Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(
Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#1
Posted: 1/18/09 at 11:32am
I'll be there. Anyone else??
Saw both shows yesterday and I have to say, the matinee was the absolute best I have EVER seen them do (21st time seeing the show all-counted)! They were absolutely on fire.
Last night was amazing, but the audience (virtually sold out) was HORRIBLE. In the back house right side, some idiot had their phone on (in their bag so thankfully they couldn't hear it on stage) and it went off right as Dan started "He's Not Here". Just about the worst possible moment for that to happen. People were talking, dropping stuff then shuffling to pick it up, and eating out of those stupid cellophane bags sold AT THE CONCESSION STAND!!!! SOOOOO annoying.
Here's to hoping for EXCELLENT shows today!!! I'll comment on them later ~ and anyone else attending (iamdangoodman perchance?) feel free to add your thoughts.
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#2
Posted: 1/18/09 at 11:55am
I'm seeing it for my 3rd time tonight- and I'm so sad it's over. Saw it Thursday and it had really improved from the first time I saw it.
I hope the audience is good!
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#2
Posted: 1/18/09 at 12:16pm
Yeah... Tonight will be #24 between 2econd Stage and Arena (14-10 breakdown) for me.
I'm hoping it will be a lot of people who love the show and not just people seeing it to see it. The more people who love it, the more electric the atmosphere will be if closing at 2econd Stage is any indication.
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#3
Posted: 1/18/09 at 1:12pmHave fun tonight, jordangirl and feline! Wish I could have made it up, but am not about to dare the potential traffic nightmare.
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#4
Posted: 1/18/09 at 2:34pmThanks! :) Does anyone know where the stagedoor is?
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#5
Posted: 1/18/09 at 4:07pmI am going tonight.
Broadway Star Joined: 7/9/08
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#6
Posted: 1/18/09 at 4:29pmSo, so jealous of all of you! I'll just have to sit tight and wait for the CR.
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#7
Posted: 1/18/09 at 6:02pmI was there this afternoon. Aaron Tveit was excellent as were the rest of the actors. I wish I had been able to see it more than this one time.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#8
Posted: 1/18/09 at 6:21pm
Feline, it's the courtyard outside of the lobby. :)
This afternoon was... I have no words. No words. Absolutely amazing. I've already been a mess ~ enough that I had to go re-get ready for tonight.
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#9
Posted: 1/18/09 at 6:30pm
Enjoy tonight, my friend.
Revel in the beauty that is.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#10
Posted: 1/19/09 at 6:42am
I will update more when I get back to NYC, but it was amazing. Cannot believe it is over... I think the whole front row except for one man (and most of the second) was people who have seen the show multiple times, and it was electric.
Combining everything it *might* have topped Sunday in the Park with George's closing for me. I'm still weighing everything. It's close if not on top.
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#11
Posted: 1/19/09 at 9:20am
Hey, JG--
Sorry I missed your message here earlier. I'm kinda handicapped on internet access here this weekend. But:
I was at both shows on Saturday and you are so right about the audiences. What was up with the Saturday night crowd? No laughs the whole way. Loads of sniffles, though, and the show was really really brutal emotionally with a group that didn't find the humor. But the matinee rocked!
Skipped the Sunday matinee for the Lincoln Memorial concert. A once in a lifetime thing, so ya know. Plus I have hope this N2N thing ain't over. The concert was incredible. Well, it was just OK, (I mean what was Garth Brooks thinking singing "Bye Bye Miss American Pie" with its refrain "this'll be the day that I die"?!?) But the energy and spirit was unforgettable. Froze my ASS off, but it was so worth it. Just so, so, so great.
So, I was barely touching the ground when I got there for the last performance. And what a great night! The perfect audience, and the whole cast just let it fly. It was funny to hear the groupies (like me, I admit it) "whoo-hoo"ing inside the applause after the early songs and then by the time the end of "You Don't Know"/"I Am The One" hearing the rest of the audience join in the vocalizing. I hadn't heard that big a response to "I'm Alive" since the show I saw at Second Stage. (Audiences here tended to be more reserved during the show and then explosive at the act break and the curtain. At least, based on my limited 2ST experience.) And by the time Alice was starting "So Anyway" the audience had lost its s**t and was balling along with the actors. And "Light" was huge last night. (Or else I was out of body, which is possible by then cuz it'd been that kind of day.)
And coming from the Lincoln Memorial to the show that says "When our long night is through, there will be light. There will be light..." it felt like the perfect reminder that the long dark ride that we've been on is about to fade to light. I can see the capital and the Washington monmument from where I'm staying and it's like waking up to a whole new morning today.
I will miss my obsession, for sure. It's had a profound and clarifying impact on me. I'm so grateful to the company and to the Arena Stage for the experience. And now I'm going home from the closing with a whole new gut-check on my nation's capitol and what has happened with this election. I am a changed person, it feels like anyway, and I'm thrilled to see what it's like to live in the light.
