thebroadwayblog.com: She won a Tony Award for her performance as Diana in Next to Normal. And now, Alice Ripley returns to the role in a new, live immersive musical theater format. This July, producers Pablo del Campo and Jordi Sellas will present the worldwide premiere at the Festival Grec de Barcelona.
4 comments:
This is such a cool concept; I am excited to see how it pans out. I will definitely have to follow the production because I can not exactly visualize how this would work out. However, I think it is a genius concept for the design, given the themes of “Next to Normal” to me this design would make the audience feel trapped in their own head, a glimpse on what the characters are experiencing. I believe this is a great concept for other shows too, and media is as always becoming more prevalent in our industry. I use to really enjoy this show, but I nearly forgot it existed. It seems to be making a resurgence, and hopefully this production helps that. Coincidentally, a children’s theatre in the town I am from is currently under critique due to their planned production of the musical with a middle/high school cast.
This sounds like a really cool idea. I'll be honest, just from the article l have no idea what this would look like in practice. But, from the theory and the description I am betting it would be pretty cool. I am loving all of the new ways that theatre makers are finding to present theatre. I think this whole wave of new presentation methods and technology incorporation in theatre came from the pandemic when everyone was forced to come up with new virtual ways to present the shows that they had been working on. I cannot wait to see what else comes from this wave of technology in theater and I think that these new additions and advancements will bring with them the need for new jobs and career opportunities in the theatre industry. I hope that more shows get put on in this new format so that more people can see it.
While I have some trouble visualising the production just based on the description in the article, I think that this is a great idea. Not only does the form and function, design and meaning, of the piece intertwine with each other, this starts to push the boundaries of 'theatre' with a cult-favourite, or just decently mainstream show like Next to Normal. The choice of an immersive production in a high emotions show is very powerful–Tom Kitt, one of the co-writers, says: "When we wrote the show, we wanted to bring the audience inside the mind of the lead character—and this incredible new immersive production makes that happen in a bold and amazing fashion." This makes so much sense and again, elevates the form, function, design, meaning of the piece. In addition to this, the production uses no sets or props, but does utilise a surround-sound system and 360 degree projections to create that experience. This takes a step away from the traditional theatre format and how Next to Normal has traditionally been done. Overall, this is an exciting thing–not just for their ticket-buying audience, but for the theatre format as a whole.
I am concerned to the point I am not sure what I am about to write and promptly publish. Next To Normal is a beautiful show that holds meaning to me and I’m sure a lot of other people. Out of all the shows they could have chosen to make immersive they chose this one? I could name so many musicals that would work way better presented in an immersive format: Newsies, Phantom, Hamilton, the Percy Jackson musical, honestly anything else. I cannot imagine how the audience will be feeling having this very charged, very heavy musical be put on blast all around me. Maybe I am too close to the subject matter to be more objective about it but I don’t think I could sit through it without the context of being in a closed-off space sitting across from the stage. I am excited to hear about Alice Ripley reprising her role, and I am hoping for a slime tutorial to drop of this.
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