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]
