Happy Opening "Next to Normal!!! — Page 4

that's the perfect way to describe it, actually. He's always present.

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He was in a workshop, yes. There were rumors in the Spring Awakening community that he was cast for the Off Broadway run. I didn't see him, so I have no idea how he did. He probably did fine, I'm just biased in that he strikes me as massively disingenuous (which is the exact thing that would make Henry unbearable for me).

I'm so thankful all those rumors about Skylar Astin as Henry were wrong. So. very. thankful.

haha, see I def assumed that when he was "involved in readings" he was involved with the role of Gabriel, and the first thing I thought when I heard those rumors was "kjdfklasjdf YES, his I'm Alive would be FIERCE!!". But um, yeah, I feel no need for him to be in it anymore :P (I DO love him and his voice though)



The cool thing about the whole Annaleigh vs. Jenn thing is that I feel like they changed Natalie's role so much that I can really look at them seperately without feeling the need to compare them. I LOVED Annaleigh for the character the way it was when she did it, and I LOVE Jenn for the character the way it is now. I can't really imagine Annaleigh doing the more "dorky" Natalie, and I don't know that I could necasserily imagine Jenn doing the more "rebel" Natalie. Oh and plus, they BOTH have gorgeous voices so I'm pretty neutral there as well :)



So yeah, basically if Anthony was still Dr. Madden it would be like a PERFECT cast in my eyes. It's darn near perfect as it is, it's just if I have to choose between Anthony and Asa, I'm gonna go with Anthony.

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Updated On: 2/14/08 at 06:02 AM

yeah, the cutting of the extra suicide attempts made the show SOOO much lighter and just.. better. Even just changing that one line in the end from "reports long time endogenous depression. First time seeking help" to "patient 'just wants to talk'" makes it seem so much more hopefull and like.. even though things are still pretty hard, there's a sense that they're getting better. With the old line, it just kind of brought you down even more. And with Natalie's whole story too. I love that now there is someone there for her who KEEPS her from going over the edge. It's kind of like she's the first to get better, and so she helps her parents (or at least Dan) to start getting better.

It's just much nicer I think. I'm totally fine with non-happy endings, but there IS a limit to how much drama can go into one show I think without it going overboard, and Feeling Electric had been walking the line a bit. But Next To Normal is much more balanced.



and I agree about Annaleigh, by the way!

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YES!!!! So excited!!! I shall be buying tickets for 2 of the shows tomorrow. :)

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Speaking of the 2nd Stage Workshop Cast, I would have been really interested to see Phoebe Strole's Natalie.