Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
daspazoo
Leading Actor Joined: 3/11/06
#1Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 12:56pm
Trying to come up with a comprehensive list of musicals featuring characters dealing with mental illnesses.
Clearly, there's 'Next to Normal' and the revival of 'Sweeney Todd' but are there any others? (Of course you could make a case that many musicals featuring mentally ill characters, but I'm looking for ones where it's more or less clearly defined.)
ESP doesn't count, right? "On A Clear Day, You Can See Forever" comes to mind.
Any help (within the next couple hours) would be greatly appreciated!
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snarkywannabedreamer
Leading Actor Joined: 2/12/09
#2re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 12:58pm
maybe Leo Blum's condition in "The Producers?"
and Stacee Jaxx's sex addiction in "Rock Of Ages."
AwesomeDanny
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/30/09
#2re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 1:02pmThe Light in the Piazza has a character with mental issues.
#3re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 1:02pm
Depends what you think of the Beales, but Grey Gardens could definitely be argued.
#4re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 1:05pm
"The Light in the Piazza has a character with mental issues"
Umm, that wasn't "mental illness." If I remember correctly, she had developmental problems due to a pony accident.
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#5re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 1:29pm
"Lady in the Dark" deals with psychoanalysis.
Updated On: 8/24/09 at 01:29 PM
#6re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 6:01pmAccording to the definition on wikipedia, developmental disorders such as "Mental retardation" are included as a "Mental Disorder".
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#7re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 6:09pmClara's condition was written to look more like a learning disability, opposed to mental "illness." Thats just my opinion.
#8re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 6:15pm
If Clara had a learning disability, such as ADD, I dont think her mother would be so concerned about her being romantically involved. Clara had some serious emotional issues that were just touched on.
I think most musicals deal with some level of mental distress or transition. The DSM has a an adjustment disorder category which refers to someone dealing to a change or transition with either depressive traits or anxiety. I think many musicals deal with that.
Norma Desmond had some level of detachment and regression, so I guess "Sunset Boulevard" counts. I don't think there are many musicals that the mental health issues are the focus, like N2N, but most musicals have shades of mental health concerns, often that are never addressed.
"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
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#9re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 6:24pmBilly Elliot's grandma is senile.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#10re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:12pmThis might not count, but Sally Bowles has the mentality of a little girl. I guess you could call her pathologically immature. There was something very wrong there. So I'm gonna say Cabaret.
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
Silence = Death
Leading Actor Joined: 2/4/06
#11re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:18pmAngels in America.
"That's what writers do. We cut ourselves open and just bleed all over the page."
#12re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:49pmJekyll and Hyde. I'm pretty sure the father has some sort of mental illness.
yeah
Featured Actor Joined: 10/2/08
#13re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/24/09 at 8:17pmCaroline in "Caroline, or Change" is certainly a depressed woman.
#14re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/25/09 at 10:45am
I'd add DEAR WORLD. It's the lovable kind of crazy, but it's still crazy.
I remember some poster here recently making the case that Mama Rose is a sociopath, but I don't remember who. Pretty convincing, though.
Nothing matters but knowing nothing matters. ~ Wicked
Everything in life is only for now. ~ Avenue Q
There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as my last. ~ Rent
"He's a tramp, but I love him."
Everything in life is only for now. ~ Avenue Q
There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as my last. ~ Rent
bwayfan7000
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/28/09
#15re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/25/09 at 12:19pmI always thought that Mama Rose had some kind of mental illness, and she wasn't just pushy and determined.
"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
RJBrown
Swing Joined: 5/10/09
#17re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/27/09 at 2:29amIn The Phantom of the Opera, in my opinion and analysis of the role of the Phantom, he suffers from some sort of mental disability. However, being that its my own analysis, I'll leave it to you to make you own discoveries of that theory, rather than spill out my whole analysis.
#18re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/27/09 at 9:31amI'm disappointed in you all .... nobody remembers MAN OF LA MANCHA?
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SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#19re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/27/09 at 10:42am
Developmental disorders are Axis II, the same as personality disorders.
I don't really think any musical is actually focused on incredibly severe pathology, which is probably why people are making such a big deal out of Next to Normal. Obviously there are people in musicals who display some sort of pathology, but you can't just slap a diagnosis on everyone. The biggest argument I think you could make is that Sweeney Todd has anti-social personality disorder, though I remember someone here arguing with me back in the day that he had an adjustment disorder instead.
I think that Erik may also have anti-social personality disorder, or at least lean towards it. I would also possibly suggest that Javert from Les Mis has Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder.
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
Love the Tussin
Chorus Member Joined: 6/1/09
#20re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/27/09 at 11:57amIn My Life.
Let me watch your toes and fingers twitch.
#21re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/27/09 at 12:15pm
Is addiction a mental illness? Been a while since I've taken a psych class....
if so-
In the Heights: Addiction to gambling! I've never seen so many lottery junkies!
Also- since addiction is a mental illness- there are endless possibilities there. (RENT, Hair, etc.)
"Are you sorry for civilization? I am sorry for it too." ~Coast of Utopia: Shipwreck
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#22re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/27/09 at 12:20pmAssassins. Several of the characters obviously have mental problems. Unfortunately it may not count because the way that the show is written makes them less crazy.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#23re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/27/09 at 12:26pm
Yes, AODA is viewed as a mental illness.
Oh, I forgot about Assassins! John Hinckley, Jr. supposedly had paranoid schizophrenia.
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
musicalbluemirror
Stand-by Joined: 3/16/09
#24re: Help! Musicals featuring mental illness?
Posted: 8/27/09 at 1:37pm
Silence = Death, LOVE ANGELS IN AMERICA!
just saying :)
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