Next to Normal Coming to Broadway!! — Page 6

Okay, here it is...
It's true. It's true. It's DAMN true!
Theatre and dates to follow.

I don't mean to offend, but isn't this board supposed to be about happenings in the theatre? There must be some chat rooms out there about psychoanalysis, psychiatry, mental illness, and other mental health-related issues that would be a more appropriate forum for discussions re: cessation of medication, bi-polar disorders, etc., etc.

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Can we get back to the topic at-hand?
Celebrate that this beast is coming!?

Updated On: 2/17/09 at 02:07 PM

To be clear, because I think ljay misunderstood - Diana's psychiatrist in the show does not advise her to go off her meds. Exactly the opposite, actually.

And yes, changinandhow, I was just going to say that. That's a really important distinction. The issue is that people who see the show could be using Diana as an example and think that the show is advocating going off of pills -- not that Diana's doctors IN the show do.

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But Diana's decision to go off her pills is NOT influenced by a doctor. It is something she chooses to do on her own. Do you have any idea how many people, particularly with mental illness, think they can play doctor and make their own decisions? Why would a doctor advising the production not want the creators to have Diana go off her medication if it's HER choice? As long as it isn't at the doctor's suggestion, and IS of Diana's own doing, then it's it's perfectly plausible. That IS accurate to mental illness. It actually happens. It's not a reflection on a doctor's advice, it's a reflection of truth.

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Updated On: 2/17/09 at 02:20 PM

I get your point, Emcee. And I really believe I should see the show before discussing it further. Ya know?

You should try to give it a chance. I think this is a situation where preconceived notions will be, for a lot of people, really hard to put aside, since this show has generated SO much conflict. But because it's such a personal issue in many cases, you should see it for yourself.

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One last time... Like others have said, Dr. Madden specifically asks Diana NOT to stop treatment at the end. It is her choice.

When she does start seeing him, he in fact specifically states "therapy and medication usually work best in tandem but we can try the first alone and see how far we get" ~ and proceeds to see her four times a week, so it's clear that it not his preference, but to try and help her he's willing to give it a shot.

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WHAM!

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/126376.html


edit:
Interesting: "The producers will close the balcony of the Longacre to create a more intimate feel. Instead of seating 1,100, the theatre's capacity will now be 820"

Updated On: 2/17/09 at 05:03 PM

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

I waited for the official announcement to do this, but now... WOOHOO!! Great to see both J. Robert Spencer and Alice Ripley back on Broadway.

SPOILERS BELOW!

I saw both the Second Stage and the Arena version, and I love the show, but I think that the way that mental illness is addressed in the show is problematic.

I had serious problems with the Second Stage version's depiction of mental illness, in which I felt that the creative team was trying to make it realistic except when it didn't suit them. I had a sense of "she's bipolar, but only kind of" in the depiction of Diana's illness, and it really bothered me. The whole concept that someone would be bipolar because they didn't deal adequately with grief and loss is completely off-base, and her husband's allowing Diana to walk out the door on her own and without her meds at the end was basically like giving her a loaded gun. She was a gravely mentally ill individual who had already tried to commit suicide before and was unresponsive to multiple treatment regimens. Dan was completely irresponsible.

In the Arena version, the creative team addressed this issue, but frankly not in the way that I would have preferred. They changed the show's focus so that it has much less to do with mental illness itself than about family dynamics. It became much less relevant how accurately Diana's mental illness was depicted because in NY, I felt the show was about BOTH mental illness AND the relationships between the characters, but I felt the Arena Stage version is more about the relationships and mental illness is only a device shedding light on the motivations and thoughts of the characters. Diana has her breakdown by the end of the opening number, so there is no longer any sense of what life was like without her mental illness. There is much less emphasis on the disease and much more about family drama. This is a legitimate way to go, just not the way that I would have wished for.

So by the end of the Arena show, the bleakness of Diana's condition had been softened so much that it didn't seem to matter that she was going off by herself -- it was almost as if she just needed to take a timeout and clear her head. Diana's mental illness is in the same imaginary world as Clara's head injury in The Light in the Piazza (which has no foundation in medical fact either). I love both shows anyway.

(I know that some will strongly disagree with this posting. It is just my opinion, nothing more.)

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Updated On: 2/17/09 at 06:13 PM