Musical Sunday!
Sep. 26th, 2010 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalYay, time for part 2 of Next to Normal! (I swear, I am identifying with this show more and more every day.) If you missed last week's post, you should probably read that first. As I mentioned, this one will have to give away a big plot twist, but it's sort of impossible to talk about how AWESOME this show is without spoiling it.
So, you may have noticed that when I described the Goodman family, I mentioned four characters: Diana, Dan, Natalie, and Gabriel. But I only really talked about three of them. There's a reason for that. I couldn't really talk about Gabe without giving it away. See, Gabe is dead.
Diana and Dan's son Gabriel died when he was a baby. But Diana never got over his death, and so he's walking, talking, singing, and dancing as an 18-year-old boy in her delusions. She's the only one who can see him, but she is convinced he's real. Go back and listen to the opening number from my previous post and pay attention to Gabe's part:
For just another day
For another stolen hour
When the world will feel my power and obey
It's just another day
Feeling like I'll live forever
This is before we realize that he's dead, but when you go back and listen, knowing the his true role in the show... AAAHHHH SO COOL!
You Don't Know/I Am the One is absolutely one of my favorite songs in the show, and I love how Diana is so torn between Dan, who's difficult but real, and Gabe, who's comforting but imaginary. Also, Gabe is totally creepy in this song, the way he interacts with Diana is almost sexual, and that taunting leer he gives his father when he wins. OMG.
The clever thing about Gabe is that his personality changes depending on who he's with - with Diana, he is gentle and caring, the only one who understands her. With Dan, he is defensive and desperate for acknowledgment. With Natalie, he is taunting, jealous of her that she gets to live a real life while he is reduced to this ghostly half-life.
But he's not just the spirit of their lost child, he's also the manifestation of Diana's illness - he's the one who convinces her to flush her pills away, and he's the one who talks her into committing suicide. He doesn't want Diana to get better because that means he will disappear, and he refuses to be ignored.
(I have to add, I am super-impressed at Aaron Tveit's ability to swing around that pole on the edge of the platform and not fall off. Jesus. Sidebar: Aaron Tveit is my new Broadway crush.)
We get a vivid picture of what mental illness is like for Diana, but we also see the effect it has on her family. It is devastating to them to see Diana acting as though Gabe's alive. For Dan, it's rubbing salt in the wound of their tragic loss; for Natalie, it's a brutal reminder that she will always be second-best, the replacement child. Natalie is also terrified of becoming just like her mother, and she pushes away her almost-boyfriend, Henry, because she doesn't want to end up putting him through what Diana has put them through. This song, when Dan and Natalie are trying to help Diana recover her memories after the ECT, leads Diana to sum things up rather succinctly: "Your life has kind of sucked, I think." (To which Natalie responds sarcastically, "You've got it, yay, hurray." Did I mention I love Natalie?)
And that ties into the OTHER awesome thing about this show - the second act is about exploring memory and what it means and how it shapes us. Diana wonders who she is without her memories, unable to put the pieces together, and Dan sees this as an opportunity to forget all the bad things and create memories that were better than the reality. Meanwhile, Gabe, who lives only in their memory, refuses to disappear and continues to reassert himself, forcing Diana and Dan to realize that they'll never be rid of him until they face their grief and put his death behind them. Diana realizes that she needs to leave, to work things out on her own. And Dan? Well...
GAH! I love it when Dan, finally coming to terms with his own issues, sees and calls him by name for the first time in the show: "Gabe. Gabriel." And he responds gently, almost apologetic: "Hi, Dad." *heart breaks* OMG I love this show so much, go see it. Or come to DC and see it with me next year. :)
So, you may have noticed that when I described the Goodman family, I mentioned four characters: Diana, Dan, Natalie, and Gabriel. But I only really talked about three of them. There's a reason for that. I couldn't really talk about Gabe without giving it away. See, Gabe is dead.
Diana and Dan's son Gabriel died when he was a baby. But Diana never got over his death, and so he's walking, talking, singing, and dancing as an 18-year-old boy in her delusions. She's the only one who can see him, but she is convinced he's real. Go back and listen to the opening number from my previous post and pay attention to Gabe's part:
For just another day
For another stolen hour
When the world will feel my power and obey
It's just another day
Feeling like I'll live forever
This is before we realize that he's dead, but when you go back and listen, knowing the his true role in the show... AAAHHHH SO COOL!
You Don't Know/I Am the One is absolutely one of my favorite songs in the show, and I love how Diana is so torn between Dan, who's difficult but real, and Gabe, who's comforting but imaginary. Also, Gabe is totally creepy in this song, the way he interacts with Diana is almost sexual, and that taunting leer he gives his father when he wins. OMG.
The clever thing about Gabe is that his personality changes depending on who he's with - with Diana, he is gentle and caring, the only one who understands her. With Dan, he is defensive and desperate for acknowledgment. With Natalie, he is taunting, jealous of her that she gets to live a real life while he is reduced to this ghostly half-life.
But he's not just the spirit of their lost child, he's also the manifestation of Diana's illness - he's the one who convinces her to flush her pills away, and he's the one who talks her into committing suicide. He doesn't want Diana to get better because that means he will disappear, and he refuses to be ignored.
(I have to add, I am super-impressed at Aaron Tveit's ability to swing around that pole on the edge of the platform and not fall off. Jesus. Sidebar: Aaron Tveit is my new Broadway crush.)
We get a vivid picture of what mental illness is like for Diana, but we also see the effect it has on her family. It is devastating to them to see Diana acting as though Gabe's alive. For Dan, it's rubbing salt in the wound of their tragic loss; for Natalie, it's a brutal reminder that she will always be second-best, the replacement child. Natalie is also terrified of becoming just like her mother, and she pushes away her almost-boyfriend, Henry, because she doesn't want to end up putting him through what Diana has put them through. This song, when Dan and Natalie are trying to help Diana recover her memories after the ECT, leads Diana to sum things up rather succinctly: "Your life has kind of sucked, I think." (To which Natalie responds sarcastically, "You've got it, yay, hurray." Did I mention I love Natalie?)
And that ties into the OTHER awesome thing about this show - the second act is about exploring memory and what it means and how it shapes us. Diana wonders who she is without her memories, unable to put the pieces together, and Dan sees this as an opportunity to forget all the bad things and create memories that were better than the reality. Meanwhile, Gabe, who lives only in their memory, refuses to disappear and continues to reassert himself, forcing Diana and Dan to realize that they'll never be rid of him until they face their grief and put his death behind them. Diana realizes that she needs to leave, to work things out on her own. And Dan? Well...
GAH! I love it when Dan, finally coming to terms with his own issues, sees and calls him by name for the first time in the show: "Gabe. Gabriel." And he responds gently, almost apologetic: "Hi, Dad." *heart breaks* OMG I love this show so much, go see it. Or come to DC and see it with me next year. :)
