Next to Normal
I went to the first preview of the off-Broadway musical Next to Normal, the first truly original musical I've seen since Drowsy (unless Next to Normal is based upon some book/movie I don't know of!). In Next to Normal, Diana (Alice Ripley) who suffers from an ongoing list of psychological problems. After she has several break-downs and strains with her family, she attempts therapy and medication to help her uncover the reason for her manic-depressive episodes. After many hallucinations and a suicide attempt, the doctor feels that Diana's only option is electro-shock therapy. The family has to deal with the effects of ECT on Diana or the alternative of another suicide-attempt.
This musical is truly unique, daring, and limit-pushing (is that a word? probably not), but it suffers from too many storylines. It's far too cluttered and becomes confusing. The ending can't be effective because I'm trying to follow other storylines and I can't get emotionally invested in any one:
Diana and her pills, medication, ECT, and psychological trauma
Natalie (the daughter played by Jenn Damiano) and feeling like she's in the shadow of her brother, Gabe (Aaron Tviet)
Natalie trying to be perfect
Natalie's lack of attention from her parents
The father and husband, Dan (Brian d'Arcy James) trying to keep the family together
Diana and her unusual relationship with her doctor, Dr Fine (Asa Somers)
Natalie and her boyfriend, Henry (Adam Chanler-Barat)
And this just skims the surface of stories we have to follow (I didn't list EVERYTHING because I didn't want to totally ruin the surprises of the show). They need to trim down all the extraneous so that the ending can be serve that gut-punching effect. There's just too much. It runs around 2.5 hours but it felt longer. Both acts need to be trimmed, but I say the first one needs to be trimmed more so.
Jenn Damiano is fantastic as Natalie, the "perfect" daughter! She was the stand-out in a very difficult (in fact, they're all challenging roles). She achieved this wonderful balance of trying not to let people into her life but not coming across as a whiny brat. She's, justifiably, angry and moody because of the way that her family is and the neglect that she suffers and I feel that Jenn conveyed that with incredible grace. Her vocals are wonderful, with the exception of a few notes here and there which seem a little too high for her belt, but otherwise, she's truly stellar. And she's only 16!
Brian d'Arcy James gives a wonderful performance as Dan the father trying to hold everything together. I loved that Dan has been written as a good guy who just wants his wife to be better. It would have been easy to write or play Dan as the "evil" character of the show, but he never comes across that way and it's a testament to both the writers and Brian for creating the subtly of the character. His 11:00 number is beautiful.
Alice Ripley has such a nail-biter of a character in her hands. Diana is such a wonderfully complex character and an incredible challenge. She's got to seem believably crazy and show the progression of her illness. She does great on the acting side, but her vocals have been shot since Side Show. She sounds like Daphne Ruben-Vega!! I guess it goes well with the character that Diana is this less-than-stable character played by an actress with a less-than-stable voice, but I wish it didn't sound so painful for her to sing.
The supporting cast is nice.
The reason I bought tickets to this show was because I LOVE LOVE LOVE Tom Kitt, who wrote the music to one of my favorite musicals, High Fidelity! And he delivers one of the most sublime scores I've heard in forever. Whereas I feel High Fidelity has overall a very even score and I really love all the music from that show, Next to Normal is a little less even. Some of the songs are better than High Fidelity whereas some of the songs are worse than the songs from High Fidelity. The opening number, "Let there be light" as well as it's reprise (which if I can remember correctly is the finale as well), and "Just Another Day," "Super Boy and the Invisible Girl," "I'm Alive," "Catch Me I'm Falling," "Feeling Electric," and "Growing Up Unstable" are STUNNING songs. I love the harmonies of the ensemble numbers. Some of the songs remind me of High Fidelity, especially the opening notes of the opening remind me of "Laura, Laura" and "Growing Up Unstable" reminds me of "Number 5 with a Bullet." However, there is some song (I forget the name of it) between Natalie and Henry where it is literally, "Hey! Hey! Hey!" It drove me nuts that there were 2 reprises of that song. The conversationalism of the score reminded me of Rent, and then I looked at the bottom of the title page and I saw that this musical was funded by the Jonathan Larson Foundation. Coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Speaking of Rent, the set design and direction of the show was also very reminiscent of Rent. Coincidence? No, because it was directed by Michael Greif who directed Rent! The set design was created with exposed bars and stairs, movable pseudo-transparent doors, and some chairs and kitchen stuff. The ending of the musical was staged just like the finale of Rent. The light design was glorious. During "My Psychopharmacologist and I," a number about different pills that Diana has to take that also goes to the tune of "MY Favorite Things" from Sound of Music, the actors dance with pill bottles which are lit up. It's so brilliant.
Practically the first person I saw before the show started was Assistant Director Anthony Rapp! I was so verklempt! And as the audience started trickling in, I saw Jenn Colella of High Fidelity sitting a few rows in front of me! Oy!
Over all, I was disappointed because I had incredibly high expectations for this show because of Tom Kitt (I'm telling you, I REALLY love his stuff!). This is not to say that it was a bad show, but it didn't serve an emotional punch that the entire show was building up to. I asked, "Why did I see this without any sort of emotional return? Isn't that the point of this show?" I hope it gets better and moves to Broadway because I think Tom Kitt needs to redeem himself in the eyes of the New York theater critics. Then, maybe people will love High Fidelity! And I hope there's a cast recording! I found a bootleg, which I'm obsessively listening, but it's not with this off-Broadway cast and "Super Boy..." (my FAVORITE song of the show) isn't on it.
