Next to Normal (2008)

 

At the 2009 Tony Awards, Next to Normal had the distinction of being the only Best Musical nominee to have both an original story and an original score.  Billy Elliot and Shrek are, of course, both based on movies, and Rock of Ages features a plethora of famous ‘80s tunes.  And then there was the Little Show That Could, the off-Broadway transfer, the rock musical about a suburban mom with bipolar disorder.

 

Diana appears at first glance to be Super Woman – she keeps her nice house in order, manages the lives of her two teenagers, and always makes time for a bit of fun with her breadwinner husband.  However, Diana spins like a manic record, and when the needle slips, the entire family is thrown off-kilter.  She’s spent 16 years living with mental illness, and it seems she only ever gets a grip on hope so it can be torn away from her.  A “blip” early in the show sends her in pursuit of yet more treatments, more faceless doctors who poke and prod her even as they admit they don’t know what they’re doing.

 

I love that the story begins in media res, after so many years of the family’s struggles.  It feels like stories about mental illness almost invariably focus on diagnosis (much like a disproportionate number of LGBT-related stories focus on coming out,) but there are far more angles to explore.  Diana and her family have been through the wringer for most of Diana and her husband Dan’s marriage, throughout the whole of her daughter Natalie’s life.  They’re accustomed to doctors, medications, delusions, breakdowns, and unexpected monkey wrenches, but it’s still so hard every time.  Though they’ve spent nearly two decades swimming upstream against this, they still can’t see where it is they’re going.

 

I also like the whole family gets ample attention.  Obviously, Diana is the only one who knows what she’s going through, the disorienting undertow of an uncertain state of mind and the conviction that the tricks it plays on her are real.  Through it all, she fights to keep sight of herself and maintain what dignity she can.  However, the show also examines Dan’s determined-yet-deteriorating optimism, his growing exhaustion with the never-ending battle.  Natalie is anxious to grow up and escape her “crazy” household, where it seems only her mother’s pain is worthy of concern, and her rigid attempts to maintain control in her own life threaten to be too much for her.  Diana’s son Gabe gets less internal focus, but he provides sources of conflict for other characters, not least of which because Natalie feels she’s constantly living in his shadow.

 

With a rock score by Tom Kitt (who later joined Lin-Manuel Miranda to write Bring It On) and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, the music is moving, melodic, and a fantastic means of conveying the story.  It’s most successful in introspective numbers that allow the characters to voice their fears, doubts, and frustrations, and there are a handful of melodies that recur throughout the show to good narrative effect.  The rhymes aren’t always the most creative, and some of the imagery is less than inspired, but the lyrics hit the emotional beats beautifully, searing in their vulnerability.

 

Warnings

 

Swearing, sexual references, drug use, and heavy thematic elements.