Next to Normal - Donmar / Wyndham’s

100%!!!! he’s acting through song incredibly as well and making every lyric he sings work for his Dan. He’s a broken man who has no idea who he is, he’s simply existing whilst also not knowing how to exist in his own household. Character wise, I actually think he’s the best Dan I’ve seen, they are also the first Diana and Dan that I find myself rooting for (other than Marin and Jason, and that was so much down to their real life adoration for each other)

Something about the way Caissie runs to Dan in her hospital gown and cling to him for dear life with so much hope, then how she really starts to understand the last 16 years of Dan’s life in A Light in the Dark — without it seeming less like emotional manipulation to force her into signing the consent forms for the treatment. It makes So Anyway even more devastating for me.

There’s also a moment I cannot stop thinking about at the end before Light where Natalie is at the kitchen counter looking at Dan and as Gabe exits, he touches her hand and she visibly reacts to the touch and looks down at her hand and then to the spot where Gabe had been standing - it’s such a quick moment but is such a beautiful throwback to Superboy and the Invisible Girl where she finally feels Gabe (this is the first time she’s around him since Diana talks to her about him, but he’s gone when she looks, he’s the invisible one now.

I cannot stop thinking about so many elements of this production that are just done so perfectly!

It was definitely there and is made apparent in the exact same part of the book as it was in the film.


As I recall it was a lot of the problem people had with it when it was first released.

Eleanor Worthington-Cox is 22

I think my 17 year old brain wasn’t ready for what he’d just read/endured to all be a delusion. I get that the film couldn’t acknowledge even its watered down version of events as real, so heightened the blurring of Batemans reality to make us question it. But where his wheels start to come off in the book, and you question whats occurring I just read as weird for the sake of it rather than a question of his reality/sanity.

Is it sung all the way through, ie. through composed, or is there spoken dialogue?

Thank you.

I'll echo everyone else and say this was very good. I saw this tonight from the very end of the front row, right by the stage stairs. It is a very good row, if giving a rather private angled view from behind a lot of the time. A downside is you can't see anything in the upstairs rooms. Plus it's a good seat for collectors. I gained both a coat and a balloon at different points during the show (both returned at the end - the balloons are rather a badly timed distraction which bounce around the stage).

I don't know the show or the music, but this is a very easy storyline to follow (I don't mean it is an easy watch). It reminded me a lot of Dear Evan Hansen in parts, although with an older characters. A very strong cast all around. Good to see Jack Ofrecio as well, who escaped from the rather forgotten Covid years of Mountview. I hadn't realised it is a 6 person cast, with 4 covers, so I hope the covers all have a chance to go on (I'd love to see Carolyn Maitland, who was always excellent in Jersey Boys).

To me, this seems like it's all being positioned to transfer somewhere. I would see this again most certainly, but I don't feel the need to closely monitor the Donmar site to look for returned tickets. I didn't quite get the emotional connection I do with many shows. But based on ticket sales alone, this is a clear hit. The standing ovation at the end was fully deserved.

Sat it yesterday and I enjoyed overall. I liked the songs, but felt that they became a bit repetitive in Act II. At certain points you feel a bit like 'Oh dear, they are going to sing about it yet again'. Caissie Levy is absolutely wonderful and sang beautifully. The rest of the cast were quite good.

They were a few people taking notes and some were very badly behaved. I was in the second row in the circle, side view. A couple in the central seats B33 and B32 spent the whole show chatting and giggling, which is really bad. They are probably sick of seeing the show every day and taking notes, but they should not be allowed to behave like that during a preview with paying patrons. Another woman taking notes in the row in front of me in A35 decided for some reason that it was a good a idea to stand in the middle of Act II and go for a walk around the circle noisily for no reason whatsoever except maybe annoying patrons. I understand that this is a preview, but this people were treating it as a rehearsal.

Just listened to the clip of Adam Pascal singing from the musical Death Note and began picturing him as Dan in this. Think he'd sing the part very well!!

I was in the same seat and can highly recommend it (wasn’t sure while booking at first), it’s at reduced price, but the view is great and somewhat wonderfully intimate.

I sat next to the musical supervisor on my visit who was very respectful, quietly making notes and was actually quite interesting to watch him ‘feel’ (or not, in some cases) the music. His notes were mostly about the band & levels in the sound mix (very big squiggles so legible from next to him) but he was very respectful.
As for this post above, I have to point out that previews are still works in progress. They are a key tool for the creatives to see how things land with an audience - so they are some way between rehearsals and performance. If you buy a ticket to a preview (often cheaper than post opening night) you enter into a contract that what you see isn’t a finished product - and as such you may encounter creatives working. Yes they shouldn’t pull focus but technically, the audience has entered their work room. It’s a work room until opening night.

I agree. Seriously I do amateur theatre and we wouldn't even have that sort of behaviour in a dress rehearsal, lest it distract the cast. And I assume that part of the creatives job is to gauge audience response, so quietly observing audience members is going to be far better than disrupting and annoying them. 


As someone who has never been to the Donmar before, I was curious about what views and sightlines are like from all sides. I can tell it's a wonderfully intimate performance space, but having seen a few set photos for this I am wondering...