Next to Normal - Next to Good

Don't hate me for this, folks. I tried really hard to love the show. Really, really hard. I went in expecting to be wowed. For the first act, I was. But the show peaks at Feeling Electric. After that it's like falling into a deep, dark pit. My problem wasn't the subject matter, since I loved Spring Awakening and Speech and Debate. I think what bothered me was the imbalance between acts. The first act is flashy, with the up-tempo tunes. But then comes the second-act. It's depressing, grim, and a tad boring. I understand that you're supposed to feel like you're going downhill, since Diana's just spiraling at that point, but the effect falls short. To be honest, the only song I can remember from the second act is Growing Up Unstable. Everything else just felt like the same crushing song.

On a lighter note, the show isn't completely without strong points. The cast is fabulous, with Alice and Jennifer as the standouts. And the lighting design was very well done, especially in Feeling Electric.

I'm not going to write the show off as a total failure. Truth be told, I was loving the first act. But then everything just falls apart in act two. I understand that there are hundreds of people who love the show. I guess they're made of stronger stuff than I am.

5/10, since half the show is good.

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Updated On: 3/9/08 at 09:17 PM

So I'm not the only one.

Lmao...loved your title.

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Ok, first off I'd just like to thank GlindatheGood22 for the review. Thank you for really taking the time to explain what you felt the show was lacking, and what you thought was good about it. It's refreshing to see a more negative review that isn't simply "uggg I hated it and it was horrible" :).


That said, I have a question for the others on this board who didn't like Next to Normal, because this has been bugging me:

I know GlindatheGood talked about the imbalance between the acts, but how do the rest of you feel like the show could actually be better? It seems like a lot of people who didn't like it feel like the idea is an interesting one, but that it's carried out in a very superficial, non-realistic way. Imparticular, I've heard people mention "how absurd the Feeling Electric scene is". And I'm just trying to wrap my brain around this, because I personally feel like the show would be loosing SO much without the "fantastical" aspects of the show. I think that the balance between realism and diana's more absurd/supernatural hallucinations is one of the best things the show has ggoing for it. And yet, reading the reviews that have been negative, it seems like 99% of the people who didn't like it felt it would be better if it was just stripped down to the dramatic heart of the show.

I guess I'm just trying to understand this in terms of what the creative team could do in order to make the show appeal to more people. Because right now it seems to be fairly 50/50 as to who likes it and who doesn't (though, maybe it's closer to about 70/30 and the negative reviews are just really sticking out to me? hopefully?). And it scares me because I feel like the people who don't like it have problems with the fundimental aspects of the show, so that no matter how smooth/un-choppy the creative manages to get it, the people who didn't like it this time around probably wouldn't like it in any other reincarnation. So I'd love to here from the very people who didn't like it, what YOU guys think could be done to make it better, that wouldn't involve completely changing the basis of the show.

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Updated On: 3/9/08 at 09:39 PM

My problem wasn't the subject matter, since I loved Spring Awakening and Speech and Debate.

How is Next to Normal, other than the fact that it has teenaged characters, remotely related to SA and Speech and Debate in subject matter? SA/Speech and Debate, I can kind of see, but honestly, even that's a stretch. So Next to Normal, seriously?

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Updated On: 3/9/08 at 11:13 PM

Emcee- I didn't mean to say that the three shows have similar plotlines. All I meant was that I'm usually able to deal with heavier material, so that wasn't what made me dislike N2N.

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I liked it but I really wanted to LOVE it!

I did not like the girl who played the daughter. I loved her in SA, but it's like she was plucked right out of that show and put in this one and this is a different style. Her delivery of lines was abrupt and she had that SA sway the whole time that came off as "playing" quirky. She did have a nice voice for the most part, though.

Some of the lyrics were very hokey and seemed to say, "oh well this rhymes." I really wish I could remember what they were more specifically, but some of them just seemed cheezy.

Act 1 dragged for me. I hate it when I go to see a show and I keep thinking, "when is intermission?" For a bit I was thinking, "I should have read the playbill more because maybe there is no intermission. Is this a one-act???" Thank God for that big plot twist!! It saved the show for me.

Alice and Brian did a great job (ps when did they get old enough to play parents...I guess they did). Alice had A LOT of singing in this show (clearly...it's a musical) but she never got to that tear down the house moment that I was dying for the whole show!! She came close in a nice, tight harmony with the daughter....but that was it. Don't get me wrong, she sounded great, but she never gave me the chills as I thought she would.

The son (sorry I forget his name) was pretty darn incredible. He was very Rent meets Tommy. His voice was amazing!!

I think I liked Act 2 better because it was more stripped down and about the drama and not wildly conceptual. The duet around the end with the father and son brought me to tears. However, I wish the show would have ended on a more dramatic, cathartic, and less repetative note.

So those are my thoughts. Not really sure if that answers your question about what to change, but they're my thoughts, nonetheless.

That's constructive.

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I don't get all the devotion to NEXT TO NORMAL either. It just never ever came alive for me as an interesting piece of theatre, just a collection of gimmicks and borrowed plot elements, all of which have been done better elsewhere.

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It does sound like a couple of the changes they've made are good ideas. That Costco number really really really didn't fit at all.

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Zeitoujo ~ The "constructive" reference was because you've already made your opinion clear. What we're discussing is some of the specifics that people feel are wrong and could be improved.

Your second response is better...but specifically which songs and how?

I think a lot of the devotion also comes from it touching people on a deeper level emotionally. When that happens, you're bound to get people who are utterly devoted to a show. It's called passion.

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Next to Normal -
WOW what an emotional rollercoaster ride. It felt like I was back in the audience for the electrifying “Tommy”. This was a wonderful Off-Broadway production. This show had great performances and truly touching. A stand out performance by 16 year old Jennifer Damiano that was in the original cast I saw of Spring Awakening as the youngest performer in that cast. It also starred Brian d'Arcy James (“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”), who did a great performance! This ranks as one of my favorite off-Broadway experiences.

Zeitoujo if we went to the same performance then you definitely did not hear or see "Costco"