#1
Posted: 2/13/08 at 6:59pm
Talkin' Broadway is Negative:
Put away the Xanax - there's a more-effective cure for the ills of modern living. This one isn't about what goes into your body, but rather what comes out of it. If you find yourself flustered by the prospect of attending your daughter's piano recital or even getting out of bed in the morning, the tonic you're looking for is good, old-fashioned song. Release your frustrations in a tidal wave of screeching vocals, and relief is just around the corner.
Not convinced? Then Next to Normal, the new musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey at Second Stage, is not for you. Its leaps of faith in extolling the virtues and dangers of mental therapies familial, medical, and shock are every bit as dramatic as the leaps of intervals that so openly characterize the throat-stretching score. But while this forcefulness makes the show one of the most energetic since the kinetic feast of Jersey Boys, it doesn't endear you to the people trapped at its center - or, indeed, do much to prove they're real people at all.
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The only thing given room to breathe is Kitt's outstanding rock-folk music, which Kitt orchestrated with Michael Starobin to string-heavy perfection and is thrillingly played by Mary-Mitchell Campbell's six-piece ensemble. The tunes here equal and often surpass those Kitt provided for his short-lived 2006 adaptation of High Fidelity, but assume the sadder, starker strains of the darker subject matter. The strumming of a guitar or the dull beating of drums transforms into an accelerated heartbeat, a crushing violin solo charts a fall from the heights of giddiness, a burst of synthesizers drag you into the urgent surge of the senses spiraling out of control.
Kitt's compositions are unpredictable and unforgettable, striking at the soul and arousing passions in ways the rest of Next to Normal does not, but can't surmount a book, lyrics, and overall look dedicated to tired, tedious convention. "I don't feel like myself," Diana tells a doctor checking up on her latest pill regimen. "I mean, I don't feel anything." With everything but Kitt's music, that's a dilemma you understand all too well.
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/02_13_08.html
Put away the Xanax - there's a more-effective cure for the ills of modern living. This one isn't about what goes into your body, but rather what comes out of it. If you find yourself flustered by the prospect of attending your daughter's piano recital or even getting out of bed in the morning, the tonic you're looking for is good, old-fashioned song. Release your frustrations in a tidal wave of screeching vocals, and relief is just around the corner.
Not convinced? Then Next to Normal, the new musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey at Second Stage, is not for you. Its leaps of faith in extolling the virtues and dangers of mental therapies familial, medical, and shock are every bit as dramatic as the leaps of intervals that so openly characterize the throat-stretching score. But while this forcefulness makes the show one of the most energetic since the kinetic feast of Jersey Boys, it doesn't endear you to the people trapped at its center - or, indeed, do much to prove they're real people at all.
<><><><><><><><>
The only thing given room to breathe is Kitt's outstanding rock-folk music, which Kitt orchestrated with Michael Starobin to string-heavy perfection and is thrillingly played by Mary-Mitchell Campbell's six-piece ensemble. The tunes here equal and often surpass those Kitt provided for his short-lived 2006 adaptation of High Fidelity, but assume the sadder, starker strains of the darker subject matter. The strumming of a guitar or the dull beating of drums transforms into an accelerated heartbeat, a crushing violin solo charts a fall from the heights of giddiness, a burst of synthesizers drag you into the urgent surge of the senses spiraling out of control.
Kitt's compositions are unpredictable and unforgettable, striking at the soul and arousing passions in ways the rest of Next to Normal does not, but can't surmount a book, lyrics, and overall look dedicated to tired, tedious convention. "I don't feel like myself," Diana tells a doctor checking up on her latest pill regimen. "I mean, I don't feel anything." With everything but Kitt's music, that's a dilemma you understand all too well.
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/02_13_08.html
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
He's not really indicative of what other people will say.
Please do tell.
