"Next to Normal"

[OldPsychDoc]

Has anyone seen this? I had never heard of it, but we have a subscription to a local series for touring Broadway shows. So apparently, it won a Tony in 2009, AND it's about mental illness, bipolar disorder, and psychiatry. Enjoyable, engaging, great singing. Overly dramatized ECT, over-emphasized therapy for an overblown link between trauma and bipolar psychosis--but other than that... I kind of liked the psychiatrist--by the end of the show I think he showed that he saw the patient as a whole person somehow. The show's set up so you identify with the family, I think--but the husband and daughter are engaging characters.

Just wondered if anyone else had seen it, and what your reactions were.

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[kugel]

I'm not a big fan of musicals, but it was fun.
I liked that it looked at the situation from each person's point of view. Not one vs another, but each POV is sort of equally valid.

You can't go wrong with lines like, "My favorite color is Valium."

 

[dl2dp2]

I went to see it and I had a different view. I thought the music wasn't terribly good, being very jingo-y and not particularly creative. And while the portrayal of psychiatrists and bipolar disorder is mostly accurate, the writing seemed thin. I got subsidized tickets though, so it was kind of worth it. I wouldn't pay the full price to see it.

 

[nitemagi]

I saw it on broadway and on tour. It won the pulitzer. Better for increasing awareness than for accuracy. Overall I thought it created a fairly balanced view, not exactly pro-meds, but reflected our current limitations in the field. "Is medicine magic, you know that it's not, we know it's not perfect but it's but we've got."

I wasn't blown away the first time I saw it. I found it to be an acquired taste -- I bought the soundtrack and went through the lyrics (they were often not intelligible in the musical itself). It has a lot more substance than I'd appreciated.

 

[swanny]

I went with a group of our residents and faculty last month when it was in town. We had a great time, and I think the show prompted some good discussion and thought. As a child psychiatrist, I was particularly appreciative of the way it depicted the teen aged daughter-her fears, shame, anger and behavioral reactions were quite compelling. I thought the view of psychiatrists and psychiatry was very interesting and seemed quite realistic-as a layperson might see us. Psychiatry didn't fare too well, I'm afraid. I was initially unsatisfied with the apparent trauma/bipolar connection, although I later decided she could have both, and that the psychiatrists struggled (as we really do) with the intersection of tragic human life events and mental illness. The lyrics are loaded with good stuff-we had a chance to review the lyrics ahead of time, which was helpful.

Some selected lyrics:
My Psychopharmacolgist and I

My psychopharmacologist and I.
It's like an odd romance:
Intense and very intimate, we do our dance.

My psychopharmacologist and I.
Call it a lover's game.
He knows my deepest secrets.
I know his... name!

The Break

They tried a million meds and
They strapped me to their beds and
They shrugged and told me 'that's the way it goes.'
But finally you hit it!
I asked you just what did it.
You shrugged and said that no one really knows.

What happens if the medicine wasn't really in control?
What happens if the cut, the burn, the break was never in my brain,
or in my blood, but in my soul?

I would encourage you to go!

 

[dianamd]

Has anyone seen this? I had never heard of it, but we have a subscription to a local series for touring Broadway shows. So apparently, it won a Tony in 2009, AND it's about mental illness, bipolar disorder, and psychiatry. Enjoyable, engaging, great singing. Overly dramatized ECT, over-emphasized therapy for an overblown link between trauma and bipolar psychosis--but other than that... I kind of liked the psychiatrist--by the end of the show I think he showed that he saw the patient as a whole person somehow. The show's set up so you identify with the family, I think--but the husband and daughter are engaging characters.

Just wondered if anyone else had seen it, and what your reactions were.

Saw it on broadway. Really enjoyed it, although I tend to see too many shows/movies that incorporate psychiatry (how can you avoid it?), I'm glad I saw Next to Normal before it closed. A few fantastic scenes, some slower parts, but overall I'm glad I went. I loved the part about making PB&J's! Also, for what it's worth, the crowd my night went wild as soon as it ended.

 

[cara susanna]

I really like the musical, but I don't like how it portrayed mental health treatment. It stuck to every worst possible scenario. The fact that the psychiatrist jumped right to ECT after Diana's meds apparently seemed to stop working bothered me. Anyone with training knows that med compliance with bipolar is a huge issue. And then the memory loss from ECT, another worst possible scenario. The show was originally extremely critical of psychiatry in its original out-of-town tryouts but got slammed for it, so they made modifications but could only change so much without ditching the plot's basic elements. I think that shows.

I did feel the portrayal of the emotional experience of the disorder was wonderful, though.

Btw, for musical theatre it's called a cast recording, not soundtrack. Sorry, pet peeve of mine