By James V. Ruocco
The bipolar disorder of a wife and mother painfully coping with a life that thrusts her back and forth into a mental hell she might, or might not, necessarily escape, is the driving force of Marcos Santana's inspiring, voltage-charged, conversational telling of "Next to Normal," which opened Saturday night at The Westport Country Playhouse to an excited, appreciative audience whose screams, cheers and ovation-worthy applause often brought the show to a standstill much to the delight on everyone on stage and those seated in the spacious, immersive auditorium.
An emotionally demanding evening of theatre designed to rock your senses, make you think, touch your soul and bask in its layered, gutsy reality, this revival forges ahead with the stamina, and angst a musical of this caliber demands, craves and deserves.
It breathes, probes and gesticulates.
It attacks with a profound fury.
It is raw, real and terrifying.
It is intimate, deft and nuanced.
It is honest, artistic and principled.
Upfront, "Next to Normal," which features book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, is not your typical feel-good musical. And therein, lies its appeal, its pulse, its heartbeat and its emotional center as realized by its creative team who won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Musical Score and Best Orchestration.
Musically, it deals openly with themes and subject matter designed exclusively for an adult audience: first love; a marriage slowly unraveling out of control; parental neglect; liberation; drug dependency; regret; missed opportunities; escape from reality; bipolar disorder; shock treatment; boredom in the bedroom; death; favoring one child over another; hiding behind-closed doors, etc.
Then, the ball drops, so to speak.
About 20 or 25 minutes into Act I, "Next to Normal" delivers a jolting, surprising twist to the proceedings that you didn't see coming, unless you've seen the show before. If you have, it's easy to figure out what's real, what's imagined and how it fuels the progression of the story and its heady aftermath.
This production is helmed by Marcos Santana (he doubles as both director and choreographer) who staged both "In the Heights" and "Man of LaMancha" at the Westport-based Playhouse. In terms of staging, everything from the move of a prop and the turn of a table to how someone walks up and down the stairs or faces full front to musically address their feelings at any given moment is important to the telling of the story. It's all carefully designed, choreographed and staged with a modern thrust that takes it out of the 2009 setting of its Broadway past and into the world of today. Nothing happens or should without reason - a point that is meticulously played out with surprise momentum, character, connection and savvy by Santana. Not a word of dialogue or lyric from a vocal is unclear. You hear and experience everything. Sound design by Domonic Sack is absolutely flawless as is Adam Koch's atmospheric, handsome, roomy set design and Cory Pattak's vigorous, erupting, impassioned lighting palate.
Given the intimacy of the "Next to Normal" experience, there's not a lot of dance or overplayed movement to Santana's organic enhancement. His connection to the source material and its heated thrall is rich in opportunity and scope as each act builds and amps toward its well-timed release and dicey thickening. His mental pruning is lively and important. As is his steadied level of dramatic interaction, character exchanges and chess-like swagger and face offs. It's a creative process that makes all the difference in the world.
As devised by Yorkey and Kitt, "Next to Normal" hits the stage with 43 songs - upbeat, lyrical, evolving, smart, soft, rock-tinged - that are seamlessly implemented into Yorkey's edgy, intelligently written play script: They are: "Prelude (Light)," "Just Another Day," "Everything Else," "Who's Crazy/Psychopharmacologist and I," "Perfect for You," "I Miss the Mountains," "It's Gonna Be Good," "He's Not Here," "You Don't Know," "I Am the One," "Doctor Rock," "I'm Alive," "Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling," "A Good Step," "I Dreamed a Dance," "There's a World," "E.C.T.," "I've Been," "Dad That's Bullshit," "Didn't I See This Movie?" "A Light in the Dark," "Wish I Were Here," "Song of Forgetting," "Hey #1," "Seconds and Years," "Better Than Before," "After Shocks," "Hey #2," "You Don't Know (reprise)," "Music Box," "How Could I Forget?" "It's Gonna Be Good (reprise)," "Why Stay?" "A Promise," "I'm Alive (reprise)," "The Break," "Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling (reprise)," "Maybe (Next to Normal)," "Hey #3/Perfect for You" (reprise), "So Anyway," "I Am the One" and "Finale (Light)."
The score - clawing, convincing, tender, poised - is punctuated with moods and moments that are delivered with full-spectrum involvement and teeming invention that trusts "Next to Normal" into the spotlight, using the right emotional shifts and tones to make its point, musically and dramatically. Nothing is thrown into the mix as an afterthought or something resembling an unimportant solo, duet or ensemble coupling that stops the musical dead in its tracks. Every song - long, short or in between - matters and fuels each act with a resonant musicality that is notably strong and respectable.
