I have a confession to make. Like most girls and young women, I tend to find myself enamored by good looking and talented young men. Most of the time it is singers or actors, or something like that. Unlike most other young women that I know, however, I tend to get a little obsessive about finding out everything I can about these young men. Not in a creepy stalker sense, mind, just looking up Wikipedia pages and biography pages on websites, and finding YouTube videos of their performances. And sometimes, this desire to learn about a very attractive celebrity has the added bonus of introducing me to a fascinating story or an equally intriguing character.
This might seem like a bit of a side track from movie and book reviews, but I do have a point, I promise. My latest interest has been the attractive and talented Aaron Tveit. Some of you might be familiar with Mr. Tveit, but for those who aren't a little introduction. Mr. Tveit first came to my attention last winter when he played Enjoras in the film production of Les Miserables. I do not remember if I mentioned in my review of the film, but I was particularly impressed by the entire ABC club in the show; such a collection of good-looking, talented singers. Then, this spring, Aaron Tveit jumped front stage for me and my family. My sisters were visiting Barnes and Noble, looking at music, when they discovered he had been in the Broadway production of Catch Me if You Can, the true story of Frank Abignale Jr., a young man who runs away from home and becomes a world class con artist and forger, stealing more than two million dollars before being caught at the age of twenty one. The music is fabulous, and the story both humorous and heartwarming. Also, about that time, the USA TV show Graceland (starring Aaron Tveit) premiered. Graceland follows the story of a group of federal agents who live and work together in the LA area. After following the show all summer, I was beginning to get a bit interested in Mr. Tveit. Then, just last week, my sister posted a video on facebook of Mr. Tveit singing "I'm Alive" from the show Next to Normal. It was the song that finally drew my full attention to Aaron Tveit. There was a fascinating wickedness in those lyrics, a desire for control and power mixed with an a weird sense of levity. That song got me curious, so I finally decided to do a little YouTube "research" on the show. I found a video of the stage version, started watching, and got hooked. Within the next week, I had found and watched Next to Normal, Catch Me if You Can, a version of Wicked with Tveit as Fiyero, and a version of Hairspray with him as Link Larkin. I kept coming back to Next to Normal, however. While all the others are great shows, Next to Normal was a fascinating combination of story, music, and psychological intrigue. I kept coming back to the soundtrack, to the characters, the story. After mulling it over for a bit, I have decided that I have to get my thoughts down on paper. So, dear readers, my thoughts on Next to Normal.
As always, it is not possible to do a good analysis without giving away any spoilers. If you have not seen the show, but would like to some day, then I would recommend putting off reading this review until after you see it, so you can get the full experience of the show. Otherwise, enjoy reading.
Next to Normal is the story of a typical family; a mom who waits up late for her son to get in, a daughter who strives to be perfect in her school, a father who struggles to keep his family from falling apart, and a son who thinks he is invincible. But within the first song, the audience learns that not everything is as it appears with this seemingly common family. The mother, Diana, suffers a breakdown, and is next seen being proscribed medication at a doctor's office. The audience learns that Diana has a sixteen year history of depression and mental instability. Her daughter struggles to be perfect in everything to maintain control of her life in the face of her mother's insanity, and her husband wonders if she is the crazy member of the family, or maybe if he is the one who is insane in his attempt to keep life under control. When Diana refuses to take her medication, the underlying issue is revealed. Her son (played by Aaron Tveit) is not actually alive; he died as a baby, and the young man who has been appearing to Diana is really just a delusion in her troubled mind. Diana's obsession with her son has caused her to be neglectful of her daughter and hurtful to her husband who cannot understand her failure to accept the fact that their son is dead. As Diana struggles to overcome her delusions and depression, her daughter struggles with her desire for loving attention from her parents and begins (at the urging of her sweet, but stoner boyfriend) doing drugs, chasing the high to forget the way her life has spiraled out of control. Meanwhile, Diana's husband must confront the fact that he has never come to closure with his son's death because he blames that son his wife's madness.
There are four main characters in the show; Diana, her husband, Natalie the daughter, Gabriel; the dead son, and two minor characters; Henry (Natalie's stoner boyfriend), and Doctor Madden. Each of these characters is fascinating as they each demonstrate ways of coping with loss and pain, as well as demonstrating both healthy and unhealthy relational dynamics. I will be looking at each character individually and analyzing their place in the story, and the motivations behind their actions.
