„Next to Normal“ – Versionsunterschied

Musicaldaten

Next to Normal is a musical with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. Its story concerns a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effect that her illness has on her family. The play also addresses such issues as grieving a loss, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and suburban life.

Next to Normal received several workshop performances before it debuted off-Broadway in 2008, winning the Outer Critics' Circle Award for Outstanding Score and receiving nominations for Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Actress (Alice Ripley) and Outstanding Score. It then played at the Arena Stage in Arlington, Virginia from November 2008 to January 2009 and opened on Broadway in April 2009. The musical was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Alice Ripley.

Productions

Workshops and readings

The musical, originally called Feeling Electric, was first seen in a 2002 reading at the Cutting Room in New York City, featuring Norbert Leo Butz as Dan and Sherie Rene Scott as Diana, with a subsequent staged reading in October 2002 at the Musical Mondays Theater Lab in New York.

In 2005 it was workshopped at Village Theatre (in Issaquah, Washington) featuring Amy Spanger as Diana, Mary Faber as Natalie and Deven May as Dr. Madden. In September 2005 the Barrow Group Arts Center production ran at the New York Musical Theatre Festival featuring Spanger as Diana, Joe Cassidy as Dan, Annaleigh Ashford as Natalie and Anthony Rapp as Dr. Madden. Second Stage Theatre workshopped the piece in both 2006 and 2007, featuring Cassidy and then Greg Edelman as Dan, Alice Ripley as Diana, Mary Faber and then Phoebe Strole as Natalie, Rapp as Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine and Skylar Astin as Henry.Vorlage:Fact

Off-Broadway and pre-Broadway productions

Next to Normal was produced off-Broadway under its current name at Second Stage Theatre from January 16 through March 16, 2008, directed by Michael Greif, with Anthony Rapp as assistant director and musical staging by Sergio Trujillo. The cast featured Ripley as Diana and Brian D'Arcy James as Dan. The surname of the family was changed from Brown to Goodman. Although the show received mixed reviews, it was criticized by at least one reviewer for pushing an irresponsible message about the treatment of bipolar disorder and for failing to strike the proper balance between pathos and comedy.

After revisions to the show, a pre-Broadway regional theatre production ran at the Arena Stage in Arlington, Virginia, November 21, 2008 through January 18, 2009. Michael Greif returned as director. Ripley and most of the off-Broadway cast participated, but D'Arcy James remained in New York to play the title character in the musical Shrek. The changes included removing "comic songs and glitzy production numbers" and substituting some songs that are complementary to the emotional content of the book; the production received rave reviews.

Broadway production 2009

Next to Normal began previews on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on March 27, and the show opened on April 15, 2009. The cast from the Arena Stage production returned as well as the director, Grief. The musical was originally booked for the 1,096-seat Longacre Theatre, but, according to producer David Stone, "when the Booth Theatre became available... we knew it was the right space for Next to Normal".

Reviews were warmly favorable. The New York Times reviewer wrote that the Broadway production is "A brave, breathtaking musical. It is something much more than a feel-good musical: it is a feel-everything musical." Rolling Stone Magazine called it "The best new musical of the season – by a mile." The show was nominated for eleven Tony Awards.

Synopsis

Act I

Suburban mother Diana Goodman waits up late for her curfew-challenged son, comforts her anxious and overachieving daughter, hurries off for some sex with her husband, then rises to help prepare her family for "Just Another Day." But when her lunchmaking takes a turn for the bizarre with sandwiches covering the table, chairs, and floor, the rest realize something is not right. As husband Dan helps the disoriented Diana, Natalie hurries off to school and the refuge of the piano practice room ("Everything Else"), where she's interrupted by Henry, a classmate who likes to listen to her play - and clearly likes her.

Over the ensuing weeks, Diana makes a series of visits to her doctor, while Dan waits in the car outside, questioning how to cope with his own depression ("Who's Crazy/My Psychopharmacologist and I"). It is revealed that Diana has suffered from bipolar disorder coupled with hallucinations for sixteen years; Doctor Fine begins to adjust her medications until he declares her stable. Natalie and Henry grow closer until one day he professes his love for her ("Perfect For You") and they kiss for the first time. Diana witnesses this and realizes she's missed much of Natalie's growing up ("I Miss the Mountains"). With her son's encouragement, she flushes away her meds.

