NEXT TO NORMAL Reviews- Page 4

[snl89]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 4:39pm

You're old enough to be going to college?

lol- despite the fact that I have very bad habits of using smilies, "lol", and "haha" too much online, I am in fact 18 :) I like to think I don't come across THAT young on here though.


(and if you happened to be reffering to the pictures in my avi, yeah I'm really short and kind of look younger- plus that was last december so it was a while ago haha)

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 4:44pm

In the end, it's definitely primarily about the money, but I think at least the fans' desire to see it transfer comes from the thought that it deserves to last longer than a subscription theater's schedule can allow.

[snl89]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 4:46pm

^precisely!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 4:46pm

blaxx, I thought the acting was top notch all around. The performances to write home about were Alice Ripley and Aaron Tveit.

The set up of the book, with the major plot twist, felt like a rip off of A Beautiful Mind. However, A Beautiful Mind was about schizophrenia, so the hallucinations made sense. NEXT TO NORMAL is about either bipolar disorder or depression -- the librettist wasn't clear which -- and hallucinations and delusions are symptoms of neither, so it just felt like a conglomeration of TV, movie, and popular media-created mental disorders.

The music was beautiful. The lyrics were tedious and embarassing. I found the direction to be quite suave.

Updated On: 2/14/08 at 04:46 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 4:48pm

Ok, thanks...that does give some perspective on how strongly you feel about it.

[snl89]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 5:04pm

However, A Beautiful Mind was about schizophrenia, so the hallucinations made sense. NEXT TO NORMAL is about either bipolar disorder or depression -- the librettist wasn't clear which -- and hallucinations and delusions are symptoms of neither, so it just felt like a conglomeration of TV, movie, and popular media-created mental disorders.


Actually, it's interesting, because I totally see where you're coming from from a medical perspective. But from a logical perspective, it actually made quite a bit of sense to me. I mean, Diana realizes herself in the end that her problems never really WERE in her brain- they were "in [her] soul". So the way I took it (and this is obviously up for interpretation from each viewer), the fact that she saw Gabe wasn't so much a straight up hallucination as it was... a need to see him, if that makes any sense. In the end what I got from it was that it never really was supposed to be schizophrenia, or any kind of mental illness that caused her to see Gabe. It was just that she was hugely, hugely depressed and she NEEDED to see him, so she kind of created him in her mind to help herself cope. And that's why in the end, when it's Dan who needs to cope with his own pain that he's been putting on the back burner for so long, he sees Gabe too- or at least senses him in some way. Because he needs to sense him in order to let his memory go.

Again, this is all up to interpretation, but that's what I got from it. I just think that not all hallucinations have to come from schizophrenia. Sometimes they can be created simply as a coping mechanism for other problems- like depression.

Updated On: 2/14/08 at 05:04 PM

[Craww]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 5:23pm

NEXT TO NORMAL is about either bipolar disorder or depression -- the librettist wasn't clear which

I think the character's experience in the show is too specific to ask that it fully represent one specific illness. The character notes a dissatisfaction of her diagnoses (and subsequent treatments) near the end, suggesting that the doctors never really knew what she was suffering.

Maybe the show would have been better with a clearer line. A specific diagnosis and a responsible and politically correct portrayal of the specific illness. But that would be a different story, with a different set of circumstances to critique.

[April Saul]

Posted: 2/15/08 at 12:13pm

I just posted on another thread about the seeming obsession with transferring shows like this one to Broadway, because I just find it hard to believe that if people aren't flocking to great plays like Is He Dead? and Seafarer, they will come in droves to see a musical about psychiatric disorders (even though personally, I REALLY liked Normal). I was the one who started a post on the other board about Normal and the confusing way it presented the diagnosis and medication of the main character. I saw this with someone who suffers from depression and her first comment afterward was, so are they saying here that nobody needs medication? I'm also the mother of a bipolar son and even though I'm skeptical about drugs in general, thank God, there are things he can take to help him get through life. So yeah, even though it is about one woman's journey--and I particularly loved I Miss the Mountains because my son has expressed just those sentiments to me in the past--it can be a bit disconcerting at the end. But, for me, being able to see a musical about bipolar and these issues in general, was overall amazing, and I support the show, even if it DOESN'T transfer anywhere else.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/15/08 at 12:34pm

it's selling pretty well because it's extended a week now.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 2/15/08 at 12:52pm

April Saul, I don't think they're by any means saying medication is not for anyone, they're saying for this person it's not working. That's very much true. It doesn't work for everyone. For Diana, going off of it was in her mind a chance to LIVE. I have friends and family on medication and it's what needs to happen for them. I have others who have been on medication and it wasn't working so they elected to stop and have been able to regain a functionality of life they never had while the medicine was for them masking the real issued and preventing them from working on it.

As far as the diagnosis ~ there in fact can be bi-polar with a tendency towards depression or bi-polar with a tendency towards mania OR just plain old bi-polar where the swings are pretty much even between the two. I know people who have each of those diagnoses (obviously one per person).

And as for the people not flocking to the shows you mentioned, they are straight plays and those typically do less well than musicals regardless of the subject.

