one of the details in next to normal that genuinely makes me insane is the fact that diana isn’t just imagining a perfect son when she imagines gabe. yes, he’s her “superboy,” but in the very first part of the musical, when she’s “waiting up for him,” she imagines him coming home late like any other teenager. she complains and calls him a loser and a brat and a little shit. she’s not imagining a reality that never would have happened where gabe grew up to be the perfect child that never causes her any problems or stress. she imagines him as a real teenager, someone that could have been. diana doesn’t want the perfect son. she wants her son.

















