Next to Normal, an Off Night for the Actors or Me?

Before I begin, I'd like to add that I had just come from seeing two of the three Norman Conquests and was probably a little exhausted come 8:00, however, I went in with an open mind and was excited to see one of the most talked about performances of the year.

Overall, the performances were an extremely mixed bag, running from drop dead amazing (Alice Ripley) to okay (Jennifer Damiano) to ventriloquist dummy (Kyle Dean Massey) to just plain bad at parts (J. Robert Spencer). The trouble, for me, began with some of Michael Grief's awkward direction, including his odd choice to have one of Alice Ripley's strongest lines (I feel nothing) spoken so that we can barely see her face. Most of the blocking was fine, but that one moment was such a disappointment for me after loving the cast recording. Perhaps it was Alice, but it read as the direction's fault. In addition, what was with the speed of the revelation of Gabe's death? It felt like Jennifer Damiano was exhausted and wanted that short little scene to end quickly. I barely had a chance to digest it before another song which was painfully performed by J Robert Spencer, who the entire night made me long for Brian D'Arcy James to leave Shrek and do this show. As I said, most of the night went fine, and the music is amazing, but two extremely sloppy moments just disturbed the hell out of me, for they seemed so easily fixable with proper placing and blocking. Kyle Dean Massey had no (visible) expression other than a self admiring smirk which irked me so. Jennifer Damiano, in addition, seemed extremely tired when performing, as was a common theme throughout everyone's performances, minus Alice, naturally.

Technically wise, the show is much more that I expected from a Regional/ Off-Broadway transfer, with those pannels perfectly establishing the setting, though scaring the **** out of me with their speed. Really, it's a pretty good show, but it just seems so easy to fix in those select trouble spts I can't get over it. I'm not sure, perhaps it was me, after witnessing purley flawless theatre, to view a less than perfect show. Call it next to perfect, if you will.

I'm sorry, his awkward arm omvements in his songs in the opening of the show and the ending totally killed my chance of giving him praise over that he had a few good spots.

I also agree with Ljay. I can't imagine he was that bad. I can understand the cast being tired. They have rarely missed out on performances and I can only imagine how tiring the show is mentally and physically.

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Maybe Bobby just had an off night, but recently he's been phenomenal. And as had been said, his growth in the role is impressive. I saw the second preview and kept thinking about how much I missed Brian, but then saw the show for the second time at the end of May and completely fell in love with Bobby. And he's only gotten better.

At this point, Bobby Spencer is giving a performance just about at the same level as Alice Ripley. His work in the music box scene, that Rocks alluded to, is absolutely breathtaking.

***************Spoilers********************
I saw it Saturday afternoon, and I have to say, Bobby was a huge surprise to me, after hearing that he was a "weak link" early on. He SCREAMED "There's nothing there!" on my show and it was on par with Alice's best moments.
As far as Massey goes, I think Gabe is supposed to kind of just smirk, because he's not real. He's in Diana's imagination. He played everything just like Aaron did on the bits I've seen of Aaron's performances.

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Granted he did just take over the role and Aaron has been playing Gabe throughout Second Stage, Arena Stage and Broadway. I will be seeing Massey tomorrow night so I really can't judge him, but i would assume certain actions and expressions come with comfort in the role.

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Agreed. Plus, he's fine in the part and will certainly grow into it in the next few months.

I've thought Tveit was incredible from the getgo (and thought it a ridiculous shame he wasn't Tony nominated, when David Bologna was). I didn't full appreciate his contributions to the piece until I saw Kyle Dean Massey. This is not a criticism of Massey, whom I enjoyed greatly. But, given the amount of time he spent with the character, Tveit was able to take the role to places that Massey isn't going yet. Mind you, I enjoyed Massey a lot, and think he'll be just fine, if a bit too old.

I agree with dottie, though, that to expect him to be anywhere near Tveit's level at this point in time is absurd.

Updated On: 6/16/09 at 09:34 AM

I saw the 2nd to last performance in DC, and although I didn't particularly care for the show, I definitely appreciated the performances. I loved Aaron's performance and was shocked as well that he wasn't nominated for a Tony award.

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I can certainly understand seeing a night that seems off to you and wondering if it is just you. My family and I had that experience at Billy Elliot in April ~ it felt like everyone on that stage was sleepwalking. While I can say that I have personally never seen a performance of next to normal where things felt as off as they felt to you, I'm not going to tell you it didn't happen or you imagined it (as was done to me).

I do think they're probably tired after everything around the Tonys. I know on Wednesday I thought Jennifer's voice definitely sounded tired and could use a break, and my friend saw it Friday and said it appeared even more to need rest. Bobby's too to a degree, though not as much as Jennifer's.

I am one who is completely enamored with Bobby's portrayal ~ and I LOVED Brian at Second Stage. That said, I think that the character of Dan has evolved more than any other ~ the Dan we have now is nowhere near the Dan we had at Second Stage, and while I'm sure Brian could do it, I'm not sure the character would have changed as much if they were having to overcome his ingrained habits from the Second Stage run. I think that Dan is probably the character who most needed to evolve a bit more, and as much as I loved Brian in the role, I'm glad that the opportunity to bring someone else in presented itself as that perhaps allowed them even more leeway into letting that character grow and evolve. Bobby truly has become Dan for me.

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Funny, I didn't think Massey read too old at all.
And on the Saturday matinee, Damiano's voice sounded VERY tired, and I even thought she was sick, but she pushed through anyway and still sounded pretty great.

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On the subject of Norman, I thought both of the shows I saw were incredible, and the cast's energy was sky high. It was every actor at the top of their game. The direction and design were flawless, and being so close (First row the first time, the fourth the second) really envelops you into the action. I kind of wish that this show could run forever, and I';m super excited to see the last show in July.