This musical is truly unique, daring, and limit-pushing (is that a word? probably not), but it suffers from too many storylines. It's far too cluttered and becomes confusing. The ending can't be effective because I'm trying to follow other storylines and I can't get emotionally invested in any one:
Diana and her pills, medication, ECT, and psychological trauma
Natalie (the daughter played by Jenn Damiano) and feeling like she's in the shadow of her brother, Gabe (Aaron Tviet)
Natalie trying to be perfect
Natalie's lack of attention from her parents
The father and husband, Dan (Brian d'Arcy James) trying to keep the family together
Diana and her unusual relationship with her doctor, Dr Fine (Asa Somers)
Natalie and her boyfriend, Henry (Adam Chanler-Barat)
And this just skims the surface of stories we have to follow (I didn't list EVERYTHING because I didn't want to totally ruin the surprises of the show). They need to trim down all the extraneous so that the ending can be serve that gut-punching effect. There's just too much. It runs around 2.5 hours but it felt longer. Both acts need to be trimmed, but I say the first one needs to be trimmed more so.
Jenn Damiano is fantastic as Natalie, the "perfect" daughter! She was the stand-out in a very difficult (in fact, they're all challenging roles). She achieved this wonderful balance of trying not to let people into her life but not coming across as a whiny brat. She's, justifiably, angry and moody because of the way that her family is and the neglect that she suffers and I feel that Jenn conveyed that with incredible grace. Her vocals are wonderful, with the exception of a few notes here and there which seem a little too high for her belt, but otherwise, she's truly stellar. And she's only 16!
Brian d'Arcy James gives a wonderful performance as Dan the father trying to hold everything together. I loved that Dan has been written as a good guy who just wants his wife to be better. It would have been easy to write or play Dan as the "evil" character of the show, but he never comes across that way and it's a testament to both the writers and Brian for creating the subtly of the character. His 11:00 number is beautiful.
Alice Ripley has such a nail-biter of a character in her hands. Diana is such a wonderfully complex character and an incredible challenge. She's got to seem believably crazy and show the progression of her illness. She does great on the acting side, but her vocals have been shot since Side Show. She sounds like Daphne Ruben-Vega!! I guess it goes well with the character that Diana is this less-than-stable character played by an actress with a less-than-stable voice, but I wish it didn't sound so painful for her to sing.
The supporting cast is nice.
The reason I bought tickets to this show was because I LOVE LOVE LOVE Tom Kitt, who wrote the music to one of my favorite musicals, High Fidelity! And he delivers one of the most sublime scores I've heard in forever. Whereas I feel High Fidelity has overall a very even score and I really love all the music from that show, Next to Normal is a little less even. Some of the songs are better than High Fidelity whereas some of the songs are worse than the songs from High Fidelity. The opening number, "Let there be light" as well as it's reprise (which if I can remember correctly is the finale as well), and "Just Another Day," "Super Boy and the Invisible Girl," "I'm Alive," "Catch Me I'm Falling," "Feeling Electric," and "Growing Up Unstable" are STUNNING songs. I love the harmonies of the ensemble numbers. Some of the songs remind me of High Fidelity, especially the opening notes of the opening remind me of "Laura, Laura" and "Growing Up Unstable" reminds me of "Number 5 with a Bullet." However, there is some song (I forget the name of it) between Natalie and Henry where it is literally, "Hey! Hey! Hey!" It drove me nuts that there were 2 reprises of that song. The conversationalism of the score reminded me of Rent, and then I looked at the bottom of the title page and I saw that this musical was funded by the Jonathan Larson Foundation. Coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Speaking of Rent, the set design and direction of the show was also very reminiscent of Rent. Coincidence? No, because it was directed by Michael Greif who directed Rent! The set design was created with exposed bars and stairs, movable pseudo-transparent doors, and some chairs and kitchen stuff. The ending of the musical was staged just like the finale of Rent. The light design was glorious. During "My Psychopharmacologist and I," a number about different pills that Diana has to take that also goes to the tune of "MY Favorite Things" from Sound of Music, the actors dance with pill bottles which are lit up. It's so brilliant.
Practically the first person I saw before the show started was Assistant Director Anthony Rapp! I was so verklempt! And as the audience started trickling in, I saw Jenn Colella of High Fidelity sitting a few rows in front of me! Oy!
Over all, I was disappointed because I had incredibly high expectations for this show because of Tom Kitt (I'm telling you, I REALLY love his stuff!). This is not to say that it was a bad show, but it didn't serve an emotional punch that the entire show was building up to. I asked, "Why did I see this without any sort of emotional return? Isn't that the point of this show?" I hope it gets better and moves to Broadway because I think Tom Kitt needs to redeem himself in the eyes of the New York theater critics. Then, maybe people will love High Fidelity! And I hope there's a cast recording! I found a bootleg, which I'm obsessively listening, but it's not with this off-Broadway cast and "Super Boy..." (my FAVORITE song of the show) isn't on it.