Next to Normal - Donmar / Wyndham’s

Jake Reynolds on as Gabe tonight!

Saw on X that there has been a Donmar Under 35s email sent out with some discounted tickets for the show. I'm signed up for this but haven't got the email. Wondered if anyone had received it and could point me in the right direction? Would be very appreciative!

Any word if gabe or other understudies on tonight? Need enough time to plan to get to theatre!

You’re correct !

A much better production than the original Broadway production in every aspect! Absolutely loved it.

If it's after the show, they usually let anyone who doesn't want to stay leave, then the rest of the audience move towards the front. Meanwhile, the cast get changed etc and join the Q&A when they're ready.

I caught the show 7 times while I was in London, and it was worth every visit. Full cast 5x, and caught Ben's debut as Dan and Jake's debut as Gabe. Would have loved to see Lizzy/Carolyn to catch everyone. Caissie is un-f*cking-real. I will never get her out of my head. I may post more thoughts later. I desperately hope that this transfers to Broadway and we get a cast album in the interim.

It would be a complete shame if this cast doesn’t get an official recording. I’m hoping every single day to see an announcement.

My first time seeing the show (or hearing anything beyond You Don't Know) this afternoon. Brilliant.

Before this, the last two musicals I'd seen in London had been Kiss Me, Kate and Hello, Dolly!, both enjoyable in their own lanes but something like this really reminds you how much depth of narrative you can actually fit into musical theatre. There is a time and place for toe tappers and jazz hands, but Next To Normal is just something else. Tumultuous, powerful, would work just as well as a straight play which is testament to the strength of story. Now I'm chuckling to myself trying to imagine how inane Hello, Dolly! would be without its music!

I saw this again earlier in the week with a Rush ticket. Second release, as I didn't like the first release offer tickets, but I got central Stalls, right in the Premium seat section. All levels were open.

Still fantastic, but I didn't have quite as strong an emotional connection as when I was sat at the very front. Good audience though.

Saw it this afternoon.

Often thrilling. Unflinching, harrowing, very powerful - but it's a flawless production of very, very ambitious material that doesn't quite achieve what it sets out to do, largely because the doggedly-rhymed, in places thuddingly bathetic lyrics are nowhere near as good as the music and nowhere near sophisticated enough to convey what they need to convey in terms of Diana's mental disintegration and the brutal impact coping with her illness has on her family. Rhyme - or at least, the kind of rigid rhyme schemes we hear all the way through this show - implies control, and you *just can't* dramatise this kind of shattered mental state in rigid rhyming couplets. The plot is driven by Diana's inability to maintain control, so too often, in the show's biggest moments, content fights form. Too many times, in a moment of high drama, a crassly obvious rhyme torpedoes the moment.

On the other hand -

Caissie Levy is superb, and Jamie Parker is absolutely extraordinary. The performances and direction and designs are all absolutely spot-on. It's a shattering piece of theatre - but not quite as shattering as it could be, because the lyrics keep dragging it down. It's a testament to how good everything else is that they don't completely kill it. This is an absolutely sensational production - but it's a six-star production of three-star material.