Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Next to Normal's epic emotions
San Diego Music Theatre does a stellar job with the most unlikely of opera concepts.
Next to Normal
Next to Normal
- Observatory North Park, 2891 University Avenue, North Park
- $16 - $56
When potential backers first heard a proposal for Next to Normal, they probably replied: “A musical about bipolar disorder? Like, huh?” Either that or, with voice lowered, “riiight.”
Yes, and a rock musical at that. And San Diego Musical Theatre does a stellar job with the Pulitzer Prize-winner.
At first, the Goodman family seems “normal” enough for a sitcom. They’re having “Just Another Day” until Diana drops slices of white bread and starts making sandwiches on the floor.
Diana is bipolar. As if her hypo-manic phase were a virus, the others catch it. When her episodes intensify, her family hits soaring highs and monster lows. Even their attempts to cope — denial, drug-fog, rage — mirror doctors’ struggles to bring Diana back into “balance.”
Unlike “normal” portrayals of illness – Arthur Kopit’s Wing’s, Margaret Edson’s W;t — where the sufferer’s in the center, Brian Yorkey’s book honors all points of view. The five characters, and the doctors, have their say. From afar, none would stand out: young Natalie’s probably just a shy student; husband Dan’s a straight-laced pop; Diana seems chipper enough. Yet they’re in such solitary confinement they can’t reach far enough to reach out.
Next to Nothing
Diana’s diagnosis: bipolar depression with delusional episodes, aka, Bipolar II. Treatments escalate from psycho-pharmaceutical stopgaps to ECT, “electro convulsive therapy” (and visions of Tennessee Williams’ lobotomized sister Rose). The musical makes many sudden turns and twists. One of the most striking comes when placated Diana, her “vital days” now seemingly past, sings “I Miss the Mountains.” Now that she’s “stable” — normal? — she can’t feel a thing.
The characters are an odd mix of sketchy, generic types with clusters of epic emotions. Tom Kitt’s music and the SDMT production give them depth. The songs combine often lilting melodies with jagged intensities.
Diana’s lyric sums them up: “you don’t have to be happy at all to be happy you’re alive” (it comes from my one reservation about the musical: the concluding song, “Finale Light,” is a rousing, “Let the Sunshine In” anthem; but given all the havoc that’s come before, it’s so feel good it makes recovery seem like a foregone conclusion: “finale lite”?).
Bets Malone stars as Diana. You could say Diana’s songs are “bipolar,” they’re so vocally and emotionally extreme. Malone ranges from fierce to fragile with commanding ease. By far some of her best work to date.
Everyone in the cast has the requisite chops, for opera. Lindsay Joan’s Natalie, Robert J. Townsend’s Dan, Eddie Egan’s Gabe (especially when belting “I’m Alive”), Eric Michael Parker’s Henry-the-stoner, and Geno Carr’s Dr. Madden/Mr. Fine do full justice to one tricky, mercurial score.
Credit to director Nick DeGruccio, musical director Don Le Master, and designers Matt Scarpino (set), Matthew Novotny (lighting), Janet Pitcher (costumes) and Bonnie Durban (properties) for making the regional premiere of Next to Normal such a success.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Next to Normal's epic emotions
San Diego Music Theatre does a stellar job with the most unlikely of opera concepts.
Next to Normal's epic emotions
San Diego Music Theatre does a stellar job with the most unlikely of opera concepts.
Next to Normal
Next to Normal
- Observatory North Park, 2891 University Avenue, North Park
- $16 - $56
When potential backers first heard a proposal for Next to Normal, they probably replied: “A musical about bipolar disorder? Like, huh?” Either that or, with voice lowered, “riiight.”
Yes, and a rock musical at that. And San Diego Musical Theatre does a stellar job with the Pulitzer Prize-winner.
At first, the Goodman family seems “normal” enough for a sitcom. They’re having “Just Another Day” until Diana drops slices of white bread and starts making sandwiches on the floor.
Diana is bipolar. As if her hypo-manic phase were a virus, the others catch it. When her episodes intensify, her family hits soaring highs and monster lows. Even their attempts to cope — denial, drug-fog, rage — mirror doctors’ struggles to bring Diana back into “balance.”
Unlike “normal” portrayals of illness – Arthur Kopit’s Wing’s, Margaret Edson’s W;t — where the sufferer’s in the center, Brian Yorkey’s book honors all points of view. The five characters, and the doctors, have their say. From afar, none would stand out: young Natalie’s probably just a shy student; husband Dan’s a straight-laced pop; Diana seems chipper enough. Yet they’re in such solitary confinement they can’t reach far enough to reach out.
Next to Nothing
Diana’s diagnosis: bipolar depression with delusional episodes, aka, Bipolar II. Treatments escalate from psycho-pharmaceutical stopgaps to ECT, “electro convulsive therapy” (and visions of Tennessee Williams’ lobotomized sister Rose). The musical makes many sudden turns and twists. One of the most striking comes when placated Diana, her “vital days” now seemingly past, sings “I Miss the Mountains.” Now that she’s “stable” — normal? — she can’t feel a thing.
The characters are an odd mix of sketchy, generic types with clusters of epic emotions. Tom Kitt’s music and the SDMT production give them depth. The songs combine often lilting melodies with jagged intensities.
Diana’s lyric sums them up: “you don’t have to be happy at all to be happy you’re alive” (it comes from my one reservation about the musical: the concluding song, “Finale Light,” is a rousing, “Let the Sunshine In” anthem; but given all the havoc that’s come before, it’s so feel good it makes recovery seem like a foregone conclusion: “finale lite”?).
Bets Malone stars as Diana. You could say Diana’s songs are “bipolar,” they’re so vocally and emotionally extreme. Malone ranges from fierce to fragile with commanding ease. By far some of her best work to date.
Everyone in the cast has the requisite chops, for opera. Lindsay Joan’s Natalie, Robert J. Townsend’s Dan, Eddie Egan’s Gabe (especially when belting “I’m Alive”), Eric Michael Parker’s Henry-the-stoner, and Geno Carr’s Dr. Madden/Mr. Fine do full justice to one tricky, mercurial score.
Credit to director Nick DeGruccio, musical director Don Le Master, and designers Matt Scarpino (set), Matthew Novotny (lighting), Janet Pitcher (costumes) and Bonnie Durban (properties) for making the regional premiere of Next to Normal such a success.
Comments