Juliet Lambert Pratt in the MTC MainStage production of "Next to Normal."
Photo by Kerry Long
A dysfunctional family has almost
become a cliché in novels, short stories and plays, so much so that we may have
become jaded when confronted with yet another fictional family falling apart.
If so, then “Next to Normal,” which recently opened at MTC Mainstage in
Westport, is a sure cure for our ennui, for it is one thing to read about a
family clinging to normalcy by its fingernails and quite another to actually
experience the desperation, confusion and fear inherent, and that’s exactly what
happens in MTC’s intimate quarters.
The rock musical, with music by Tom
Kitt and book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, was nominated for 11 Tony awards in
2009 and, an even more impressive feat, won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize Award for
Drama, and it’s easy to see why in MTC’s production, incisively directed by
MainStage executive artistic director Kevin Connors, for the audience is slowly
yet surely drawn into the lives of the Goodman family – via both dialogue and
lyrics – as the impact of Diana Goodman’s bi-polar disorder on her family is
painfully and poignantly revealed.
The responsibility for making this
musical “work” falls heavily on the shoulders of the actress playing Diana, and
though Juliet Lambert Pratt’s shoulders look too fragile to bear the burden, it
only takes her delivery of the opening number, “Just Another Day,” to prove
that her shoulders are herculean. Pratt is absolutely mesmerizing as she
creates a highly nuanced picture of a woman fighting for her soul; her voice
resonates and penetrates, and given her proximity to the audience, her every
gesture adds color and depth to the portrait. As Diana, she is at times manic
and at other times nearly comatose, and in between she attempts to deal with
the family turmoil that her condition creates. It is a gripping, stunning
performance.
The rest of the admirable cast
creates characters that swirl around Diana’s emotional whirlpool that is
stirred by the ghost of Gabe (an impressive Logan Hart), a son who died as a
baby but has grown in Diana’s mind into a hale and hardy teenager who, we soon learn,
harrowingly haunts his mother’s reality. Diana’s husband, Dan (Will Erat),
clings to the fanciful hope that a cure can be found for his wife’s illness,
and in so doing, clings to a denial that Natalie (Elissa DeMaria), their
daughter, rails against while fearing that she herself might succumb to her
mother’s illness. As Dan attempts to comfort his wife, Henry (Jacob Heimer),
Natalie’s boyfriend, attempts to comfort the teenage girl – both men are less
than successful in their efforts.
Hope for Diana is held out by the
doctors who treat her (both played by Tommy Foster): Doctor Madden, her
“psychopharmacologist,” has her on just about every pill available, pills Diana
eventually dumps into the garbage as she sings “I Miss the Mountains”; Doctor
Fine agrees to try talk therapy but eventually resorts to electro-shock and in
so doing erases most of Diana’s memories, making the woman something of an
emotional zombie whom the family attempts to bring back to life in a hauntingly
beautiful yet painful scene that involves a box filled with family memorabilia.
The evening’s resolution is, at
best, bitter-sweet, for Kitt and Yorkey do not take the easy way out. Yes,
there may be “Light” at the end of the tunnel the Goodman family has traveled
down, but this hope is tempered by the ghost who refuses to be exorcised from
the family’s psyche. Be prepared to walk away from the theater emotionally
drained yet thoroughly satisfied, for as Connors noted in his curtain talk,
when he saw “Next to Normal” in workshop he knew that it was perfect for MTC.
He was right – it is.
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