Doctor Madden
Perhaps the simplest character to understand is Doctor
Madden. He is, arguably, the only
sane character in the show.
Unfortunately, sanity is not what provides answers for the rest of the
characters. Doctor Madden is
representative of the “answers” in science—medication, psychotherapy,
electroshock convulsive treatment.
Oftentimes, these answers
become absurd in the face of reality, as demonstrated in the song “Who’s
Crazy/ My Psychopharmacologist and I,” in which the doctor’s instructions for
how the various medications can be taken begins to resemble some convoluted
mathematical problem or magic spell, “split the trapezoidal green ones into
thirds with a tiny chisel…” and whimsically describing both medications and
side effects to the tune of “Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music.
Further complicating the issue is the fact that the audience only sees
Doctor Madden from the perspective of Diana, who is not the most trustworthy
narrator. Often, her perceptions
of the people around her are skewed by her delusions; when her husband mentions
that Dr. Madden is a rock-star in his field, Diana’s interactions with him take
on a violent, sexual nature, most notably portrayed in the song, “Feeling
Electric,” an ECT induced dream sequence in which the doctor is simultaneously portrayed
as neurosurgeon and rock-god obsessed with the power he holds over the minds of
the “patients” he “helps.” In the
end, however, Diana realizes that all the treatment she has received has done
nothing to help her cope with the underlying issue, her depression and guilt at
the death of her son, and the growing distance between her and her
husband. She refuses more
treatment, insisting that the on and off again relationship she has had with
“doctors and their medications” is not going to help her heal, because the
wounds she has suffered are not physical, but are actually damage to her soul.
Henry
Henry and Natalie provide a foil for the relationship of Dan
and Diana. While Natalie is
terrified of turning into her insane mother, Henry can be seen as an image of
Dan when he was younger, when he first fell in love with Diana. Henry has been interested in Natalie
for years, and has only just mustered the nerve to introduce himself and
explain his interest. Henry
initially deals with loss in an escapist fashion; he smokes marijuana to help
himself cope with a world he perceives as seriously screwed up. His initial interest in Natalie also
seems escapist, “even when everything else turns to dirt, we’ll be the one
thing in this world that won’t hurt!”
Henry’s wild character is only present briefly, and as Natalie begins to
spiral downward into self-destructive drug use, Henry becomes the catalyst that
helps her keep contact with control and reality. Eventually, Henry becomes the support that is keeping Natalie
together, much as Dan supported Diana through her madness. If their relationship continues in this
path, both parties will end up unhappy, as shown in Dan and Diana’s marriage,
in which neither party really knows the person to whom they are married.
Natalie
Natalie is a fascinating character, in that she represents
both the triumphs and the tragedy of both her parents. She initially appears to be more like
her father, struggling to hold on to a sense of control in her life. This is expressed in her uptight
response to Henry’s romantic advances, her obsession with being perfect in her
musical performance, and her desire to escape from her insane family by getting
into a good college and moving out.
The audience begins to see glimpses of her mother in Natalie as the
façade of control begins to slip in the face of Diana’s illness. Natalie raids her mother’s medicine
cabinet, popping pills to cope with the fact that everything is out of control. The similarity between mother and
daughter is especially highlighted in the song “Wish I was Here,” a
hallucination caused by Diana’s ECT and Natalie’s drug use respectively. Both of them have separated themselves
from their family and their problems, and are experiencing a sensation of being
out of control and not entirely themselves. Natalie’s similarity to Dan, however, ultimately emerges as,
with Henry’s help, she is able to confront her fears about herself and her
mother and emerge as the “sane” member of the family to help her dad confront
his own depression and the fallout from her mother leaving the family. What makes Natalie truly her own unique
character, however, is her desire to be accepted, to be noticed by her family. In one of the alternate songs for the
show, “Growing Up Unstable” Natalie complains that her wild teenage years are
overshadowed by the knowledge that however crazy she acts or out of control she
seems to be, her mother will always be crazier, the one who receives the
attention of the doctors, and of her father. This desire to be noticed is most obvious in the song
“Superboy and the Invisible Girl” in which she confronts her mother about the
fact that Diana treats her dead son with more love and attention than she gives
to her living daughter. Natalie
eventually ends up overcoming her need for affection through a series of
conversations with the influential people in her life; first her mother in the
song “Next to Normal,” in which Diana is finally able to be honest with her
daughter about the death of her son, then in a conversation with Henry at the
school dance, in which she is able to face her fear of ending up like her
mother, and claim her life as her own.
