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| Christiane Noll and David Harris. Photo by Lanny Nagler |
Let’s say it right up front -- if you are currently feeling
down, depressed or generally out of psychic sorts, then you might want to put
off seeing “Next to Normal ” up at TheaterWorks
in Hartford
“Next to Normal,” with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and
music by Tom Kitt, opened on Broadway in 2009, receiving three Tony awards.
It’s a “tough” musical, for it deals with a disturbingly dysfunctional family:
the aforementioned Diana has been in therapy, and consuming a potpourri of psychotropic
medications, for close to two decades. She is manic, she is depressive, and she
is haunted. Her much put upon husband, Dan (a sturdy David Harris) copes as
best he can with a family life that is ruled more by fantasy than familiarity,
much to the detriment of Diana and Dan’s daughter, Natalie (Maya Keleher,
giving a stunning professional debut performance), who is, in the words of a
First-Act song, the “invisible girl.”
Whirling around this tornado of delusions and frustrations directed
by Rob Ruggiero are Henry (Nick Sacks), Natalie’s on-again-off-again boyfriend,
and two of Diana’s therapists, Doctor Fine and Doctor Madden (both played by J.
D. Daw). And then there is the son, Gabe, who in another First-Act song
proclaims “I’m Alive.” That remains to be seen.
Backed by a six-member orchestra sequestered off-stage, and
played out on an adaptive set by Wilson Chin with multiple bookcases boasting a
host of lamps and knick-knacks, this two-act excursion into dementia and family
heartbreak is not exactly sung-through, but the production consists of many
songs – 38 to be exact – that seem to weave into and out of each other almost
seamlessly.
At times bewildered, at other times wry and waspish, Noll’s
Diana is a study of an intelligent woman bedeviled by her mind. It’s a bravura
performance in a difficult role, for it demands a broad range of emotions to be
displayed, some subtle, others over-the-top (we first see Diana making lunch
for her two-member family by slamming together sandwiches using both the
counter and the floor as workplaces). Noll is capable of saying volumes with her
eyes, her shoulders and just a twist of her lips, and her vocal range allows
her to handle such diverse songs as the manic “Didn’t I See This Movie,” the
intimate duet, “Maybe,” with Keleher, and Diana’s touching farewell “So
Anyway.”
Harris, as Dan, is the rock upon which Diana’s waves of
dementia pound. His role is, obviously, less flamboyant than Noll’s, but he
creates a character that is trembling on the brink of despair, and thus his
performance if often haunting, no more so than in his rendition of “He’s Not
Here.”
Cardoza and Sacks both give solid performances, though one
might question the costumes Tricia Barsamian has created for Sacks, especially
the brown suit he shows up in to take Natalie to a dance, making him look more
like an émigré fresh off the boat than a suitor seeking his fair love’s hand.
Daw is also solid, and his brief metamorphosis as the “rock star” doctor is
dead on.
Then there is Keleher, who is making her professional debut,
though you wouldn’t know it by her performance. This sweet-voiced graduate of
The Boston Conservatory delivers a polished, nuanced portrait of a frustrated
17-year-old who dabbles in drugs in an attempt to handle the chaos of her home
life.
Given the intimacy of the TheaterWorks venue, the emotions
generated by “Next to Normal” wash over the audience in successive waves that
evoke laughter, shivers, empathy…and, in the final number, “Light,” a measure
of hope. There is a reason why this musical won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
It is a gripping portrait of a family in crisis that can’t help but resonate with
the audience.
“Next to Normal
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