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Log in to add yourself as a fan! Show Information. Brian Yorkey. Tom Kitt. Number of Acts. First Produced. In its earlier versions, it was about ETC. Big difference. And the new title, apparently chosen more by gut instinct than by reason, reflected this new tone. Interestingly, they chose this title before the title song had been written, so they built that song around their new title. Once a misfit, always a misfit. So in Next to Normal, instead of taking Diana on a journey from misfit to normal, the writers gave her a more modest, more honest, more nuanced goal, of finding a place next to normal.
Here, Diana chooses to walk alone. We know at the end of Next to Normal that Diana has made a decision, but we have no idea how it will turn out. As the song says, they will go on Like Diana, Natalie is also a misfit, but lucky for her, so is Henry. Yorkey underlines this by setting these two couples together at one moment in Act I, when they actually say lines together in unison. And while Diana takes her own Hero Myth journey, Natalie takes one too.
But by the end, she has learned that she has the wrong goal. Instead of trying to be normal — in other words, like everybody else — Natalie finally understands that her real goal should be to figure out who she is and what her road is, just like the Youth in Passing Strange.
But something next to normal Would be okay. Maybe Natalie has finally realized, with the help of Stoner Zen Master Henry, that normal is artificial, that it is a construct. There is no such thing as normal in the real world, just as there is no such thing as average. Those labels are about statistics, but our story is about complicated, ever-changing individuals.
Normal has no meaning here. And if there is no such thing as normal, can someone really be a misfit? Or are all of us misfits? You can be scared by that or you can embrace the adventure. Diana and Natalie have been scared by that and must both learn to embrace the adventure.
This story is not neat, tidy, or easily wrapped up in a nice little narrative package, the way many musicals did in the old days. What are you doing in my electricity? The whole show is dreamlike to some degree, but a few moments in the show are very dreamlike, disorienting, disturbing, and revealing in ways that more naturalistic writing or staging would not be.
One of the reasons the show has such resonance for audiences is that Diana sort of stands in for America at this moment in our history — confused by competing versions of reality, unable to rely on authority figures or long-established institutions government, education, religion, capitalism, etc. But is Gabe her magic amulet or the antagonist here? Or both…? How do we navigate this new, altered, dangerous landscape? As we watch Diana navigate her own Underworld, we gain some understanding of our own personal and collective Underworlds.
Which is kind of the point of the whole show. How do we find our way when we have no map to guide us? We use art. Throughout human history, why do we sing songs? To celebrate and to remember. A song of the way things were not.
And then he sings of not remembering, and of unremembered memories. Notice how natural the dialogue sounds, but also notice that Yorkey never violates the structure and rhyming.
Dan This house and all these rooms? Last Christmas or last year? Out back the dogwood blooms? Diana Do I really live here? Dan The paint, the walls All this glass and wood Diana How I wish I could. Dan Our house on Walton Way The house with the red door? Our trip to St. Tropez, The whole week a downpour? Natalie My first few steps And my first lost tooth What, nothing yet?
Diana To tell the truth Natalie Jesus. Dan Sing a song of forgetting Diana The day we met And we shared two beers Dan Then…? Diana I forget. Diana That doctor Mitchell said there might be some memory loss. Dan Doctor Madden. Diana Well, see, there you go. Then Natalie explodes in a hard-driving, irregular rock and roll: Natalie What a lovely cure Natalie Why? Natalie They die And then all three of them sing the chorus, but the words mean something different to each of them.
From these three conflicting perspectives, these words take on layers of meaning that slam up against each other and foreshadow the emotional collisions to come. Dan, Natalie, and Diana sing: Sing a song of forgetting Sing of not remembering when Of memories that go unremembered, and then Sing a song of forgetting again.
It's a compelling and courageous story that never gets old. May 22, Julia Curtis rated it it was amazing. Sometimes there are scripts that don't do very well just reading because I find that "Next to Normal" is one of those wonderful exceptions.
It's heart-wrenching, funny, thrilling, and just all around beautiful. And I didn't need to see it. The script of "Spring Awakening" had me constantly searching YouTube so that I could see the scene and read along with it.
It made my emotions swing up and down without having to see one actor Sometimes there are scripts that don't do very well just reading because It made my emotions swing up and down without having to see one actor portray the words on the pages that I was reading. Oct 26, LiMaB rated it it was amazing Shelves: read-in Read this one yesterday for a term paper I am writing about mental illness. I love musicals and I was watching the show at the same time on YouTube.
