#1
Posted: 4/5/09 at 1:20pm
Here goes nothing. It won't be very coherent.
First things first, the theatre is tiny and the seats are really close together. It was almost a full house. I had high expectations for the show and Alice, but I didn't set them too high in case I'd be disappointed. My expectations were exceeded.
As soon as Alice appeared onstage, I was in love. Her charisma and stage presence is something to have to see to believe. The show had a very different feeling than anything else I've seen, so it took a while for me to settle into it. I did around the birthday party scene. I was really moved by "I Dreamed a Dance." It was perfectly done by Alice and Aaron, and perfectly staged.
At first in Act 2 I thought it was Alice on the table with the mask on her face, so when she came out, I was pretty surprised. When Diana finally remembered Gabe, I literally started hyperventilating and convulsing, which continued for almost the rest of the show.
Aaron and Jennifer were really good. J. Robert Spencer got better as the show went on, but I kept wishing he were Brian d'Arcy James. And then there's Alice. If she's taken the performance one step farther, it would have been a caricature of a crazy person. But she didn't. She was perfect. She had the perfect mix of every human emotionand really made you feel for her character and understand what she was feeling. If Alice doesn't win the Tony, it will be one of the biggest tragedies in the history of the Tonys.
I did SD and everyone except Jennifer came out. I got a pic with Alice, which I'll post when I get home.
If you see Next to Normal, know that you'll feel like your heart is being violently ripped out and that someone is repeatedly punching you in the stomach. And as soon as it's over, you'll want to do it all over again.
First things first, the theatre is tiny and the seats are really close together. It was almost a full house. I had high expectations for the show and Alice, but I didn't set them too high in case I'd be disappointed. My expectations were exceeded.
As soon as Alice appeared onstage, I was in love. Her charisma and stage presence is something to have to see to believe. The show had a very different feeling than anything else I've seen, so it took a while for me to settle into it. I did around the birthday party scene. I was really moved by "I Dreamed a Dance." It was perfectly done by Alice and Aaron, and perfectly staged.
At first in Act 2 I thought it was Alice on the table with the mask on her face, so when she came out, I was pretty surprised. When Diana finally remembered Gabe, I literally started hyperventilating and convulsing, which continued for almost the rest of the show.
Aaron and Jennifer were really good. J. Robert Spencer got better as the show went on, but I kept wishing he were Brian d'Arcy James. And then there's Alice. If she's taken the performance one step farther, it would have been a caricature of a crazy person. But she didn't. She was perfect. She had the perfect mix of every human emotionand really made you feel for her character and understand what she was feeling. If Alice doesn't win the Tony, it will be one of the biggest tragedies in the history of the Tonys.
I did SD and everyone except Jennifer came out. I got a pic with Alice, which I'll post when I get home.
If you see Next to Normal, know that you'll feel like your heart is being violently ripped out and that someone is repeatedly punching you in the stomach. And as soon as it's over, you'll want to do it all over again.
