I know this show closes tomorrow but I finally saw it today. Overall, pretty disappointed. Harris should consider himself very fortunate that people were willing to throw that much money at his show. That isn’t the norm for emerging playwrights. There was so much going on-the pool, the dolls, the chorus and yet almost no narrative.
A lauded playwright once told me that your play should play in a basement with a few boxes as a set if it has a solid and compelling narrative. This felt like a “new” play written by a young person firmly entrenched in the digital era. It felt entitled, monied, self-aggrandizing and provocative for no reason.
It also felt like bits of recycled gay plays of the past.
I think Harris is no doubt talented but he needs to deliver a better narrative without bells and whistles. I didn’t like any of these people. Was that the point?
Franklin was really grating. He had no identity.
I think the actors were all marvelous. I just wish they were given some content worthy of them. Franklins mother was really the only character with a compass and some gravitas.
I find Hari Nef very compelling. I want to see much more of her.
I think Peet was a good sport. He really consented to doing a lot of vulnerable things that in the end felt unnecessary and gratuitous.
In the end I felt very little. Was that the point?
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
