Next!
So I’m currently obsessed with the musical Next to Normal. It’s essentially the story of a middle-American family dealing with crisis. We have the over-burdened father (Dan), the high-achieving daughter (Natalie), the free-spirited son (Gabe), and the butt-crazy mother (Diana). This is not just my opinion. The mother, beautifully played by Alice Ripley (who won a Tony award for this portrayal), is clinically depressed with the occasional delusional episode.
In case you think that this sounds a bit heavy, well, it is. But believe me when I tell you that it is worth every moment of it. From the two supporting characters (Henry, the adolescent love interest who, with his stoner/slacker ways provides a great foil to Natalie, and Diana’s doctor, who passes out pills and edgy treatments like Halloween candy) to the rocking score, this show has a lot to offer.
What seems like a typical family struggling with finding their roles in day-to-day life suddenly takes a turn to the bizarre by the third song, “Who’s Crazy/My Psychopharmacologist and I.” This song, by the way, is one of my favorites in the production. Lines like “Valium is my favorite color” and a dancing chorus of “diarrhea, constipation, nervous laughter, palpitations” have you tapping your toe to a series of visits between the troubled mother and her aforementioned medicator.
Whether it’s Dan’s utter self deception that life can go on behind their walls just as though they were any other family or Gabe’s insistence that his parents include him in their lives, whether they want to or not, you can’t ignore that this family has problems.
Fortunately for us, those problems produce songs like “You Don’t Know” (Diana’s outburst to her husband in which she tries to explain what life is like under the cloud of mental illness), “Super Boy and the Invisible Girl” (Natalie’s frustration at her relationship with her mother compared to that of her mother and brother), and “I’m Alive” (Gabe’s anthem to the world about his undefeatable spirit).
Yes, a musical about a crazy mother and her damaged family doesn’t sound like fodder for a sing-along-in-the-car show, but I haven’t stopped singing in days.
Henry’s character bugs me a little. There are supposed to be two doctors (both played by the same man), but that doesn’t translate well in the soundtrack. Gabe, though almost painfully talented and good looking, sometimes seems so dark and dangerous that you want to run the other way. Then he sings “There’s a World” and when you should be running, you just want to follow him anywhere and you’ll go at breakneck speeds.
Look into the show. I’ll try to add a clip or two from the Tonys and from some other events that featured this incredible addition to the world of the Broadway musical.
Next to Normal is next to nothing I’ve seen before.
(Any of my fabulous techie friends want to help? My images keep showing up at the bottom of the screen to the left. Weird.)
It is amazing. I am listening to it too and it is addictive.
July 11th, 2009 at 10:38 pmI remember watching the performance at the Tony Awards and then going online to find everything I could about this musical. It is absolutely fabulous and it was one that caught my attention.
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:05 pm