Next to Normal Coming to Broadway!!- Page 6

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:02pm

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

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:03pm

I know how much fun it is to flaunt that you're super important and Know Things, but you're a little late to the party, dear.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:06pm

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.

[snl89]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:06pm

I think Emcee makes a very good point :)

Now, like I said before, I too would assume that Diana does have a biological chemical imbalance to some extent. But the thing is, when you see the show you realize that when she says "bipolar doesn't quite cover it", she really does mean that. There's a LOT more to her problem, and I feel that most of it probably has nothing to do with an actual physical medical condition.

And just to restate:
They DID do an amazing job rewriting it to make all of this stuff much more clear. At 2st I can understand why some people might have found it bordering on offensive. It's not like that anymore. In the current version, Dr. Madden points out and Diana does recognize that there is a part of her condition that's very real, and that will likely only get better with medication. But there's also SO much about her condition that has to do with the fact that she hasn't dealt with what she needed to deal with. Like she says toward the end, the problem is more in her SOUL than anywhere else. So she first has to work through that, and she can't necessarily work through it if she's on a million different kinds of medications and treatments.


Sorry, that was kind of repetitive of what I said before, but it really is true I think. If you just look at it as a plain case of bipolar disorder, I think you're kind of missing the underlying message of the show, which is that sometimes you need to be able to feel what's real before you jump to being medicated, even if what's real is painful. :)

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:07pm

Can we get back to the topic at-hand?
Celebrate that this beast is coming!? Updated On: 2/17/09 at 02:07 PM

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:09pm

snl89, if you didn't see the show at Arena Stage in D.C., how can you comment on the changes that were made?

[changinandhow]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:09pm

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.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:12pm

You waltz in proclaiming your knowledge like you're some sort of savior to calm the masses when it already seems to be pretty well accepted. It's a little patronizing, is all.

Barlow-Hartman obviously realized their slip-up; with no press release, of course they're going to take it away. You can't have stuff like that precede a press release. And as a PR firm, they shouldn't mess up in that area. I don't think anyone assumes the removal of that link means a negation of the forthcoming news. It just means someone at Barlow-Hartman is an idiot.

Anyway, on the topic of the show, I hesitate to say too much because the combination of having seen so many different incarnations and it having been so long since I've seen it at all is resulting in my recollections being a little muddled. But I do remember that issue of insistence of specific diagnosis being a big issue last year.

Updated On: 2/17/09 at 02:12 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:14pm

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.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:15pm

To be clear, because I think ljay misunderstood -

- No. My post was regarding the member who said the show's creators did extensive research with psychiatrists to ensure the show was accurate. And I do not think the psychiatrists would tell the creators to have the character go off their meds to be accurate to mental illness.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:20pm

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.

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

[snl89]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:20pm

snl89, if you didn't see the show at Arena Stage in D.C., how can you comment on the changes that were made?


audio :P

I can't rightfully comment on VISUAL changes that were made, but thematic ones (which are mostly dialague based), I have confidence that I have a clear idea of just from hearing it.. many times. lol

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:22pm

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

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:22pm

I can't get over how ridiculous of a stunt this is. This show is going to have zero time to get the public hyped up and to sell pre-tickets. They are rushing things just to catch the eye of the tony committee, when they don't realize that they chose to do this with the worst possible timing.

A) There Will Be Hardly Any Time For Pre-Sales
B) There Will Be Hardly Any Time To Get The Public Hyped
C) The Economy is Still ugly, and it's Going To Hurt This Show
D) A) + B)= Disaster
E) A) + B) + C)= MAJOR DISASTER

This is going to fall flat on there faces.

Updated On: 2/17/09 at 02:22 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:23pm

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.

[butterflyblob]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:25pm

Holding my breath that this comes through! I saw this show at Arena and it's now one of my all-time favorites.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:28pm

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.

[alliez92092]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:05pm

****SPOILERS*****
At the end of the show now, Dan tells Dr. Madden that he knows he's not allowed to ask if he is still treating Diana, but he wants to know if she's okay and if she'll come home. From Madden's response, we can figure out that he probably still is treating her. I think that trumps the argument that the show is saying medication is bad. I know that's not exactly what the argument is, but I'm just trying to sum it up in the simplest way.

[Sondheim_Geek]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 5:03pm

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

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 5:07pm

Definitely interesting that they will be closing the balcony.

[EnWashingtonHeights]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 5:09pm

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

[aliciag]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 5:10pm

YAY!!!! This is one of the best birthday presents ever! I was holding out hope that it would be true and am so happy to see it is. After not being able to see it at Arena I am ecstatic to be able to see all the progress that has been made since Second Stage.

[Elke]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 5:14pm

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.

[April Saul]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 5:40pm

Hey luvtheemcee, you are absolutely right. I have known many bipolar and even schizophrenic friends and relatives to go off their meds, that's completely accurate. But the going-off-meds ending in the Second Stage production seemed to be painted as positive and uplifting...whereas the results for the people I care about with these disorders who throw away their meds generally range from them winding up suicidal, violent, in the psych ward or arrested! Bipolar is one of those illnesses that is still very misunderstood and feared, that's why so it's important that when it's taken out from under the rug and put on stage, it be fairly represented.

If what HockeyNut says is true, Alice Ripley really doesn't quite understand bipolar herself...and if the poster who knows two people who saw this and were inspired to go off their meds, that's really scary. I saw both this and Distracted--which also has a strong anti-med bias and throws bipolar and other disorders into the mix along with ADD--with someone who is being treated for a psychiatric illness.

My friend loved N2N except for the message at the end and after we saw Distracted, turned to me and said, Gee, now that Cynthia Nixon's telling me that love and understanding will make everything all right if I just stop taking my meds, I guess I will! My friend was kidding...but the message matters.

[mikem]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 6:13pm

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.)

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