A few weeks later, Dan looks forward to dinner with his family ("It's Gonna Be Good"), but when Diana emerges with a cake singing "Happy Birthday" to her son, Dan and Natalie are devastated. Dan holds Diana and explains that "He's Not Here" - that their son has been dead for years. Natalie storms off, and Dan mentions a return to the doctor, but Diana refuses - and as Dan tries to coax her into trusting him, their son joins them, trying in vain to get Dan's attention ("You Don't Know/I Am The One"). Up in her room, Natalie vents her anger to Henry, then refuses Diana's apology as her brother watches and taunts her ("Superboy and the Invisible Girl").

A few days later, Diana starts work with Doctor Madden. As her son rises to assert his presence ("I'm Alive"), Dan and Natalie doubt the sessions are helping, but Doctor Madden proposes hypnosis to help Diana discover the roots of her trauma ("Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling"). Finally, Diana agrees it's time to let her son go. Diana goes home to clean out her son's things, pausing to listen to a music box ("I Dreamed a Dance"). Gabe appears and dances with her, then invites her to come away with him ("There's a World"). She does.

At the hospital, where Diana lies sedated and restrained, with self-inflicted gashes to her wrists, Doctor Madden explains to Dan that ECT is the standard course of treatment for drug-resistant patients who are imminently suicidal. Dan goes home to clean up after Diana and decide what to do ("I've Been"). The next day, Diana lashes out at Doctor Madden, refusing the treatment ("Didn't I See This Movie?"), but Dan arrives and convinces her it may be their last hope. ("A Light In The Dark").

Act II

Over a period of two weeks, Diana receives a series of ECT treatments, while Natalie further explores clubs and drugs ("Wish I Were Here"). When Diana returns home from the hopsital, she and her shocked family realize Diana has lost sixteen years of memory ("Song of Forgetting"). Natalie escapes to school, where Henry confronts her ("Hey #1"), wondering why she's been avoiding him and inviting her to the spring formal dance.

Dan and Diana visit Doctor Madden, who assures them that some memory loss is normal ("Seconds and Years") and encourages Dan to use photos, mementoes, and the like to help Diana recover. Dan gathers the family to do so ("Better Than Before"), with minor success, but when Natalie pulls the music box from a pile of keepsakes, he whisks it away, leaving Diana puzzled. Her son appears, unseen ("Aftershocks"), while Diana tells Dan there's something she's desperate to remember that's just beyond her reach. When Henry arrives looking for Natalie, Diana is given great pause, studying his face and asking his age. Unnerved, Henry hurries up to Natalie's bedroom, to convince her to join him at the dance the next night ("Hey #2").

Diana returns to Doctor Madden ("You Don't Know (Reprise)") who suggests she further explore her history and talk more with her husband. Diana goes home and searches through the boxes of keepsakes, finding the music box. Dan tries to stop her, but the memories of her baby son rush back ("How Could I Ever Forget?"). When Diana confesses remembering her son as a teenager, and demands to know his name, Dan insists they need to return for more treatment ("It's Gonna Be Good (Reprise)"). Henry arrives to pick up Natalie, who has dressed for the dance, just in time for both fo them to witness an agitated Dan grab the music box from Diana's hands and dash it to the floor.

Diana confronts Dan, wondering why he perseveres after how much trouble she's given, while upstairs, Natalie asks Henry much the same question ("Why Stay?"). Dan answers, echoed by Henry, both vowing to stay steadfast ("A Promise"), but just as both couples embrace, Gabe reappears ("I'm Alive (Reprise)"), sending Diana running to Doctor Madden, asking Natalie to drive her, leaving Dan and Henry behind.

Diana asks Madden what can be done if the medicine has missed the true problem. With her questioning comes the realization that it's not her brain that's hurting: it's her soul ("The Break"). Madden assures her relapse is common, and suggests more ECT ("Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling (Reprise)"). Diana refuses, and though Doctor Madden urges her to continue treatment for her disease, she thanks him and goes. Natalie, waiting outside, is distressed to learn her mother has left treatment, and Diana explains herself ("Maybe (Next to Normal)"), opening up to her daughter for the first time. She urges Natalie on to the school dance, where Henry awaits to comfort and embrace her ("Hey #3/Perfect for You (Reprise)").

