Next to Normal - Donmar / Wyndham’s

Astonished that Caissie isn’t nominated.

Scherzinger will win because she’s the most famous.

I'd have predicted at minimum that Caissie would have been nominated in the Best Musical Performer category (though admittedly, the other nominees in this category are really deserving) and that the show would have been nominated for Best Musical. Jack's nomination is a very welcome surprise, especially for an awards that does seem to favour the 'big name' stars. Makes me hopeful for Jack becoming a breakout star and scoring nominations elsewhere.

But given all the current hype about Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset...is it becoming likely Caissie will lose out on what a lot of us hoped would be a sure-fire Olivier win? It worries me that she wasn't even nominated here. Only singling out four musical theatre performers as opposed to eight actors from straight plays is unfair and imbalanced. If they want to eliminate gendered categories, I don't mind, but at least replace with lead and supporting categories. 

I do think Nicole could upset the category though, especially if they do a cast recording and her voice is fresh in the mind of voters. I personally think I’d still give it to Levy, but I would not be surprised if she loses to Nicole sadly.

Out of interest, is there anyone who’s NOT a massive fan of the show that thinks Cassie should be winning for this? As devotees of a show thinking the star should win the lot is different from the transcending of boundaries that best performance awards can ideally represent.

Probs get killed for saying this but whilst she sang the score perfectly and acted the role well as written, I found it slightly one note. I’d blame the piece for that though. The depiction of bipolar was unrealistic for me and I found the other three family members went on far more interesting journeys.

Whereas in Sunset, there were so many naysayers re Nicole (especially on here) who then went and were blown away. Which one could argue is a bigger achievement.

At least WoS have audience voting, so that measure of popularity or perhaps more accurately, fervour among people paying attention to them says SOMETHING at least. ES don't have that, even though I think they put together a decent panel, everyone knows that Lebedev reigns ultimately. The categorisation says everything. There are always fewer big name stars to go around in musicals. Plus there seems to be some unpoken rule that they'll rarely nominate two people from the same musical

I second this - I'm very open in saying my mother has bipolar and watching Caissie in this show was literally like watching my mother in front of me so I'd argue it's an incredibly realistic portrayal of bipolar

CHF has won 3 times in 7 years, so not quite true.

That’s not what I said - I said I’m surprised that people take an issue with it (rather than acknowledge of course everyone’s own story is different and take the material for what it is).

Were they up against a more famous celebrity? I suspect not.

The ES are obsessed with celebrities. Nicole’s name is already engraved on this award.

So going with the 'Most Famous Wins' rule for ES...I'm guessing we can predict Taylor Russell winning in the Emerging Talent category? Mostly I'm just hoping that Jack's nom is a sign that he'll be on track for an Olivier nom alongside Caissie. I'd like to see several of the cast recognized.

I didn't see 'The Effect' so I can't comment on her stage debut. I've seen her give good performances in a few films. But that's the thing. She's already a well-known young talent in her (already pretty extensive) film career - a film career which I assume Taylor will go back to after dipping her toe in theatre.

Whereas Jack is predominantly a theatre actor and N2N feels like his breakout role likely lead to a long musical theatre career. 

Yeah sure, same as you really, some first hand personal experience. But a lot more professional experience so lots of patients I’ve met. There are no norms in mental illness as has been noted but there are certainly symptoms and signs that are more common in each psychiatric diagnosis. Perhaps a better way of expressing myself would be that NTN shows (to me) an atypical presentation. But not an impossible one. I do have a list of the specific ways in which I found her atypical/not that realistic but it’s so personal and mental illness is experienced differently by different people so I don’t think it’s worth listing those. And if others do see themselves/people they know in the character, that’s obviously great.

There were good bits as I think I said in my review. The sheer relentlessness of the illness and the real struggle of going through so many treatments and none of them really working was both sad and sadly realistic. The effect on the family was also very well done.

Should add that the medics in the show and the treatments were SO unrealistic (certainly for the UK), that that may have coloured my feelings on the representation of the illness.

I totally agree though, that to have representation at all, and to have a bipolar character leading a musical is wonderful and must be great to see for most people with first hand experience. But if there were 20 musicals with a lead bipolar character and we started comparing them, IMHO NTN might suddenly look much less realistic. But no doubt it’s a good start.

Back on topic though I think Cassie works fantastically with what she’s got. I just feel best actress in a musical needs an incredible role and an incredible performance. Which I didn’t get here. Though of course I know many people on here did ✌🏻. (And as per my earlier post vast majority of people calling for her to win are very big fans of the show).