Next to Normal - Donmar / Wyndham’s

I will when I see them again, but I bow to your reputation on here and habit of being right 99% of the time. Hoping my contact is correct above all else, I suppose. For now at least, I’m hoping everyone enjoys this brilliant show which is finally on our shores.

I thought one rounds down from 96.35%. Interesting.

Saw this tonight and it's absolutely brilliant.

Best thing I've seen in the Donmar in ages!

6 rounded human characters of real complexity, undergoing emotional journeys with twists and turns that are difficult to predict, yet make sense and are poignant.

Towering performances by all, musically and dramatically, especially the principals, Caissie Levy, Jamie Parker and Eleanor Worthington-Cox.

I voted 5 stars in the poll.

Some spoilers follow. . .

I'm new to this show. I've long been aware people love this show, but I didn't know it. Now I do, and I think it's fantastic, and this production is immensely moving, and at times, very funny too.

It's like a symphony of human emotions, with characters bouncing off each other movingly and believably, and expressing all this, together with an incredible bunch of musicians, in sensitive and impassioned singing and music.

As an aside, I gather certain critics think this musical is a medical manual, and are consulting the show for psychiatric advice, instead of Doctors and psychiatric professionals, and downgrading the show for giving advice that isn't current. Perhaps they feel the show's book (aka medical manual) should be updated every six months to keep up with the latest Psychiatric Gazette.

Applied to works of art, this is absurd. On this thinking, Jane Austen is garbage because she assumes women are dependent on men, Star Wars is garbage because light sabers don't work, and this show is garbage because the advice hasn't been updated to reflect the latest issue of the Lancet.

Not only don't I buy that it's the business of art to do the work of Doctors, I don't even buy that Trevor Dion Nicholas's Doctor is necessarily wrong in this case, because life is messy, and what works for one person may not work for another.

For example, one anti-biotic may cure something for me, but for another person, it may not work, and Doctors will try another. And if that doesn't work, they'll try something else.

So I feel in this case about a key characters's mental illness. This doctor has plainly tried a lot of things, and the things he tries subsequently will obviously be changed up continuously if previous things didn't work.

Anyway, I agree with the above poster that Jamie Parker gives a magnificent performance of a man living an uncontrollably messy life, of his love, his compassion, his despair, his attempts to ignore unpleasant realities and his attempts to deal with them. I was very moved. Parker found the gallows humour in despair, but also the poignant tragedy of not being able to help when that's all he wants to do. So funny. So moving.

I was equally moved by Caissie Levy's portrayal of a woman living an unconventional life, through no choice of her own, and her feelings about that, and her connections to everyone around her. Again, another magnificent performance, and Levy's ability to project emotions into her singing is exceptional and brilliant.

Equally, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, who remains the best Matilda I ever saw, is equally wonderful in this, her character trapped between the above characters, and the fears of what in them she may find in herself. Sometimes, I could see the vulnerable but feisty Matilda she once was in the adult she now projects, a childlike vulnerability bubbling fearfully beneath teen terror antics, resonating and realising a multi-dimensional human being on stage, just like Parker and Levy.

And put them together with the stupendous support of Trevor Dion Nicholas (his excitable genie from Aladdin seemed to jump right out of him like a jack in the box at one perfect point lol), of Jack Wolfe, who's brother character is so effective as a catalyst and judge of his family's behaviour, and of Jack Ofrecio's boyfriend character, so effectively demonstrating the outsider looking in, and connecting the family to the whole messy universe of the wider world.

This is a wonderful ensemble of six, working in concert, like a symphony, bouncing off each other beautifully, performing a thrilling and warm work about how vulnerable people are.

I predict that critics may upgrade their reviews if and when this transfers, as I suspect it will linger with them longer than they thought it would. I like to think so, anyway lol. Regardless, 5 stars from me.

Hope that helps!

The thing I’d say about mental health having worked in the profession is that it is VERY messy, and problematic - yes including and especially the medical diagnosis and treatment aspect. There is not a single united front and I think many professionals would agree with many of the ideas in the show, while others disagree (and that’s fine). Similarly, we live in a world right now that is more empowering of those who suffer from mental illness and place a lot of importance on ‘lived experience’. That’s good/nice but as alluded to before the world is messy and everyone experience is different, so people should not feel if the show does not accurately represent their story that there is a problem with it. Except for a couple of head scratching moments that I might describe as creative licence, in general the show has obviously been informed by professional consultation because many of the ideas and even some lines sound like they were taking directly from university textbooks. The show obviously is not the Wild West west and has a very respectful and serious approach to the issues it deals with.

Seems a cast recording could be on its way ... Donmar just posted a clip of them in a recording studio.

Sadly I think this was just from the sitzprobe but I would love a cast recording!

This reeks of the author of the review having discovered a new term from tvtropes.com and attempting to shoehorn it in at the earliest opportunity, regardless of accuracy.

I like my reviews straightforward, honest and as unpretentious as possible. KISS - keep it simple, stupid!

I agree, it's a lazy careless misuse of the term. Diane and Natalie are the primary and secondary protagonists of the show, both with narratives that centre entirely on their personal wants, needs and struggles. Dan and Henry's arcs are almost entirely centred on them being support systems for their wife/girlfriend, the only exception to this being that one scene near the end when Dan finally confronts his own grief and trauma over losing his first child, something he has long suppressed because his sole focus until that point has been supporting Diane. Gabe and Dr Fine/Madden are more abstract characters, one an imaginary son/manifestation grief and the other a pair of mental health doctors blurred together, but both function largely as foils to Diane in her journey battling her illness.     

The Time Out reviewer seems to be - very lamely and vaguely - trying to suggest that two men aren't capable of writing a feminist play with strong complex female protagonists. I couldn't disagree more. They can and they have.   

Agreed, what a load of utter rubbish.

It wasn’t. It was a clip of their sitzprobe a while ago.

Well I had a pretty fair idea going in that I was going to hate this and I did, every single second of it.

As I am not one for pissing on peoples parades I won't list everything I loathed about it and I'm glad everyone who has been waiting to see it for years is finally getting to see it and is loving it.

But yeah this was just not for me and it will forever be sitting in my Room 101 alongside Falsettos, Caroline or Change and Fun House for eternity.