Next to Normal - Donmar / Wyndham’s

They similarly filmed The Band's Visit at The Donmar for the V&A archives.

Aren’t they only single set-up, static camera affairs though?

I felt so numb watching this - the piece is so sad. I loved connecting with these characters for the evening and hearing the music come alive in the intimate space of the Donmar. You could feel a strong feeling of engagement from the audience - everyone concentrating on the drama on stage. At a time when we're debating the seriousness of musicals, this really demonstrated the power of musical theatre. The cast as everyone says is brilliant - but Jack Wolfe was the standout for me. It's amazing to see his star getting more discovered over the last couple of years with Shadow and Bone and Magic Flute - I just hope he continues to do live theatre as I was quite shocked to see that this was his first show in the West End (Central London). I'd love to see this again but clearly the show's very popular with a lot of demand. I don't know how it will translate onto a larger space if the transfer is indeed true. I really love the intimacy - feeling like you're gathered around the Goodman's kitchen / sitting in the hospital etc. I'm going to be thinking about the show for a long time.

I've found that on the side is best - far left side as you come in is better (especially for Act 2)

No. When I went it was whatever place is open. Which was disappointing.

Managed to see this yesterday at the matinee, after having checked dozens of times for returns, in vain, then (amazingly to me, given that they release so few and that I was on a train at the time & relying on train wifi) securing a seat via the daily release. So I could see what all the fuss was about and enjoyed it, insofar as you can say that about a show foucsing on mental illness, though it was obviously intense and I'd have preferred it to be slightly shorter.

Strangely, given how sought-after tickets are, there were quite a few gaps yet at no stage did FoH staff move any of the standing people into seats, which I thought was normally what they did; not even after the interval. As they scan tickets on entry they must know exactly which seats are vacant.

Not a great experience with those adjacent in my row as for the second time recently when there were no arm-rests to define individual spaces, I had a "large" person on one side and a positively obese one on the other, who encroached considerably on my space, but there was nothing I could say or do to alleviate the discomfort. There's also nothing more I can say about this without risking offence, other than that presumably those concerned know jolly well what they're doing and simply don't care. Nevertheless it was still a worthwhile visit.

I wanna write more later on, but I will say that being obsessed with the show when it opened on Broadway and seeing Alice Ripley as Diana with the tour cast as a teen prior to my bipolar diagnosis and now seeing Caissie as Diana on the West End felt so full circle. The entire cast is exceptional; Caissie brought out this sense of exhaustion/frustration that I found really refreshing. She absolutely broke my heart.

Understudy Henry was on last night, who was incredible and should be doing the role full time. The show is perfect right now - jaw dropping.

I am hearing they are trying to land a transfer

Saw this on Friday night. Flew in from the states to check out some shows. I have seen 4 productions of Next to Normal and was even in one and am a huge Caissie Levy fan. It’s one of my favorite musicals and this production did not disappoint. The cast is uniformly excelled—not a weak link among them. The singing and acting and characterizations were all stellar. The production is slick and intimate. It wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel of this musical, but it doesn’t have to, but there are some creative staging decisions that felt very effective for me (Gabe in Aftershocks, the graphic cleaning of the blood). Jack Wolfe is the best Gabe you’ll ever see and the entire audience is crushing on him so hard. Caissie is incredible. It’s no surprise that her secret weapon is her voice—it’s so expressive and she has so much control and emotion in it. Stellar performance. So glad I caught this. Also, what a gorgeous space!

Got to keep checking in! 

I saw it last week and enjoyed it, especially the first half. Had very little idea of it beforehand and the revelation 30min in completely floored me.

I do think the staging and performances are uniformly excellent and can see why people here are so enthusiastic about it, but I do also think the show itself has major flaws in the second half (particularly the second half of the second half) which made it feel slightly incomplete and so I can see why the professional reviewers didn’t go for it in quite the same way. I guess for me it feels like the narrative slightly runs out of steam and so it feels like it ends about 4 times and even then in a vaguely arbitrary place.

Like others here I also found the doctor’s singing voice very odd (perfectly in tune but a bizarre tone) and the miming to the rock notes incredibly distracting.

But overall I’d give it a strong 4 stars and certainly recommend it.