Next to Normal--Diana and Dan's ages?

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 11:04am

How old are these characters supposed to be? Didn't Diana get pregnant with Gabe in college, which would make her in her mid to late thirties? Or was it in grad school?

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 11:13am

I doubt it was grad school because she says "I was a child raising a child."

Gabe died when he was 18 months old and it happened 17 years before. I would say that Diana and Dan are in their late thirties.

[catmandoo]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 1:49pm

"We were both undergrads... arcitecture."

So... undergrad, anywhere between 18 and 22ish...

in the current libretto... "Just eight months old... so cold..."
And he's been dead 16 -17 years,

So... That'll place them anywhere between 34-39

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 2:24pm

"Remembering when she was twenty and brilliant and bold."

Gabe is eighteen, so Diana's about thirty eight.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 4:35pm

That's what I thought. Just had to ask since it seems Diana is so frequently played by women who are very much middle age...

[rorschach37]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 4:55pm

I know they've modified the lyrics to "He's Not Here" but the lyrics on the cast recording indicate Gabe has been dead for sixteen years and having not been even a year old when he died...

[Jamesilsley]

Posted: 4/22/13 at 5:15pm

Right - that was changed for a more glaring age problem- if he died sixteen years ago and was 18 months old at the time, then how is Natalie (who was born to help them forget...) 16.

She would have had to be (doing the math... 16 years ago plus 18 months old plus 9 months of gestation.... carry the one.... ) she would be at least 18 and three months old assuming that Diana got pregnant literally right after he died. That's why they had to change it.