Updated On: 2/15/08 at 12:52 PM

[snl89]

Posted: 2/15/08 at 1:22pm

See here's the problem I have with people being so critical about the diagnosis: (EDIT: I realize now that April Saul was talking more about the handling of medication than the actual diagnosis, so this doesn't really apply too much to that haha. But there WAS also talk about how realistic Diana's actual condition was too)



to me, it actually seems very realistic, because the fact is that the brain is a VERY complex thing, and the symptoms of mental illness aren't always that concrete. It's not like a broken bone where you can look at an x-ray and know for sure what it is. Each case is individual and unique.

And I do actually have personal experience with this, because my mom has gone through some serious bouts of bipolar disorder, depression, and a few other things (in fact, the very first thing she said after the show ended was "that hit too close to home, but it was great"). Granted she's never been quite to the extreme that Diana was, but there have been some very odd times. Perfect example of how mental stuff can be really random: a while back (like a good 8 years ago or so), my mom was going to this therapist who was convinced that she had multiple personality dissorder. Now, we figure now that this probably wasn't true, but the therapist would hypnotize her and she'd start assuming different "characters" that she'd made up in her mind. And eventually she actually DID start showing all the signs of multiple personality dissorder in every day life. One minute she'd be her regular self, and the next she'd become.. someone else, new name and all. It was very, very strange, and NOTHING she'd ever done before. But just because this therapist had so convinced her that it was real, she started showing the symptoms. Then, when she stopped going to that therapist, it completely went away and she's never had any problems with it ever since.

Basically, I guess what I'm trying to say is just that the mind can be very strange sometimes, and sometimes the things that a person does, or sees, or feels, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But that doesn't mean it can't happen or that it's unrealistic. Yes, there can also be clear cut cases where a person is SOLELY bipolar or schizophrenic, but there's also a lot of cases where it IS very difficult to pinpoint just what's going on. And that is the case with Diana. And it makes a lot of sense to me, because I've SEEN it.



and as far as the whole "needing medication" thing:
again, I think it REALLY just depends on the individual person. In Diana's case, the medication helped in a sense, but they made her feel so... "blah" about everything (haha, I couldn't think of another way to put it) that she opted not to use it. But that DOESN'T mean that the show is saying medication is bad. And in fact, when she stops using the meds she tries to commit suicide. She recognizes that she probably should have stayed on them. And the ECT works too- it helps her to gain the clarity she needs to make the next step. It just so happens that really, what she needs more than anything is to be on her own- or at least not always have Dan there. Again, these things are highly individual, and that's what SHE needed to do. That doesn't mean it's what other people would need to do. I could give another anecdote about my mom for that one too, but I'll refrain haha.

Updated On: 2/15/08 at 01:22 PM

[April Saul]

Posted: 2/15/08 at 2:05pm

Hey Jordan and SNL, please understand that I REALLY like this show! And I would like to believe that a lot of people would flock to see a musical that dared to address these issues...but another thing I've learned from having family members with problems like these is that people have a hard time even accepting that these disorders are real because it's so scary for them. It's hard for me to believe that many people would seek out a show about such a tough subject for their entertainment...but I'd love to be wrong about that! I would also hate to see something like this considered a failure if it doesn't transfer--not everything is built for a mass audience.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 2/15/08 at 2:18pm

Well, Brian and Alice do have pretty devoted followings. (There were only like 10 tickets left for Alice and Emily's concert in DC when it went to general sale ~ I managed to snag one of them. Yay!) There are some people who would go to see Brian and Alice period.

[BARNONE]

Posted: 2/15/08 at 3:39pm

"NEXT TO NORMAL is about either bipolar disorder or depression -- the librettist wasn't clear which -- and hallucinations and delusions are symptoms of neither, so it just felt like a conglomeration of TV, movie, and popular media-created mental disorders."

Although I am one of the biggest supporters of N2N, I think you made a very good point. Good thinking on your part. I have not seen this issue discussed in relation to the show and I think it is a valid point...where exactly do the visions come from?

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 2/15/08 at 4:14pm

"Well, Brian and Alice do have pretty devoted followings. (There were only like 10 tickets left for Alice and Emily's concert in DC when it went to general sale ~ I managed to snag one of them. Yay!)"

While I would love to think the lack of tickets for the Kennedy Center concert was due to Alice/Emily devotion, the fact is that Kennedy has a very large subscription base. This concert, like all of the Barbara Cook Cabaret Series performances, was included in the theatre subscription package this year. The Terrace Theatre is not huge and there is only one performance. Hence, the huge subscription base took care of most of the tickets. It is true that many will likely know Alice/Emily from their performances at the Kennedy Center (Mame in the case of Emily; Tell Me on a Sunday and Company for Alice) once they read the bios, and that NYers will come in to see the show, but I don't think the lack of tickets can be completely explained by popularity. 10 tickets is an exaggeration by the way. There are other factors.

That said, I am crazy excited for this concert and thrilled they sold out no matter how it happened as a long time fan far before Next to Normal.

Ok, end of threadjack.