Opening Night - Gielgud

Vis-a-vis her breakdown, I'd say that it goes like this:-

Spoilers follow. . .

The dead girl's name appears across Myrtle's dressing room mirror.

We can infer she wrote it. She hasn't yet broken down but we can infer that that's a bit weird, and it could be heading that way.

Later, the dead girl herself appears to Myrtle as she's looking in the mirror. She sings "I Forgive You" to Myrtle, nose to nose, hugging and cuddling and stroking Myrtle.

Now we know it's a nervous breakdown.

Noone else sees the dead girl, ever, in the course of the play.

To hammer the point home, in the next scene, Myrtle starts SINGING to her Ex-husband to "Meet me at the Start" of our relationship, and start again.

Nicola Hughes's writer says "WHY'S SHE SINGING?"

The Director and Stage Hand discuss calling a Doctor. Now they all know she's lost it.

Now the furious and despairing Nicola Hughes's writer sings about how "Life is Thin," and how you can totally lose it in one moment. It's one of the most powerful songs in the show, really unbelievably, incredibly powerful, like Shirley Bassey at her best.

I also saw it tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the use of cameras and the music. I will try to return before it closes.

I think most of that points to the audience being allowed access to Myrtle's thoughts -- her insecurities and anxieties -- rather than being evidence of an actual mental breakdown, which would typically involve panic attacks, inability to function or other dysfunctional behaviour, rather than singing to a dead person.

Have I missed something, what's the filler?

But nothing to do with this mornings state of the nation address from Cam Mack?

Oh, I think its pretty clear.

I do agree that Myrtle has so many things wrong with her, its sometimes hard to tell them apart.

So, to clarify, when the show opens, Myrtle seems perfectly functional despite a midlife crisis that causes her to whinge about her character stereotyping her as old.

But then. . .

Spoilers follow. . .

The 19 year old fan dies and her anxiety spirals, such that:-

(1) She falls on the floor in a glazed semi-comatose state, her eyes riddled with tears;

(2) She writes a dead girl's name, "Nancy" across her mirror;

(3) When asked to speak, she sings;

(4) She starts seeing a dead girl that noone else can see;

(5) She's a no-show to rehearsals because she thinks the dead girl is subbing for her;

(6) She starts drinking to excess, leaving her stumbling about the streets instead of working.

Now, since a "nervous breakdown" is just a non-clinical colloquial term referring to someone with extreme anxiety that causes them to be dysfunctional, I think Myrtle definitely qualifies.

But Myrtle also enters diagnostic psychiatric territory as soon as the dead girl shows up, since hallucinating and talking to a dead person, and assuring everyone else that that is what you are doing, is accurately referred to as a "psychotic break."

Consequently, we have a character, Myrtle, who is in a mid-life crisis, has a nervous breakdown, drinks to excess and has a psychotic break.

That the show never really separates out all her problems is an inheritance from the source material, whereby none of the other characters reaches out to help her with any of her problems.

Poor Myrtle.

I found it absolutely cringe and just too out of place/tone to the rest of the show

So overall, I found it unfocused, too many undeveloped threads. It was an incredibly frustrating piece, as there was a lot of interesting stuff in there.

I didn't really like the music at all - not my style, and not immediate enough for musical theatre.

It felt like a work in progress - the type of show I've seen at Edinburgh Fringe, but on a big budget.

Sheridan was solid, but miscast. She didn't for once convince me that she was playing a huge American star. The piece needed an actor with the megawatt star aura of a Nicole Scherzinger or similar for the whole thing to hang together more convincingly. She excelled in the quieter emotional scenes, but I didn't buy her as 'Myrtle, the massive celebrity'.

I found the open set and cast moving around distracting and fussy.

As others have commented, it was tonally all over the place, almost cringingly so at times, Veering from subtle to overblown from one song to another.

There were lots of lovely and beautiful moments, but it didn't hang together for me.

I've read all the reviews now and I can equally see why some gave it 4 stars and some gave it one.

Having now seen both 2:22 A Ghost Story and Opening Night, I know firmly which one I enjoyed more and would happily sit through again. A real shame ON is closing to make way for this tired old tale.

I would rather Opening Night stayed, at least it's new and has a point of view.

That’s like having the choice of drowning or being set on fire.

Neither are great options.