AN EYE-OPENER
Prior to Next to Normal at Round House Theatre a giant, obtrusive woman’s eye projected onto the back wall (projections by Nicholas Hussong) stares and blinks out at the audience. This impossible to ignore image is just the start of the haunting 2009 rock musical by Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (lyrics, book) that explores extreme mental illness and the effects it has on a middle-class family. A far cry from the happy musicals of yore, this daring portrayal sings about delusions, bipolar episodes, drug use, and suicide attempts. It’s not for the faint of heart.
The Cast
Director Alan Paul offers a pile-driving, dynamic production showcasing one of the best-realized American families you’ll see on a stage; it certainly contains the largest slice of credible life you’ll ever see. The characters are recognizable but not familiar; the drama is brutal and the choices are fresh. Mentioning the plot in any way is virtually guaranteed to spoil some valuable surprises.
Tracy Lynn Olivera (Diana)
Essentially, Diana — a delusional bipolar depressive mom and housewife just doing her best to raise a family — dotes on her son to the exclusion of her husband and, especially, her daughter. Her passion for her firstborn, Gabe, initially borders on the creepy, and from there things get bizarre. Although it deals with devastating traumas and real-life miseries, the show hardly ever veers maudlin. Every plot point feels earned, and almost every story element seems indispensable.
In her Round House debut, Tracy Lynn Olivera is tremendous as Diana, who fluctuates between anger, sadness, and vulnerability as she goes through a pharmacopeia of drug combinations to treat her mental disorder. She laments her unguarded condition when she sings of her psychiatrist (rock-star Calvin McCullough), “He knows my deepest secrets ’¦ I know his name.” When, after seven weeks of taking a medley of antidepressants, she states, “I don’t feel anything,” her doctor records, “The patient … stable.”
Tracy Lynn Olivera (Diana) and Calvin McCullough (Doctor Madden/Doctor Fine)
Lucas Hinds Babcock as Number One Son, Gabe, convinces in an almost villainous way, as he’s so good at shapeshifting. One minute vulnerable, the next prancing and wailing just like an awkward adolescent. We want him gone, especially when he shouts in song, “I’m Alive”; because each time he does, it keeps his mother’s affliction alive and well.
Lucas Hinds Babcock (Gabe) and Tracy Lynn Olivera (Diana)
As hard it is to watch Diana struggle, the effect her illness has on her loved ones is just as painful. Vocal powerhouse Kevin McAllister is heartbreaking as her long-suffering husband, Dan, who counters Diana’s lyrics in “You Don’t Know” [the pain I’m going through] with “I’m the one who knows you,” hoping she can remain open to his love and support. When he finds her doing something particularly disturbing, he reassures her with “This is just a blip; we’ll go see the doctor.”
Kevin S. McAllister (Dan), Sophia Early (Natalie), and Tracy Lynn Olivera (Diana)
Perhaps the most negatively affected by the illness is Natalie (Sophia Early) the disaffected Type-A daughter, Natalie. Early’s lucid, lovely, lyrical voice is the perfect antidote for the snarling, impatient, disconnected, talented 17-year-old who you’d like alternately to hug and strangle. “I’m invisible” she belts out about her strained bond with her mother. A sensitive musician, Natalie finds it hard to accept a new romantic relationship with pothead Henry (Ben Clark, as awkward and endearing as any boyfriend you’d wish upon your daughter).
Sophia Early (Natalie) and Ben Clark (Henry)
However, this is not an entirely grim tale. Songs of hope and faith that circumstances will improve counter bleak frustration by the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all cure for mental illness and even though one might have a good support system, in the end it’s a lonely path to follow. The authors also throw some dark humor in to catch those who might be swept up in the heartbreaking chaos. Still, this story of family and personal dysfunction doesn’t come close to “normal,” or even “next to normal,” which is something the daughter Natalie, craves.
Music Director Christopher Youstra’s orchestra (Andrea Vercoa, Catherine Mikelson, Manny Arciniega, Arnold Gottlieb, and Doks), in plain view of the audience behind the set, enhances the drama on stage, and Sherrice Mojgani’s lighting variations are an apt backdrop for Diana’s depressive and manic episodes.
Lucas Hinds Babcock (Gabe) and Kevin S. McAllister (Dan)
Due to its dark content and the fact that it’s almost totally sung-through at high volume, Act II seems a bit long; the audience is due to some reprieve, as are the players, which we don’t get for another hour at the play’s resolution. Mr. Kitt’s fusion of modernistic rock and old-time Broadway inventiveness enthralls (Mozart is used as a background for one character’s lament, just as Beethoven was used as underscoring for Lucy in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown), yet even while admiring his wholly original sound, I still find myself yearning for that one ballad, that one tuneful eleven o’clock number, but it never came.
Next to Normal makes no promises about the horrors of an imperfect world; its message is one of resilience rather than victory. In the age of the feel-good tidy-bow no-intermission issue plays, how refreshing to hear from a popular entertainment that you’re just going to have to deal with life. Sure, mental illness is not as taboo as it was even in 2009, but having a production devoted solely to the subject is unique and an eye-opener that no one should miss.
Scenic Designer Wilson Chin, Associate Scenic Designers Bridget Lindsay and Jimmy Stubbs, Costume Designer Helen Huang, Costume Associate Rebecca Anne Janne, Sound Designer Ken Travis, Choreographer Eamon Foley, Properties Coordinator Chelsea Dean, Casting Director Sarah Cooney, Dramaturg Naysan Mojgani, Intimacy Consultant Megan Behm, Production Stage Manager Che Wernsman, and Assistant Stage Manager Emily A. Mellon.
photos by Margot Schulman Photography
Next to Normal
Round House Theatre
co-produced with Barrington Stage Company
4545 East-West Highway (one block from the Bethesda station on Metro’s Red Line)
Tues-Thurs at 7:30; Fri & Sat at 8; Sat & Sun at 2
ends on February 25, 2024 EXTENDED to March 3, 2024
for tickets, call 240.644.1100 or visit Round House