The final moment of character realization comes when she arrives home and
is able to comfort her father about Diana’s decision to leave. This final song, “We Need Some Light”
establishes her as an adult, self realized character who is capable of serving
those in need around her without feeling her own neglect.
Diana
Diana is portrayed as the main character of the story. It is her inability to deal with her
grief over her son and her psychological troubles that drives the story
forward. While Next to Normal is often portrayed as an insight into one woman’s
psychological struggle, however, there is much more to Diana’s “madness” then
there might initially appear.
The first, and most commonly accepted interpretation of
Diana’s character is that she is manic depressive, with delusional
episodes. In this interpretation,
there is very little that Diana could have done differently that would have
changed the situations of the play… it is not her fault that the chemistry of
her brain is whacked or that she cannot make sense of reality because her
perception of reality is inherently skewed. In this case, Next to Normal is the story of a family learning to cope with the unavoidable
realities of madness. Dan is right
in his desire to support Diana in her struggle, the doctors are right in their
insistence on use of medication, therapy, and ECT, and Natalie, while
unfortunately situated has no right to expect more of her family who are doing
the best they can under the circumstances. Gabe, the dead son, is only an expression of Diana’s psyche
(more on that later), and as such, can be seen as a visual symbol of the
illness that is coming between Diana and her family.
There are a couple of difficulties in simply reducing
Diana’s troubles to mere insanity.
The most important is revealed in the song, “The Break” in which Diana
questions, “What happens if the cut, the burn the break, was never in my brain,
or in my blood, but in my soul?”
Her decision immediately after this query to refuse further medical
treatment indicates that Diana herself believes that her trouble is more than a
physio/psychological one. Some
part of her has been fundamentally broken by her son’s death, and no amount of
physical treatment is going to help her come to grips with reality. It is only when she can separate
herself from the mechanisms that have helped her “cope” that she will truly be
able to confront and understand her problem. It is only after leaving behind treatment, her home, and her
family that Diana is able to separate herself from the image of her son that
she has carried, and establish herself as an independent and complete
character. Unlike Natalie, who had
to learn to depend on other and support others to deal with her fear, Diana
must acknowledge the problem is in herself, and look to herself to learn to
deal with her grief instead of always relying on others to support her.
There is a third and final way to interpret Diana’s
character; that is that she is not really insane, or unable to cope with her
grief, but that Diana is actually seeing a reality of which no one else in the
play is aware. This interpretation
is hinted at by the fact that Gabriel is able to interact with other characters
besides Diana, (more on this later), and also by the fact that it is only when
Diana rejects the assertions that she is crazy from her husband and doctors,
that she is able to, presumably, deal with her visions of Gabe and move on to a
hopeful future. This
interpretation has a couple interesting implications. If Diana is sane then the audience must question the sanity
of the other character; is Dan holding his family together, or is he tearing it
apart by his denial of his son’s existence? Are the doctors really helping by prescribing medications
for Diana, or are they simply repressing her instinctual knowledge of the
truth? One of the central
questions of the play is who is really crazy; everyone assumes that Diana is
the character who has broken from reality, but perhaps it is everyone else who
has no concept of reality. The
absurdity of the cocktail of medications the doctors prescribe for Diana, Dan’s
paranoid refusal to mention his dead son’s name, Natalie’s breakdown at her
recital and subsequent drug use all indicate that perhaps the line between
sanity and madness is not as clear as is generally assumed.
Dan
While it is common to assume that Next to Normal is the story of Diana learning to cope with her
psychological problems, I believe that Dan Goodman is the more compelling
character who is the inadvertent driving force of the story. Repeated viewings of video of the show,
and multiple times listening to the soundtrack have led me to believe that Next
to Normal is not the story of Diana
learning to deal with her madness, but of Dan Goodman learning to deal with
his. There are several factors
that have led me to this belief.