This play had everything. Laughter, tears and made me think about how we perceive mental illness. It's a shame that it hasn't been brought to much attention in Germany.
I can only recommend it. It will tear your heart out, but boy did Yorkey create a master piece. Jul 01, Matthew rated it really liked it. Saw the bootleg I was. Oct 12, Graham Wilhauk rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , read-in-january I can't believe I am about to say this. I am starting with a 5 star rating. This could be my new favorite musical. Everything about this was incredible and stunning.
The lyrics to the songs, the way the story was told, the way the characters were carefully unraveled in a natural and raw way, the beautiful yet devastating themes of love, family, mental illness, and loss. While this musical is very popular, it has taken a backseat to other shows in the 21st cent I can't believe I am about to say this. While this musical is very popular, it has taken a backseat to other shows in the 21st century such as Book of Mormon, Hamilton, and Dear Evan Hansen.
Don't get me wrong, those three musicals are also fantastic, but I think this one is just as good if not better. If you have the chance to see Next to Normal, see it.
Support this show at all costs. See a production, but the script, buy the soundtrack. Support this beautiful and emotional thrill-ride of a musical. It deserves it. I am giving this one a 5 out of 5 stars. I love this musical with every fiber of my being. Oct 05, Phoebe rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. This musical was my catalyst, my gateway drug into musical theatre. I'd had a lot of experience with it before——I'd been in amateur productions of stuff like Camp Rock and I went to a performing arts camp, which was where I first saw this——but this was the first musical I ever saw that had a major emotional effect on me and was just really fucking good and authentic.
I think watching this musical and then reading the libretto signaled a major step in my growth as an art consumer. I was shifting gears to more mature stories. This is an adult musical. I actually first saw it when I was ten, but it was too inappropriate for me at the time, so I tried to sleep through it. I remembered snippets. Dan and Diana emerging from their bedroom after just having had sex. Natalie singing about how "Mozart was crazy; flat fucking crazy.
Memory loss. All of these topics were too mature for me at the time. I didn't say the fuck word until 9th grade. Four years later, I saw it again, wide awake this time, and excited.
And I cried. And then I bought the cast album and listened to it obsessively. This musical changed my life. But enough about me; onto the musical itself. The characters are endearing and enthralling. Diana, whose refusal to let go of an eighteen-year-old devastating loss takes a toll on the whole family. Dan, who can't face his problems head-on but is fiercely loyal to his family.
Natalie, who's just looking for a means to escape, be it music, romance, college, or drugs. And Gabe, the physical manifestation of Diana's mental illness, who just needs Dan to see him.
At its core, this musical is about family, and pain, and the way one family deals with terrible pain that has been gripping them for too long. It asks us whether it's better to ignore our pain, or to feel it and let it hurt us. The lyrics are brilliant, beautiful, metaphorical, and reach straight into your heart.
I'll list some of my favorites. So it's times like these I wonder how I take it And if other families live the way we do If they love each other or if they just fake it And if other daughters feel like I feel too 'Cause some days I think I'm dying But I'm really only trying to get through The sensation that you're screaming, but you never make a sound Or the feeling that you're falling, but you never hit the ground It just keeps on rushing at you, day by day by day by day You don't know, you don't know what it's like to live that way Like a refugee, a fugitive, forever on the run If it gets me, it will kill me But I don't know what I've done Maybe we can't be okay But maybe we're tough and we'll try anyway.
We'll live with what's real, Let go of what's past, And maybe I'll see you at last. Day after day Wishing all our cares away Trying to fight the things we feel But some hurts never heal. Some ghosts are never gone But we go on We still go on And you find some way to survive And you find out you don't have to be happy at all To be happy you're alive.
And these are just some. Name any song, I could give you multiple lines of brilliance. It's no wonder this show won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Nov 07, Olivia rated it it was amazing Shelves: theater , favorites , mental-health. If you, like me, were ever worried about this show from hearing some of the songs out of context or because Yorkey wrote the 13 Reasons Why TV show I can say with both my own experience and all the research I've done as a dramaturg for an upcoming student performance of this show!!!
The musical begins as a suburban mother, Diana, waits for her son to return home while attempting to comfort her overachieving daughter, Natalie.
Dan steps in to help his wife prepare the lunches before the kids make their way to school.
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