Next to Normal/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • More than half the damn show.
  • "I Dreamed a Dance".

Diana: I know the night is dying dear, I know the day will dawn...
Gabe and Diana: The dancers may disappear, still the dance goes on.
Gabe: And on...
Diana: I'll wake alone tomorrow. The dream of our dance is through. But now until forever love, I'll live to dance with you. I'll dream, my love. I'll live, my love. And I'll die to dance with...

  • Then the ensuing "There's A World", in which Gabe tempts Diana to "join him" in a paradise.

Gabe: There's a world, there's a world I know. A place we can go, where the pain will go away. There's a world when the sun shines each day...come with me (He extends his hand to Diana, which she grabs without hesitation and is led off by Gabe.)
Dr Madden: (As Gabe is leading Diana away and repeating "Come with me") Goodman, Diana. Discovered unconscious at home. Multiple razor wounds to wrists and forearms. Self-inflicted. Sutures, gauze, antibiotics, sedated and restrained. Damn it!(A beat) ECT is indicated.

  • "A Light in the Dark"
  • "How Could I Ever Forget?"
    • "He was a baby when he died? I remember him older!"
    • "A moment of dread... someone simply said, your child is...."
  • "A Promise", especially to those of us who appreciate the nod to Nice Guys.
  • "Maybe (Next To Normal)"
  • The reprise of "Perfect For You"
  • "So Anyway" gets a special mention.

Diana: I loved you once and though, you love me still, I know, it's time for me to go...I loved you once and though, I love you still, I know, it's time for me to go. And so, goodbye.

  • The reprise of "I Am The One".

Gabe: But you've always known who I am.
Dan: Gabe. Gabriel.
Gabe: Hi, Dad.

  • "Didn't I See This Movie?"
  • "Wish I Were Here"
  • "Everything Else" is particularly heartwrenching. You can hear the desperation and borderline hysteria in Natalie's voice as she sings. The tears begin to creep up at

You play 'til it's perfect,
You play 'til you ache,
You play 'til the strings or your fingernails break.

  • Basically, any time Diana opens her mouth. Alice Ripley sings every line like her heart is going to break.
  • Dan and Diana's conversation at last on the death of Gabe:

Diana: How did he die? ...Why? (A beat) WHY?
Dan: Diana! We didn't know. He was sick, but even the doctors missed it and we took him to the clinic, the specialist, the ER in the middle of the night. They said he had food allergies, they said 'babies cry'. We stayed up every night, you slept in his room. He cried and cried.
Diana: Until one morning he stopped...

  • "I've Been"

Dan: Mine is just a slower suicide...

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