Next To Normal Opening Night at Arena Stage- Page 4

[jordangirl]

Posted: 1/14/09 at 3:53pm

changingandhow ~ Right. I definitely think it applies to Dan and Diana ~ more clear to me in the Arena production than before. But I do think it can apply to Natalie and Gabe given that it comes just after Dan's refusal to say Gabe's name. In essence he's tried to forget Gabe and he feels that Diana, while not forgetting Natalie, certainly hasn't been everything she could to her in optimal circumstances. I think it's highly likely that it to be a two-layered statement

iamdangoodman ~ Yay! Someone to talk about it with! :)

Time ~ Gabe's birthday is at least late November, possibly early December. Henry and Natalie meet sometime after school begins ~ let's say school starts the day after Labor Day. I'm guessing it's not the first day since Natalie has a pattern of being in the practice room "a lot before school and after". So...let's say a couple of weeks in. Assuming their relationship starts (for Henry's count) that day, the dinner with the family would be toards the end of November or beginning of December (depending on where you count it starting from) because they have been "going out for nine weeks and three days". Since they say he was 18 months old ~ and when you have little kids everything is measured in weeks and months so that's probably not an estimate/rounding, that leaves 6 months until he would have been 2, putting it late May/early June when he died. I think the implication is that Natalie is already 16 (remember she can drive, and I doubt a mom who often has trouble operating a car would be allowed to be an "approved driver" for one with a learner's permit), so it would be her 17th birthday actually. But... Oh hell this is making my head hurt. LOL. It really doesn't work out in any real sense unless it's supposed to be 18 weeks old and not months. (Als 18 weeks would mean stuff would be tinier and a lot harder to diagnose a blockage/obstruction). Any other way around it would mean the conception would have had to be immediate and then she was about 3 months premature. It's really stretching it for an immediate conception to happen under those kind of stressful circumstances. And if she's 16 throughout the play it just doesn't work. Make him 18 weeks old when he died and it's highly possible. But like I said, I try not to dwell on it too much. LOL. :P

BiPolar ~ While I agree that essentially it boils down to an inability to cope, I think it is pretty clear that it does go further than that. The delusions are a big part of the issue. While the delusion of Gabe could be explained by the complicated bereavement, there are obviously other delusions going on ~ the whole rock star thing that Dan and Dr. Madden seem to be clueless about. So yes, the trauma is a big part of it, but it's not just that. There are definitely other underlying issues with Diana that she herself says go back a long way (her mother calling her high spirited).

The waiting in the car ~ That was actually directed at TonyVincent. I don't think there's any doubt that Dan has questions about his own sanity. But at the time his questions are more along the "why am I sticking with this?" (which he later answers in "The Promise") than his own realizing he's got a complicate bereavement issue on his hands as well.

Grieving ~ I'm not saying he grieved extensively for Gabe, but I'm guessing there was a cursory bit that went on. Like you have your experiences, I have my own. I think this is one of those shows that really touches on so many people's various experiences that if not identical have touches here and there.

And I think you're right about the power of the performance being the more important thing over a pitch issue here or there. I'd rather have some occasional pitchiness than have an emotionally flat but pitch perfect note-wise performance.

Updated On: 1/14/09 at 03:53 PM

[iamdangoodman]

Posted: 1/15/09 at 10:47am

Hey, JG~

I'm with you on the 18mos. thing re: the timing. You're so right that makes it easier to deal with, given the whole timeline of Natalie and Henry's relationship. Maybe before the Broadway opening they'll get that worked out. (Ya gotta have faith!)

Last weekend. Bummer. I'll see it twice more and then go into a limbo of hoping. It's a bit like Dan Goodman, though, to be ignoring the trouble signs (there are still tickets for all the shows on Goldstar, for example. It's not sold out.) and hoping it's gonna be fine.

