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Broadway News

 We're getting two Caissie Levy projects: "Ragtime" and a PBS taping of "Next to Normal."


I'm on the record with my "Ragtime" reservations: The show is one big, generic ballad after another, and the writers haven't taken time to think deeply about the various traumatic events they faux-describe--in a breathless way--over three long, long hours. It's also disturbing to see a white family "rescuing" a Black orphaned kid; this ending isn't given the weight that it requires. The most recent "Ragtime" cast actually highlighted this problem in a talkback (and yet we're all awaiting another remounting of the show).

One thing I'll say for "Ragtime." Lynn Ahrens always puts the stress on the right syllable. "We can NE-ver go BACK to before." Proper scansion is a lost art. Ahrens has respect for syllables.

You can't make the same claim about "Next to Normal." Diana describes "the feeling that you're falling but you never hit THE ground." Who on Earth would emphasize "the" (of the many syllables available)?

No one could accuse "Next to Normal" of aiming for tastefulness. In the batshit crazy plot, a young woman loses her toddler son. She enters a world of denial, where the son not only survives but ages in a realistic way; he becomes a weirdly sexy teenager. Diana stumbles into a kind of love triangle: There's her dutiful husband, but there's also the strange sexy teen ghost-son. To get away from the son, Diana tries drugs, then suicide, then ECT, but nothing works. In a sort of hazy climax, she forces herself to relive the moment of dying; this confrontation with reality is meant to save Diana, who seems to be swearing off psychopharmacological aid. A permanent renunciation!

I think it's best not to look too closely at the actual story "Next to Normal" tries to tell. Just enjoy Caissie Levy.

I'm most excited for Levy's entrance:

They're the perfect, loving family--so adoring.
And I love them every day of every week.
So my son's a little shit; my husband's boring.
And my daughter, though a genius, is a freak.
Still, I help them love each other--
Father, mother, sister, brother...
Cheek to cheek...

I already miss the set from the Michael Greif production, but at least the words will be the same.


P.S. "My daughter is AAAAA freak....." Why not.... "My daughter is a FREAK" .....?
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