#Next to normal

[procrastinationaccount]

[paper-bag-arts]

i think abt n2n an average amount

[veersspelledvers]

i just KNOW dan goodman battled against the urge to search obituaries after diana left because he had no way of knowing if she was okay or not and his mind would go to the worst outcome, even with dr madden’s reassurances

he sits not knowing which would be worse. finding her name listed or being left in the dark, again

[thesongofpurplesummer]

“I’m gay” “I’m straight” “I’m trans”

Ok and I’m alive??? I’m alive??? I am so alive??? And I feed on the fear that’s behind your eyes??? And I need you to need me it’s no surprise??? I’m alive??? So alive??? I’m alive???

[19emilyw]

one of my favorite games to play while watching the proshot and other recordings is the “find jacks mic” game bc istg you see the mic pack on his back but his hair is just completely covering it every time (unless it’s somewhere else and im just blind lol). it helps me get through the pain of the show itself. 😣

[akkpipitphattana]

one of the details in next to normal that genuinely makes me insane is the fact that diana isn’t just imagining a perfect son when she imagines gabe. yes, he’s her “superboy,” but in the very first part of the musical, when she’s “waiting up for him,” she imagines him coming home late like any other teenager. she complains and calls him a loser and a brat and a little shit. she’s not imagining a reality that never would have happened where gabe grew up to be the perfect child that never causes her any problems or stress. she imagines him as a real teenager, someone that could have been. diana doesn’t want the perfect son. she wants her son.

[curiouslymyown]

Jack Wolfe as Éponine Thénardier when

[kait-bait8]

YES and when, in the west end pro shot, he gently touches Natalie’s hand for just a moment, that’s bc Natalie actually needed to know he was real so that she could fully begin to understand the very real effect he had on her parents and on her own life. She doesn’t need to know him or interact with him, but she needed to know he was real.

Gabriel in Next to Normal is not a parasitic demon! He is not deliberately malicious for everyone! He is grief manifest!! He is present in each character’s life, and how he interacts with them is representative of how they handle their grief, but he is not a single sentient character. When he latches onto Dan at the end, that’s not Dan ~becoming like Diana~ because ~a parasite needs a host~ or whatever, because acknowledging Gabe’s presence is something he NEEDED to do! Diana was unable to let go of her grief for years, and it destroyed her relationships and mental health. She had to let go of Gabe. Dan, however, repressed his grief, and let it fester for years. Finally acknowledging his son’s existence is the first step towards healing for Dan, the same way leaving was for Diana

[awihog]

ignoring the fact that Gabe isn't real the lines "it only hurts when I'm here/it only hurts when he goes" hit HARD for a parent and child in a generally unsustainable living environment. she needs him there but knows that keeping him will kill him. he needs to leave but knows that leaving will kill her. so they keep doing the dance, the back and forth. the burden of having to be responsible for your own mother, the burden of knowing that you aren't stable enough to survive without your child. the endless cycle, back and forth, never winning, never losing, but never happy

[shit-people-probably-didnt-say]

‘Wont anything be better than before? Better than before’

Gabe: *In orchestra pit jail* Well fuck me I suppose??

[cinderellaenjoyer]

Something something Morgan Dudley playing characters who didn't have hope before but then found it. Something something Jack Wolfe going from playing a character who wasn't let go of to a character who is unable to let go. Something something Ella loosing Bridget but Eurydice being lost by Orpheus. Something something Gabe describing himself as 'death defied' and Orpheus trying to literally defy death.

[radicalcrashout]

''take your meds'' said the people in the fridge

[sleepboysummer]

"babying" a character is almost always referred to as a bad thing (as it usually represents infantilization as a result of lacking media literacy) but "babying" gabe goodman was the best staging decision ever made

[fiv3ology]

I’m so normal about them. And so normal about the post I saw comparing their dynamics if Gabe had lived. So normal.

[snarttt]

next to normal x zelda, yes i am evil and twisted

[mima-van-eck]

Every time I see this shirt I just think of n2n 😭