Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Next To Normal: The Road to Broadway - November, 2009
American Theatre Wing: "The creative team behind the hit musical Next To Normal - Director Michael Greif, Composer Tom Kitt, Producer David Stone and Book Writer/Lyricist Brian Yorkey - discuss the unique road the show took to Broadway beginning with its start at the BMI Workshop; the origin of the show's subject matter and the challenges of getting acceptance for it; the reasons behind a title change and what that represented for the creative process; why they took the unusual step of going from off-Broadway to out of town before Broadway; what influences the press and audiences had after the off-Broadway opening in their decision process; why some songs were dropped, others changed and the reasons behind the addition of new material; and 4 songs are performed in studio that illustrate the changes in the various stages of the production."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This show is one of the best I have ever seen. Hearing the writers, director and producer sit down and discuss its growth from idea to broadway was really interesting.
The show is a story of truth, vulnerability, and I am fascinated by how the writers, wanted to stay true to Diana's illness, making sure the medicine was right as well as the symptoms and solutions for her disease. The research they had to do is impressive, and then to sit down a write a complelling story on something few know nothing about, and honestly dont care about is great. It is serious, it takes itself seriously and shows that disease and families are a serious matter culminating into an extreamly enjoyable, and emotional piece of theater.
Theater should continue to follow this serious trend, imputting songs when necessary rather then, we've said a paid of dialogue now lets break out in song. IT needs to flow like N2N does.
I hope these writers continue to write and tackle serious issues, and change the way musicals are thought of and perceived.
I was really intrigued by the relatively long process that this musical went through to get where it is today, starting out as a ten-minute musical as part of a final project for a workshop, which only came to be because they saw a news story on television. I think this sort of spontaneous inspiration is what seems to create the best musicals. As a writer and composer, I think you would have to be extremely passionate about the subject of your work, and I think that's something that is instantly apparent in musicals like this, and Rent, which apparently provided some inspiration for the writers of Next to Normal. I think it was very interesting to learn so much about the process of creating this musical and any aspiring authors should consider the advantages and success of this process when creating their own work.
Post a Comment