Bind. It’s not me, it’s you The cold hard truth behind Broadway hit Next to Normal By Julia Siedlanowska, Arts Reviewer roadway’s latest hit, Next to B Normal, has made its Canadian regional premiere at The Arts Club Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. ’ Book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, this musical has received almost every major award out there. (The Broadway Production was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, and received three. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.) The Arts Club brought out the big guns with an insanely talented cast and production team, including director Bill Millerd. Everything was polished to a t- and yet, it didn’t do much of anything for me. At first I deemed the musical “just another tale about housewives,” a subject that has gotten stale over the years, but as it went on it expanded into the scary world of modern psychiatry. Next to Normal deals with the complexities of one family’s struggle with mental illness. Caitriona Murphy plays Diana, a mother trying to keep herself together while battling bipolar disorder. Psychiatrists pack her full of anti-depressants that, in combination with her inability to cope, lead to a failed suicide attempt. As a last attempt at “fixing her problem,” she tries electroconvulsive therapy. What attracted me to the musical were the claims that “[I] would actually like it” by a friend of mine who saw the Broadway Production, and knows my animosity towards musicals. But the show fell short of its title as “the feel everything musical.” I left the theatre and had to question whether it was me, or the show. Last I checked, my ability to feel compassion was intact, so, I decided to admit that Next to Normal wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Everything was technically there: the sad story about the inability to deal with loss, the husband who’s there every minute to a wife who can’t respond, the daughter who fears going crazy herself... but there was nothing to make these characters truly human. The harmonies were chilling, but I was never in sync with what the characters were going through. Maybe expanding the range of subject matter is enough to make a hit musical, but as an audience member, it wasn’t enough for me. The show describes what the characters are feeling, but we never get to know them enough to care. Ruffin’ it We take a look at the horror re-make Straw Dogs By Allie Davison Oo he remake of Straw Dogs seemed relatively tame in comparison to what audiences are used to today, especially for a movie that was so widely controversial upon its original release in 1971. Set in small-town Mississippi, Straw Dogs is the story of Amy (Kate Bosworth) and David (James Marsden) Sumner, and their return to Amy’s home town. They barely have time to unload their shiny, white Jag before things start getting interesting between Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard, True Blood) and both of the Sumner’s. The sexual tension between him and Amy is so thick you could cut it with a knife — something Charlie attempts to do after luring David away so he can “seduce” David’s wife. Through a very confusing turn of events involving a murder, a car accident and the eventual siege on the Sumner’s house by Charlie and his crew of angry yokels, David—the timid screen writer—reclaims his masculinity and attempts to “get them all.” Overall, Straw Dogs had everything a good B-grade horror movie should; blood, gore and a little good ol’ fashioned Southern hospitality. Psst, look over here! September review bulletin reetings, literate comrade! Isn’t it just marvelous today, what with the sky being all... skyish... look, let’s cut to the chase. We may or may not have been experimenting in the Other Press laboratory and now there may or may not be ungodly demon spawn running around campus. While we round those critters up, we could really use your help. 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