First, is the overarching question of madness and sanity. The song “Who’s Crazy” shows Dan
struggling with his own doubts about himself, “Who’s crazy, the husband or
wife? Who’s crazy, to live their whole life believing things aren’t as bizarre
as they are?” Dan Goodman is
uncertain, living in an insane world, if Diana is the crazy one for her
depression and “delusions,” or if he is mad for believing that it is possible
to have a normal family life. The
question is further elaborated in the song “I’ve Been” where Dan is forced to
confront the fact that he is unable to function on his own, and without Diana
he has no idea who he is. The fact
that he is always there for Diana, constantly catching her when she falls,
leads me to wonder if there is a co-dependency issue here; Dan needs Diana to
need him; he has no identity separate from her inability to function without
him. In this case, he is the
cause, or at least the defining factor of her madness. His refusal to acknowledge the horror
of Gabe’s death or even the continuing impact of his presence on the family keeps
Diana from mourning her son and coming to terms with his death, leading to her
continued depression. Furthermore,
Dan’s obsession with protecting an caring for Diana have led him to be
neglectful of his daughter, constantly pushing her needs aside to provide for
those of her mother. It is only
when he is forced to let go of Diana, when she finally leaves him, that Dan is
able to confront his grief for Gabriel and to acknowledge the presence of his
daughter. His ultimate decision to
seek help for his own issues opens the door for a happy ending for his family
as he confronts the damage he has done to the people he loves and seeks a
remedy.
Gabriel
Those of you who have read my blog on Seussical the
Musical, know that I have a fascination
with characters that may or may not exist. The mystery that accompanies ghosts and the impact they have
on the characters around them is intriguing to me. Gabriel Goodman is one of these of characters. When looking at Gabe, I have broken
down analysis of his character based on his interactions with the various
members of his family, and how he interacts with the show and the audience.
The most obvious explanation of Gabe is as an extension of
Diana’s psyche. He is simply an
expression of her traumatic past and her break with reality. He is nothing more than a
schitzophrenic delusion produced by sixteen years of depression and unresolved
familial tension. the line, “if
you won’t grieve me, you can’t leave me behind,” in the song “I’m Alive”
indicates that Diana’s inability to acknowledge her son’s death is what causes
his continued presence in her life.
He can also be seen as an embodiment of her depression in the song
“There’s a World,” in which he offers her an escape from the pain of life
through suicide. Gabe’s defense of
Diana in the songs “You Don’t Know/ I am the One” also indicates that he is an
extension of her psyche, an embodiment of the man she wishes she her husband
could be, which is also indicated in the songs “Superboy and the Invisible
Girl,” and “I Dreamed a Dance,” where Gabe is compared to a lover who promises
to always be true. Diana’s
struggles with her feelings for her husband in her assertion that he is boring,
the disintegration of their sex life in the course of the first four songs of
the show; a parting that is consummated in the loss of her memories because of
the ECT and her lack of emotion for the man she married. It is only when Diana begins to
remember again her love for her husband and their history together that Gabe is
again able to manifest as a physical presence; when listening to a music box
that was Dan’s first gift to her, Diana is able to head Gabe humming in the
background. In this case, Gabe
seems to be an expression of Diana’s frustration with her husband, her
depression, and her inability to grieve for her dead son.
Gabriel Goodman cannot, however, be reduced to merely an
expression of Diana’s depression and madness because he is also an active
presence in the lives of several of the other characters. Most notable is his interaction with
Dan Goodman. While a first viewing
of the show leads the viewer to think that Gabe is most closely associated with
Diana, a closer look reveals that he is actually more interested in Dan than he
is in Diana. In the opening of the
play, before the audience knows that Gabe is not really there, there is a
conversation between him and Diana.
When Dan calls down the stairs to see what is going on, Gabe asks, “Why
does he hate me?” expressing a discontent in his relationship with his father. In the song “I am the One” we see
further evidence of Gabe’s desire for a relationship with his father, “Hey dad,
its me. Why can’t you see?” and
later in response to Dan’s “Tell me what to do?” the reply, “Look at me!” Dan’s refusal to acknowledge Gabe’s
existence creates a palpable presence that cannot be dispelled, as Gabe states
in the reprise of “I’m Alive,” “Until you name me, you can’t tame me. This is one more game that I can play
so well.” When Dan is finally
able, in his broken, lonely state, to acknowledge Gabe, and state his name,
Gabe smiles, acknowledges the greeting, and then leaves the stage, fading away
into the background until the final number in which the light of a new life is
celebrated. It is only when Dan
recognizes his son that Gabe is able to leave the stage peacefully, not with
the malicious intent that is evidenced at other times.
