next to normal (complete with spoilers!)

it's almost a month since i saw next to normal on broadway. on the surface, it's a very simple show to summarize: a family made dysfunctional due to mental illness. i suppose just from that description, it would be easy to write it off as something akin to schadenfreude, since after all, theatre is a form of entertainment and this show is centered on someone else's misfortune.
but at least to me, that's not at all what it is. perhaps this is only because it's been years since i was anything approximating normal, but i found it heartwrenchingly relatable.
the audience is taken all the way through diana's breakdown, from every character's perspective, with vivid and all too realistic descriptions of the accompanying mental states. and to sit there in the mezzanine and realize that i have been where she was...well, it was frankly terrifying. the entire show is just so. fucking. real. that by intermission i was back in that old state of wide-eyed terror over where my life could end up.
i cried the entire way through. even watching the family make its way out of that darkest place i cried. but somewhere along the way, a glimmer of hope turned up, and got brighter and brighter with every song (quite literally) til by the end things looked less bleak for both them and by extension, for me.
i don't know where i'm going with this review, so i'm going to stop here, but all in all this is a wonderful show. musically amazing, wonderfully acted, and utterly real. i'm going to see it again, and probably send my parents tickets as well.

anything can happen in the woods...

this evening has been spent watching into the woods; which happens to be one of my favorite musicals ever. the last time i saw it was almost two years ago, and it was a great show then. but after two years of college, and life in general, it somehow has more of a meaning now.
i've been rather frazzled lately; but it's curing that feeling bit by bit. life happens, and you make decisions, and those decisions are hard and they have far reaching consequences. but whatever happens, you learn from it, and it changes you for the best.
everything that happens is ultimately for the best.

rock & roll

good performances make me want to drop out of college and become a waitress in a jazz club. or possibly at the stardust diner. this is worrying.

i just got home from one of the most amazing shows i've ever seen. went out with a couple of the girls today to see Tom Stoppard's Rock 'N' Roll. undeniably AWESOME.

it's set in England and the Czech Republic during the Cold War and it is so unbelievably AMAZING. the acting was phenomenal (and made me cry at one point, might i add), the sets were gorgeous and realistic and ON WHEELS, and it was just sooo good! i walked out of the theatre so unbelievably happy cuz it was a really nice end to a sucky week :). go see it. i want to go again :).

also raised some interesting points about humanity but i'm not really feeling philosophical right now, just happy.

and there was a john lennon wall. twice. how can that not be awesome?