beef

Ted Leo Is Taking Shots at Green Day and Julie Taymor

Writing on his website last week, Ted Leo promised that today would bring the world the debut of his first-ever foray into musical theater. Well today is now, and the project is here … and it’s a Funny or Die music video for “Bottled in Cork,” starring Paul F. Tompkins as an industrious Broadway producer named Reginald VanVoorst who talks Leo into staging Brutalist Bricks: The Musical. While watching the very funny video, know that, yes, it is what it looks like: Leo is directly mocking his punk-rock peers Green Day and their musical American Idiot. Aside from the fake musical’s American Idiot–reminiscent stage design, costuming, and hacky dialogue, there’s this: While first plugging the no-longer-mysterious project, Leo wrote that it was “Inspired by Julie Taymor’s Beatles show, Julie Taymor’s Bon Jovi show, and the ineffable genius of the Green Day extravaganza.” Punk-rock musical-theater beef! Vulture approves. [Pitchfork]

Ted Leo Is Taking Shots at Green Day and Julie Taymor