And thanks to all of you guys here who let me work it out in public. That has been as much part of this experience as the performances themselves.
Keep Hope Alive, y'all. N2N in NYC, "Yes We Can" the world over. Happy New Year!
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#12
Posted: 1/19/09 at 9:40am
The show was amazing last night!
I got to sit next to Michael Greif, which was a nice surprise, got his autograph. He was fervishly writing notes, with many upset sighs, and scribbling afterward. Don't know why, I thought the show was pretty flawless. He said that their is a good chance that the show will transfer, which made me giddy.
I found my way to the stagedoor, and I got all 6 signatures. People were extremely nice and timely, in the top 3 stagedoor experiences, up there with In The Heights and [title of show]. Also, Alice Ripley is SHORT!
Seriously, it was one of the best nights in a theatre I'd ever had. This really needs to be on Broadway. Talk about a Tony sweep.
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#13
Posted: 1/19/09 at 10:07am
I was also there and the cast was definitely on fire more so than any other performance of the show I attended. Throughout most of the run, the crowds were sparse, so it was nice to see a fuller house. I actually thought this audience was much more engaged in the show too, and I don't think it was just repeat fans.
I could have done without the annoying guy bobbing his head and singing in the front row, which I could see out of the corner of my eye...but I digress.
I am glad there will be a cast recording, and I hope this has some life somewhere after Arena.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#14
Posted: 1/19/09 at 2:15pm
I left out the most annoying (well, amusing but annoying) thing Saturday night. (iamdangoodman, I'm hoping this wasn't you I'm about to comment on...LOL.)
In "Light" someone was obviously doing a sing-along, but forgot the pause in the last "let there be light" so you heard the cast go "Let there be..." then kinda off-key from the audience "light" and then the cast (in key) "light!"
The cast was mostly amused, but it was just one of those moments.
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#15
Posted: 1/19/09 at 6:18pm
Ha ha ha. Definitely not me!! You wouldn't catch me singing in public even at the Inauguration kick-off!
And, btw, I wasn't the guy in the front row bebopping along at closing.
I'm more of a 'worship in silence' sort of guy.
Maybe I'll see y'all at the NY opening.
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#16
Posted: 1/19/09 at 6:20pmThe woman next to me yesterday was beyond annoying with her extra loud laughs and her uncontrollable sobbing at the end.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#17
Posted: 1/19/09 at 6:43pmOh good iadg. :) I mean, at that point (Saturday evening) it was more amusing than anything (though had he been right next to me I might feel differently...and he might have been elbowed earlier. LOL.) It made me think of all those Messiah sing-alongs I've been to where inevitably someone comes in early on the break before the final "Hallelujah" in the Hallelujah chorus. Funny in a sad kind of way.
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#18
Posted: 1/19/09 at 7:40pm
I heard that singing at the end of Let There Be Light...glad I was not imagining things.
Between that and the "mouth every word/bop along with every song freak" it was quite annoying.
But the show was great, so I tried not to let those things distract me.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#19
Posted: 1/19/09 at 7:44pmI didn't hear it at closing ~ it was Saturday night.
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#20
Posted: 1/19/09 at 9:31pmI heard it Sunday night coming from a man behind me in the far left front orchestra.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#21
Posted: 1/19/09 at 9:37pmAh. I missed it then. Wonder if it was the same guy. You'd think he would have learned after Saturday.
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#22
Posted: 1/20/09 at 3:05am
I was at the final performance with 30 people (10 were season ticket holders)from my social group called The Ushers www.ushers.us and, I must tell you, it's the first time in a long time that everyone in my group raved about a show. We were very lucky to have Next To Normal grace Arena Stage, so I'd like to thank Alice and the rest of this incredible cast for giving me so much joy while they were here. I'll miss them, and I wish them well in all their endeavors. The highlight for me was sitting down in Alice's dressing room and schmoozing with her and recording a podcast with her. I respect her generosity with her fans and respect her immense talent. I won't be surprised if she wins a Helen Hayes Award for her mesmerizing performance in NTN. So, thanks Alice and Michael Grief and the cast, and if anyone has money out there, bring this show to a small theatre on Broadway, so all of you in NYC will have the honor, like we had at Arena Stage, to see the new and improved Next To Normal. Also, thanks to Dr. Mark Shugoll and his wife Merrill for bringing this show to DC. And, it was nice to finally meet Jordangirl and Robin and Martin.
Podcast of Alice Ripley at Next to Normal at Arena Stage
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
re: Next to Normal @ Arena Closing Day :(#23
Posted: 1/20/09 at 6:17am
It was awesome to see you again hockeynut!!
See you soon I hope!
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
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