If nothing more, then the album, and a great few months of memories. And I'll get a bit of the inauguration fever in the bargain, I suspect.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 1/15/09 at 12:20pm

Yep... I'll be there (if you don't have a seat yet, I know that as of yesterday B111 is open for closing. (That WAS mine until I found A107...bought that and switched the B111 one for the matinee. Yay!) I know a couple of other times I've been it was on Goldstar pretty late in the game but ended up being sold out or almost sold out houses. Though...it could well be that the natives in the area are getting the hell out of Dodge so to speak this weekend.

I'm heading back to NYC on Monday. A) I didn't think about getting a hotel room Monday night too until it was too late and B) I'd have to take another day off from school. So... I'll just listen and watch on computer or radio with my class of little darlings. :)

[burntplains]

Posted: 1/15/09 at 1:08pm

I wish they would announce a move back to NY. I hope we don't have to wait another year for a transfer

[jordangirl]

Posted: 1/15/09 at 1:10pm

As of what I heard Monday night, they don't know anything... Which means at least nothing immediate.

[AfterTheSky]

Posted: 1/15/09 at 1:51pm

hey all! It's regnadk on a new username, decided 21 was a bit old to stop using my dad's name even if I did get his old computer. Anyway, I'd love for this show to go to Broadway as much as the next fan. But I'd love for the economy to perk up. If touristy shows like Spamalot can't survive, I don't knwo if Next to Normal could. Obviously I think Next to Normal is of infinitely higher quality, but that doesn't mean it would sell better or even as well.

[iamdangoodman]

Posted: 1/15/09 at 5:39pm

I just got a message from Arena Stage that Alice Ripley and other cast members are going to drop by a club in DC to sing their own songs tonight after the show! If anyone goes, let us know what happens, please.

It's on their blog, too. blog.arenastage.org

Aaargh! Why couldn't they do this over the weekend!

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 1/15/09 at 11:19pm

Sweet, freeadmission. You're the second I've met. First was jordangirl, and it was discovered the same way--we said something to each other after a show (SUNDAY) and I recognized it when she posted the same thing she said. Small world.

Jordan ~ I agree about the pitch vs. emotion, but I don't find the pitch issue to be occasional. I've seen her 3 times and every time she felt really flat to me. Don't know, maybe it's just the way her vocal resonance sits in my ear.

And about the "wait in the car" stuff, yes, I was referring to that vs. in the waiting room. In the car seems like avoidance, not support.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 1/16/09 at 6:41am

Oh that's right! I'd forgotten about that! :) (Us meeting then.)

Hey, to each theri own! I guess I"ve been lucky in the 20 times I've seen it (and multiple other times I've seen Alice in other things) it has been an occasional and not constant thing. I think only once did I cringe (which really off does to me).

re: waiting... I just figured that the waiting room was really small (sometimes they are). But that's certainly an interesting way to put it.

[iamdangoodman]

Posted: 1/16/09 at 9:41am

OK, so I totally relate to the "one who just waits in the car" thing as part of Dan's own avoidance, too. It's not so much a lack of care/support on his part, in my little version of their lives, but it connects directly to the final moment with the therapist, which is Dan's actual exit from the play: He goes in to talk to him. The threshhold for getting help, for a person like Dan who is irrationally hopeful to the point of magical thinking, is pretty steep and "I'll just wait out here" makes complete sense to me. He can justify it with lots of seemingly innocuous reasons (listen to the ball game, get a little work done, take a nap, whatever is the excuse du jour) but it can read as not wanting to get too close to it. If he doesn't see it, he can keep up his fantasy that this is 'just a blip' and more like a trip to the hair salon than a medical visit. Again, over stated and filling in blanks, but it's part of what hooked me about the show, as I've said, and it's so cool that other people are chewing on that vision of him sitting in the car.

[AfterTheSky]

Posted: 1/16/09 at 3:01pm

Just seconding your insights - that's how I interpreted the sitting in the car from the get go. "Am I 'crazier' because I'm NOT getting help?"