"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Also, I've said it 10000 times but the role belongs to KATE WINSLET and no one else.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
I thought Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey were writing an original movie musical starring Robert Downey Jr, not NEXT TO NORMAL.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Naomi Watts could act the hell out of it! Intriguing idea!
“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
``oscar wilde``
I'd love to see Toni Collette play the role on stage, it'll never happen just practically speaking (there won't be a revival any time soon obviously), but while I think she'd be fantastic she has already played something along those similar lines in US OF TARA. Diana is not the same character, but some of the issues explored in NEXT TO NORMAL were explored in that show, I'd love for someone who hasn't "gone there" yet to get a crack at it to come up with something completely unexpected, Winslet and Watts would be perfection. I know Naomi Watts often talks about how she gravitates towards really intense roles, she'd match Ripley in terms of emotional complexity, but I can't imagine her having an interesting, let alone powerful, singing voice. That'd be a huge problem casting the film for me, I know Ripley got a lot of backlash for her singing but I was thrilled with the raw vocal performance she gave the night I saw the show. Not sure what Hollywood actress could match that in a movie musical.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Is there anyone there connected to a producer who could suggest someone pitch this musical to HBO?
During the late 90's HBO held onto the rights of both Jelly's Last Jam and Sondheim's Assassins to create their typically lauded, signature TV movies out of them. They both fell by the wayside.
I think NTN would be perfect for them. Plus they have the Kate connection from Mildred Pierce (though I agree, Toni Collette=Diana--maybe even Showtime which hosted Toni's sitcom).
Last I heard Madonna owned the rights and wants to play Diana.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000