massed-guitar curtain call caps a remarkable night.

Phil Hewitt