Next to Normal - Donmar / Wyndham’s

Opening night and closing night now booked…! Now to forget about this show until cast is announced…

Well, that was surprisingly straightforward! Front row of the centre block booked for my first choice day and time. Very happy with that!

 I was expecting stress, so I feel very relieved that I managed to book the tickets I wanted.

Ant's in baby! He's in!

I too forgot and I have had intermittent internet problems all day but I received a reminder email from The Donmar at 12:05, logged in straight away and bagged me a ticket!

Get in!!!!

Well that was remarkably stress free!

Surprisingly easy - good for the Donmar having a bit of a queue in place - and got first and last, and a couple in between. Those £10 tickets are a steal!

Well that was totally pain free! Wish all bookings were that quick and simple

Everyone's gone a bit giddy! I'd book another myself if I hadn't spent so very much on various tickets this month already.

I loved the soundtrack to this when it came out, randomly a few months ago on my commute I listened through the cast album again.

I thought the score still stood out as powerful, the lyrics at times work and at times clunk but I think they always get away with it, the story feels like it hammers along quickly and doesn't let you go. Another poster talked about not seeing the wood for the trees in terms of the shows problems, but my overall conclusion was the opposite, I think the core message is rotten.

Don't read further if you haven't seen the show. I'm not sure how comfortable we can be with a show that ultimately concludes that psychiatry, medications, and evidence based treatment were getting in the way of Diana getting better. It says that actually throwing all of that away and leaving her husband were the cure all along. That's really quite bad. She has persistent psychotic features of bipolar affective disorder, saying that she just needed to find inner strength to cure herself (which was certainly my interpretation watching the bootleg years ago) is a stupid and frankly toxic message that I don't think should be glamourised in a musical. I know it's not a piece of advocacy or advice, I'm not arguing that plays should always have good or accurate messages, but if we're going to keep celebrating it as the musical that deals head on with mental health I sort of feel it shouldn't veer off into touchy feely nonsense. People in Diana's condition who walk away from medical treatment would have an extremely high risk of dying by suicide, there shouldn't be a feel good song about how There Will Be Light now that she's walking out.

I still bought tickets, obviously.

Spoilers remain here. I think you're drawing a lot of conclusions I wouldn't draw from the material, but I understand what you're saying and I appreciate your point of view. I don't see the evidence to be honest that the show advocates seeking professional help, there is a half-hearted question in the dialogue at the end (I'm re-reading it now to be sure) that she may or may not be in contact with her doctor, but even if she was you've still got a scenario where she tried the drugs and they didn't work, she tried ECT and got an unbelievably rare side effect, then it didn't work, and at the end let me quote

DOCTOR MADDEN: Diana you have a chronic illness [...] if you leave it untreated, it could be catastrophic
DIANA: I understand. But there has to be another way. 

And then she walks out. There's a relatively feel good song at the end and no consequences are known to befall her, and I interpret (and obviously it's just my interpretation) that this is a hopeful situation for her.

Psychiatry definitely treads in the most murky water of all medical specialties, but neither in 2008 nor 2022 is it fair to suggest that someone with psychosis would be better off without pharmacological therapy, nor that a textbook would advocate that. She doesn't have mild anxiety or a personality disorder, she is seriously mentally unwell and for my money the show does not clearly lay out the issues in the way you describe. And if the situation was different in 2008 (and fair enough that was several years before I worked as a doctor on an inpatient psychiatry unit if that brings context to my opinion) I don't imagine it's being produced as a period piece, it will sell itself as being generally in our current era. I'm not comfortable with the way that care is presented, I don't think the average audience member comes away thinking anything good about therapies for mental illness. If my take is niche and alternative that's fine, but I definitely don't see Next To Normal as having the pro-healthcare message at it's conclusion that you see.

Interesting from both sides, and some excellent points being made.

It is my feeling that the show, as with most theatre, addresses certain issues with very broad strokes. Dr. Fine’s “patient stable” is, essentially, the limit of what medicine can do, but can seem like a flippant one-liner in the show, cynicism bordering on sinister. Dr. Madden says “Is medicine magic, you know that it’s not. I know it’s not perfect but it’s what we’ve got”. Again, it’s true, and we can’t spend 40 minutes in a musical discussing the point.

I think the text goes to great lengths to painstakingly try and demonstrate that there isn’t one “fix”, there are just options to be tried which often intersect when treating such a serious mental illness.

Anecdotally, my grandmother underwent ECT in the 80’s and actually did suffer quite noticeable memory loss, which came back in the following months.

I think if you are concerned that the show won't lead people to (especially if they need to) immediately seek medical treatment and stick with it, I can see why. And maybe the show could make that clearer (I thought it did for the reasons I suggested but it's true that these are small moments after 2.5 hours of back and forth pros/cons about the treatment happening so maybe it should come out stronger).

My personal 'niche' is that I have worked with GPs and Psychiatrists* who are shocking and woefully unprepared to diagnose and treat mental illness, especially holistically beyond medication (e.g. if someone is suicidal and also experiencing problems in life with friendships, work, relationships, family, how they spend their time etc. they need more than just medication and these doctors need to help them find the wider support they need beyond just dispensing medication). So I personally appreciate a critical take on mental health treatment because what is going on beyond the scenes is much more difficult/complicated/problematic than I think the general public are aware of.

(* Not in the UK, I don't know the system here and I've changed careers since)