Hey.* I’ve been making up my mind, day after day on what exactly to base my final post on, and considering Next to Normal is a musical that I love as much as I can, I want to give it the credit and thoroughness it deserves. So anyway, I’ve made up my mind and decided that one thing I know I can do is open the door and shed light on the choice and rhythm found in this musical, which is like duh. It’s gonna be good.
The choice I’d like to discuss is one that I never fully realized until reading the script and visually noticing the parallels between Dan/Diana and Henry/Natalie. The most obvious parallel is during “A Promise” considering Henry echoes Dan’s lines and the stage directions state, “Two couples.” Another prominent instance of this is in “Hey #3” when Natalie sings, “Crazy, I might end up crazy” as the fear that she and Henry will take on the struggles of her parents’ relationship is constantly on her mind. My personal favorite instance of this parallel occurs during “Light,” in which Dan and Henry are written to sing in unison. It is practically undetectable when listening to the recording, but it gives a sense of hope that Henry and Natalie can become what Dan and Diana might have been, as if fate is giving the Goodman family a second chance at love.
The rhythm in “Hey #3/Perfect for You (Reprise)” is incredibly intricate and brilliant, as the tension/release is continual throughout the song. Henry is “at the dance, alone, standing there,” and the song begins with a simple piano riff. The orchestra slowly joins in and crescendos as the anxiety that Natalie truly has left him mounts, only to be released as his “vision in blue” is spotted and his heart skips a beat. The song continues at a conversational volume and pace until Natalie realizes that “[she] might end up crazy,” listing off the terrible things that she might end up doing in a year, or ten years, or a life. The tension reaches its limit, noted by the cymbal’s crescendo, the dissonant violins, and Natalie’s frantic speed likened to that of Diana in the end of “Just Another Day.” But then, the music just suddenly stops, as Henry holds his girlfriend and promises to make himself perfect for her. The “Perfect for You (Reprise)” is soft, smooth, and calming as Henry serenades Natalie, and the song ends with Henry and Natalie harmonizing in a major key for once, finally ending a duet with melodic closure.
*I thought you’d like to know, I’m in a competition with Michael Guillot to see how many song lyrics I can sneak in.
I think that you made some really good, well-supported points about the rhythm of the play. It's definitely making me think more about the parallels between Diana/Dan and Natalie/Henry. However, in doing this, do you think the play may be foreshadowing an unhappy ending for Natalie and Henry? I guess I'm just really curious about what happens in this story after the plot ends.
ReplyDeleteI love what you said about the parallels between Dan/Diana and Henry/Natalie. I hadn't even really thought about that until you said that. But the characters have clear parallels on the page. Such a simple but important observation!
ReplyDeleteSo anyway… I adore your thoughts on the reoccurring D/D and H/N parallels. Just like Kitt's love of making the opening "dun, dun, dundundunduns" of the Prelude pop up again and again, I think the two couples mirroring each other is intelligently shown throughout the show. If you look at my post, I talked about "Why Stay?" being immediately followed by "A Promise". If you listen to the soundtrack, they aren't even separate tracks, and literally bleed into each other. Di and Natalie share the first part, and Dan and Henry share the second. I found Kitt and Yorkey have their characters being the most intimate when they have these duo, two-part songs (See, "Who's Crazy/My Psychopharmacologist and I" and "Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling"). Your careful analysis of Hey #3 is eloquent and inspiring.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I'm leaving. I'm literally walking-