NEXT TO NORMAL 3/28 Review (spoilers!) — Page 2

I agree fetzles. And even knowing what is coming, it IS a pretty awkwardly funny moment. I don't really laugh anymore, but I have in the past. But I definitely agree with what fetzles said. If you have no clue what is going on with the story (it's your first time seeing it) is IS funny. But in that awkward "WTF...something isn't quite right here but... WTF?" kind of way.

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Its funny in the moment sure, but not like several minutes after when generally a person would realize where it is heading.

Whatever...it was just an observation.

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I've seen the show almost 10 times now (4 with the new ending to Just another Day) and I still laugh there, it's a FUNNY LINE, it is meant to be funny, it is intentional.

Just like how the parts of It's Gonan be Good with dianna being manic around the house are funny. Its a serious thing that is happening (she's having an episode after deciding to not take her meds) but it is humorous, and meant to be so. Using humor to diffuse otherwise serious situations is not an uncommon thing. It also heightens the emotion impact of the low points by making the cathartic journey more extreme.

I saw the show on Saturday night and again tonight. I heard a couple of odd snickers throughout the second act, some in the most dramatic of places, but the oddest one happened tonight.

SPOILER:






Ripley entered with her suitcase, put it down and sang "So anyway, I'm leaving" and the vast majority of the audience broke out in major laughter. Not just a few people. It was pretty much an audience wide thing. So odd.

It's never struck me as funny. It's only struck me as terribly sad. And before this, I saw the show 6 other times in three versions and in all 6 of those performances, you could of heard a pin drop at that moment.

It's a very abrupt moment. Ripley just sort of appears there with the suitcase. I can definitely see people nervously laughing at the absurdity of the moment- she's just decided to go off her meds, dropped Natalie off at the dance, and come to the decision to leave.

I was there tonight as well, and while I wasn't one of the people laughing, it IS supposed to be a darkly funny moment, I think. The situation isn't funny, but the bluntness of it and the "so," beginning the sentence. If the scene started with her saying "I'm leaving" I can guarantee there'd be no laughter. It's the "So, I'm leaving." It makes it seem so nonchalant.

I think it would be VERY strange without a suitcase.

I agree heo. It's just one of those moments that even in real life would be a tad blunt ~ or else drawn out and melodramatic.

My interpretation around it (stemming from watching Alice carefully throughout that section to read her body language and expressions) is that Diana really isn't sure she wants to leave. I think part of her knows that she has to get out of the house and relationship at least in the form it's in at that point, but part of her desprately wants Dan to give her SOME kind of response besides the "it's ok...we'll be ok" vibe that he's been giving, conceivably for 16, 17 years. I think that had he made any kind of effort to stop her, she would have changed her mind, but the fact that he just sits there cements for her that she HAS to do it.

In a slight change since the 2econd Stage production, largely I think driven by what she's getting from the other actor to play off of, in the version now, there is the slightest moment of hesitation, especially when Bobby's Dan looks up at Diana for a moment, and there's obviously an emotional tug-of-war going on in Diana's head about leaving right before she walks out. She wants to stay but knows it will kill them both ~ and probably Natalie too.

Brian's Dan, on the other hand, never looked up at her in all (14) the times I saw it at 2econd Stage (his big emotional moment of that came AFTER Diana was gone and Natalie had come home). The moment there was all about Diana looking back at him as she was on the verge of walking out, essentially asking with her eyes, her expression and her body language "DO SOMETHING!!! STOP ME!!!" before visibly sighing and walking out.

She doesn't WANT to leave, but she does want a chance to survive and knows that leaving is the only way she'll have a chance at that point. And I think it's a case of she just feels like it's easier to just say it ~ like ripping the band aid off ~ so she doesn't chicken out. Who knows how many times she's been on the verge of doing this and backed out before she got to the actually picking up the suitcase and leaving moment? Is it an awkward moment? Sure. But it would be in RL as well.

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