Diana finds Dan at home and tells him she's leaving him, explaining that he can't always be there to catch her; she needs to take a risk and deal with things on her own for once ("So Anyway"). She goes, leaving her son with him. As Dan wonders how she could have left him after he stood by her for so long, her son approaches, telling Dan he's not going anywhere ("I Am The One (Reprise)"). Dan grows more distraught until at last he faces the boy and calls him by his name for the first time: Gabriel.

Natalie comes home to find her father sitting alone in the dark, in tears. She comforts him and turns the lights on in the room, before assuring him that the two of them will figure things out. We see Henry arrive to study, and Natalie tells him Diana has gone to stay with her own parents. We see Diana, alone and still hurting, but hopeful. We see Dan, visiting Doctor Madden for any word on Diana, but staying to talk about his own struggle. And life goes on ("Light").

Recordings

Ghostlight Records released a cast recording on April 7, 2009 (digital) and May 12 (2-set CD).

Musical numbers

Act I

• Prelude
• Just Another Day – Diana, Natalie, Gabe, Dan
• Everything Else – Natalie
• Who's Crazy/My Psychopharmacologist and I – Dan, Doctor Fine, Diana, Ensemble
• Perfect for You – Henry, Natalie
• I Miss the Mountains – Diana
• It's Gonna Be Good – Dan, Natalie, Gabe, Henry, Ensemble
• He's Not Here – Dan
• You Don't Know – Diana
• I Am the One – Dan, Gabe, Diana
• Superboy and the Invisible Girl – Natalie, Diana, Gabe
• I'm Alive – Gabe
• Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling – Doctor Madden, Diana, Dan, Natalie, Gabe
• I Dreamed a Dance – Diana, Gabe
• There's a World – Gabe
• I've Been – Dan
• Didn't I See This Movie? – Diana
• A Light in the Dark – Dan, Diana

Act II

• Wish I Were Here – Diana, Natalie
• Song of Forgetting – Dan, Diana, Natalie
• Hey #1 – Henry, Natalie
• Seconds and Years – Doctor Madden, Dan, Diana
• Better Than Before – Doctor Madden, Dan, Natalie, Diana
• Aftershocks – Gabe
• Hey #2 – Henry, Natalie
• You Don't Know (Reprise) – Diana, Doctor Madden
• How Could I Ever Forget? – Diana, Dan
• It's Gonna Be Good (Reprise) – Dan, Diana
• Why Stay?/A Promise – Diana, Natalie, Dan, Henry
• I'm Alive (Reprise) – Gabe
• The Break – Diana
• Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling (Reprise) – Doctor Madden, Diana, Gabe
• Maybe (Next to Normal) – Diana, Natalie
• Hey #3/Perfect for You (Reprise) – Henry, Natalie
• So Anyway – Diana
• I Am the One (Reprise) – Dan, Gabe
• Light – Diana, Dan, Natalie, Gabe, Henry, Doctor Madden

Casts

Principal casts of major productions of Next to Normal

Casts of productions of Next to Normal

Productions	Diana Goodman	Dan Goodman	Gabriel Goodman	Natalie Goodman	Henry	Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine
2009 Broadway	Alice Ripley	J. Robert Spencer	Aaron Tveit	Jennifer Damiano	Adam Chanler-Berat	Louis Hobson
2008-09 Arena Stage	Alice Ripley	J. Robert Spencer	Aaron Tveit	Jennifer Damiano	Adam Chanler-Berat	Louis Hobson
2008 Second Stage Theatre	Alice Ripley	Brian d'Arcy James	Aaron Tveit	Jennifer Damiano	Adam Chanler-Berat	Asa Somers

External links

• NY Times Feature: An Out-of-Town Overhaul Helps Next to Normal Find Focus
• NY Times Feature: On Broadway, 'Next to Normal' Aims for Truth About Mental Illness
• Daily News Broadway review 2009
• Entertainment Weekly Broadway review 2009
• Associated Press Broadway review 2009
• Washington Post Broadway Review 2009
• Lortel Archives listing
• NY Times off-Broadway review, February 2008
• TheatreMania review, February 2008
• Links to the lyrics of the songs
• Arena Stage listing
• Village Originals Official Website: Feeling Electric
• The Musical & the Mindset
• The official Broadway site