Integration and Disintegration in Next To Normal

Chandler, Clare (2019) Integration and Disintegration in Next To Normal. UNSPECIFIED.

Abstract

Scott McMillan argues that the driving factor in musical theatre isn’t seamless integration but ‘the crackle of difference’ as the musical shifts between ‘book time’ and ‘lyric time’ (McMillan 2006). Next to Normal ‘combines its use of music with issues of visibility in order to reveal multiple views of reality’ (Donnelly, 2014:18), arguably marking a moment of transition within the musical theatre genre. The audience spends about eighty per cent of the show suspended in lyric time without the option to return to the perceived normalcy of book time, thus expanding the genre’s capabilities.’(McMillan, 2006: 22). As herstory has its eyes on musical theatre Next to Normal deserves to be lauded as the important work it is and the aftershocks it has created need to be further explored and investigated.