Sing Your Psychosis - It's More Fun
This weekend I went to see Next to Normal, a new musical now showing at Arena stage, with my mom and Hobbit Shawnie B. I wanted to see it because it's new, it's a musical, and it got a couple of fairly positive reviews in the Post and the City Paper. The City Paper reviewer said he's rarely surprised by anything in a musical not written by Stephen Sondheim, and was surprised by Next to Normal. I like surprises, so I decided to see it.
I opted for cheap seats because well, I'm cheap. I thought about inviting lots of folks to go with, but well, it's a new musical. Even good musicals aren't for everyone, and despite the positive reviews, I didn't know if it really would be good or even bearable. Going to the theater is such a leap of faith anyway. When it's good it's divine, and when it's not, it's excruciating.
My mom likes the theatah, and Shawnie B is a theater nerd from way back who will be appearing in Greater Tuna at the Little Theater of Alexandria in a few weeks. (Go Shawnie B!) We metro'd to Arena's Crystal City space and were relieved to find our seats, while cheap, still had great sight lines. We were elated a few minutes before the curtain when the usher said, "Ok, who wants to move up?" The economy and state of theater being what it is, the show was far from sold out so we got to move up to a center row. Sweet!
Next to Normal is about a suburban mom with mental illness: bipolar disorder with a touch of psychosis/hallucinations. Peppy, right? Well actually, yes. The music is rock-ish, a la Spring Awakening - guitars, drums, piano, lots of impassioned loud vocals. The music was good, but too much the same. There were few musical motifs. Andrew Lloyd Webber gets a lot of crap because he uses repeating motifs too much, but they do work - it's nice to have one melody introduced in the beginning and then get replayed in a later part. It's even better if the motifs can be interwoven in an end of the first act fugue. N2N didn't so much have that, so the music got a bit boring at times.
There was some dancing; I could have done with more. Instead of dancey-dancing, the actors' movements seemed choreographed - they all sort of flung themselves around the stage. That sounds bad but it was actually well done. I just wanted more of the ensemble shaking lit up pill boxes and stuff like that.
The set and lights were awesome. The set was a three level scaffold with pieces that folded in and out and slid left to right, so they could build the house levels and open and close rooms. There were also rolly chairs and tables and one moving staircase, all used to dynamic effect. The lights - well let's just say that in a rock opera about mental illness that includes an ECT song, you need specacular and varied lighting, and the lighting design was both of those.
Acting and singing wise, the lead actress was amazing, and the guy who played her son was great too. The dad was an understudy and was ok, and we all had issues with the daughter - she was very one-note in her caricature of a sullen teenager. The dude who played her boyfriend was aight, and the psychiatrist was aight as well.
I enjoyed it quite a bit. I had problems with the second act - things didn't end in a way that felt true or resonant. I did have a hard time watching a lot of it, because I'm a sucker for music + emotion. If you have actors talking about how they feel invisible to each other I'm ok; but if they're singing about it over electric guitar I get sniffly.
I'm left with a feeling of frustration because there's no recording. If I like a musical I need to hear the songs about ten more times, and I can't because this was a merch-light workshop production. I reckon I'll just have to go see it again.
I opted for cheap seats because well, I'm cheap. I thought about inviting lots of folks to go with, but well, it's a new musical. Even good musicals aren't for everyone, and despite the positive reviews, I didn't know if it really would be good or even bearable. Going to the theater is such a leap of faith anyway. When it's good it's divine, and when it's not, it's excruciating.
My mom likes the theatah, and Shawnie B is a theater nerd from way back who will be appearing in Greater Tuna at the Little Theater of Alexandria in a few weeks. (Go Shawnie B!) We metro'd to Arena's Crystal City space and were relieved to find our seats, while cheap, still had great sight lines. We were elated a few minutes before the curtain when the usher said, "Ok, who wants to move up?" The economy and state of theater being what it is, the show was far from sold out so we got to move up to a center row. Sweet!
Next to Normal is about a suburban mom with mental illness: bipolar disorder with a touch of psychosis/hallucinations. Peppy, right? Well actually, yes. The music is rock-ish, a la Spring Awakening - guitars, drums, piano, lots of impassioned loud vocals. The music was good, but too much the same. There were few musical motifs. Andrew Lloyd Webber gets a lot of crap because he uses repeating motifs too much, but they do work - it's nice to have one melody introduced in the beginning and then get replayed in a later part. It's even better if the motifs can be interwoven in an end of the first act fugue. N2N didn't so much have that, so the music got a bit boring at times.
There was some dancing; I could have done with more. Instead of dancey-dancing, the actors' movements seemed choreographed - they all sort of flung themselves around the stage. That sounds bad but it was actually well done. I just wanted more of the ensemble shaking lit up pill boxes and stuff like that.
The set and lights were awesome. The set was a three level scaffold with pieces that folded in and out and slid left to right, so they could build the house levels and open and close rooms. There were also rolly chairs and tables and one moving staircase, all used to dynamic effect. The lights - well let's just say that in a rock opera about mental illness that includes an ECT song, you need specacular and varied lighting, and the lighting design was both of those.
Acting and singing wise, the lead actress was amazing, and the guy who played her son was great too. The dad was an understudy and was ok, and we all had issues with the daughter - she was very one-note in her caricature of a sullen teenager. The dude who played her boyfriend was aight, and the psychiatrist was aight as well.
I enjoyed it quite a bit. I had problems with the second act - things didn't end in a way that felt true or resonant. I did have a hard time watching a lot of it, because I'm a sucker for music + emotion. If you have actors talking about how they feel invisible to each other I'm ok; but if they're singing about it over electric guitar I get sniffly.
I'm left with a feeling of frustration because there's no recording. If I like a musical I need to hear the songs about ten more times, and I can't because this was a merch-light workshop production. I reckon I'll just have to go see it again.
posted by walkinhomefromthethriftstore at 6:48 AM
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