Gabe also has some minimal interactions with Natalie. There are two very specific moments in
which Gabe is present with Natalie.
First, during the song “Superboy and the Invisible Girl” he sings the
harmony with her as she confronts Diana about her inability to let go of Gabe
and her neglect of Natalie. His
back up on the refrain, “She’s not here” emphasizes Natalie’s distress that her
mother cares more for a dead child than for the daughter who is right in front
of her. Much more malevolent is
his presence in the song “I’m Alive” when Natalie argues with her father about
how much more attention he gives to Diana. At the end of the argument, Gabe places Diana’s bag of
medications before Natalie who immediately begins sorting through the
medications and taking the pills.
He serves as an extension of Natalie’s desire to escape from her world
and to get her parent’s attention.
His hold over Natalie is not as strong, however, as his hold over his
parents, and it is easily broken when Diana finally is able to tell Natalie the
full story of her brother’s death and to recognize the fact that she should
have been more present in Natalie’s life.
Natalie’s link to Gabe is through her hatred of his intrusive presence
in the lives of her parents, and when her parents are able to acknowledge her,
that link is broken.
Because of his ability to interact with multiple characters,
I believe that Gabe Goodman is more than just a delusion, that he actually is a
legitimate presence and character not simply an extension of one of the other
character’s psyches. The question
becomes then, is he a malevolent or a benign spirit. My initial impression of the character was that Gabe was a
wicked or evil presence. There was
an almost demonic quality to his interaction with the other characters; his
temptation of Natalie so that she begins to take drugs, the insidious temptation
of his mother to stop taking her medications or to commit suicide as seen in
the song, “There’s a World,” and his self descriptions in “I’m Alive,” “I am
flame and I am fire, I am destruction, decay, and desire… I’ll show you I own
you.” When describing the
character, Aaron Tveit said, “But also the nature of how I was so physically
everywhere on that set, I had created all these things where, in my head, Gabe
was basically the puppet master making all these fucked-up things happen to
this family,” implying that Gabe is a negative impact of his family, and that
it is his fault that everything is screwed up for his family.
While there is a malevolent aspect to Gabe, he does not seem
to be an entirely evil influence.
His desire to have a relationship with his father seems to be mostly
benign; a son wanting his father to recognize him as a person of value. Furthermore, his interactions with
Natalie, while negative, also are healing, as Natalie is forced to recognize
her own lack of control, and eventually, to let go of her obsessive fear. In his interactions with Diana, he acts
as a confidant, the person Diana can speak to without fear of rejection. In the tradition of the Sixth Sense and Ghost,
Gabe seems to be a lost spirit in need of some form of closure before he can
move on. That closure is his
mother’s recognition of his
death, his father’s acknowledgement of his life, and his sister’s understanding
of his history. When each of these
requirements is met, Gabe is able to move on, to a world where, “and when the
night has finally gone, and when we see the new day dawn, and wonder how we
wandered for so long, so blind. The wasted world we thought we knew, the light
will make it look brand new, so let it shine.” Gabe is the one character fully in the light because he has
died and is able to move on to a world beyond the clouds and rain of the pain
of life.
Well, that is all I have for today. I may do a follow up blog on the use of
imagery in Next to Normal, particularly
the emphasis on images of light, the seasonal imagery, and the motif of rain
and cloudy days that runs through the show. For now, however, enjoy what I have written. I highly recommend finding a way to see
the show, it is a fascinating production, and I also recommend buying the
soundtrack or at least listening to it on Spotify or some other music
application. The experience is
unforgettable and the characters are both delightful and insightful. The show reminds us that even though
the world is screwed up, sometimes the insanity of life is what makes it
beautiful. In the words of
Natalie, “I don’t need a life that is normal, that is way to far away, but
something next to normal would be ok. Yes something next to normal, that is
what I’d like to try, just close enough to normal to get by.”
Well, back to reality.
Source Quote: Aaron Tveit on Gabe
Aaron Tveit Tell-All! Nine Quotes from the Graceland Star on Missing Broadway, Ditching Facebook &
His Adoring Fans By Lindsay Champion August 23, 2013 - 11:00AM
“I had so many silent moments in that show, so many moments
where I was just sending energy to Alice [Ripley] across the stage. But also
the nature of how I was so physically everywhere on that set, I had created all
these things where, in my head, Gabe was basically the puppet master making all
these fucked-up things happen to this family.”