As music director, Emily Croome, allows Yorkey and Kitt's original music and intricate lyrics to intoxicate, hypnotize and seduce her audience, thus drawing them inside the minds of each of the characters, using just the right amount of emotional rigor, snap, savvy, sensitivity and operatic force to get the message of the musical across. As crafted by its creators, this is a very complicated theatrical piece of varying rhythms, styles, pauses, beats and vitalities that recall the musical score from both "Rent" and "Spring Awakening." Its execution, from ballad to duet to choral number or showstopper - there are many - leaves little room for error.
No surprises, here.
Working alongside her exceptional orchestral team - Andy Buslovish (guitar), Arei Sekiguchi (drums/percussion), Wes Bourland (bass), Melody Allegra Berger (violin, keyboard 2) and Bobby Lee Crow III (cello), Croome (on keyboard) creates a flawless, hypnotic evening of musical theater that respects, honors and understands the concept and mindset of the show's original team and unobtrusively adapts it to the vocal styles, range and attitude of her six-member Westport Country Playhouse cast.
What follows is an outpouring of polished control, fluency and musical abandonment with an interpretation that ignites the emotional temperature of the original work with exemplary form, trajectory and forward-moving polyphony.
Vocally, the entire cast is as outstanding as the one who first performed "Next to Normal" on Broadway back in 2009 following its Off-Broadway run; the subsequent 2010 National Tour; and the 2017 revival at TheaterWorks in Hartford directed by Rob Ruggiero. Here, all of the vocals are sung with reinforced resolve and purpose, offset by astonishing volume, illumination, edge and ambition.
"Next to Normal" stars Dar. Lee. See. Ah. as Diana, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Dan, Ashley LaLonde as Natalie, Daniel J. Maldonado as Gabe and Katie Thomson as Dr. Madden and Dr. Fine.
Last seen on Broadway as Erzulie, the Goddess of Love, in the Tony award-winning revival of "Once on This Island," Dar. Lee. See. Ah. gives the musical performance of the season - and one that will be seeped in memory for many more years to come. From the moment she appears on stage, she immediately projects the troubled, portrait of a married woman and mother, trapped in a real and imagined world rife with anger, confusion, sorrow, loss, guilt, tragedy, longing and memory. So much so, we immediately feel her pain. We feel her joy. We feel her grief. We feel her yearning. We feel her entrapment. We feel her need for escape.
Through dialogue or lyric (her captivating rendition of "I Miss the Mountains" literally stops the show), we are with her every step of the way. Her portrayal of the fractured, bipolar Diana is sold with such compassion, comfort, intimacy and chiseled dysfunction, it never once swerves out of control. Vocally, the actress is a powerhouse of wildfire energy and brio, tackling each and every song she is asked to sing with emergence, truthfulness, consistency and grace.
Wilson Jermaine Heredia, the proud recipient of the 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his breathless, flamboyant, ground-breaking portrayal of the cross-dressing Angel Dumott Schunard in Jonathan Larson's "Rent," tackles yet another important role in this particular production. As Dan, the husband of Diana who has stood by, supported and loved his wife through the years, hoping that one day his wife's pain, would completely disappear, he handles the ever-changing plot swings of his character with honesty, perfection, torment and finely tuned moments that always grab for the heart. Here, as in "Rent" he possesses an ardent, persuasive vocal range that rises comfortably to all the challenges, ticks and boxes of the vast "Next to Normal" score. It's all vocally bright and brilliant, exuded with the necessary weight, intensity and mature emotion the role requires.
As Gabe, the boyishly-charming, teenaged son who is both an imagined angel/lost child and demon to his mother Diana, Daniel J. Maldonado finds himself in the same role originated by Aaron Tveit in the 2009 Broadway production. Not one to copycat, Maldonado offers a wonderfully fresh, enriched, steady performance that is personable, forceful, dizzying and edgy. He plays the part with proper dash, charm, angst and confusion. His voice and vocal style, which, is somewhat akin to that of British singer and songwriter Gary Barlow is pure, solid, beautiful and beaming with proud delight. As interpreter, he pays close attention to the lyrics and music and communicates them effortlessly. His show stopping interpretation of "I'm Alive" is so exhilarating and amazingly performed, you are never once reminded of Tveit and the role that transformed him into a Broadway star.
Ashley LaLonde, cast in the role of Gabe's sister Natalie, the fragile young teenager who often feels that she is invisible to her mother Diana, delivers a genuine, thought-provoking performance that is so honest and so real, you can't take your eyes off her for a moment. Her singing voice is absolutely perfect, imbued with a refreshing, reflective snap that gives her character's emotional journey additional weight, purpose and attention. As Henry, Natalie's boyfriend, Gian Perez is wonderfully in sync with his offbeat, quirky character. Vocally, he possesses sheer, strong vocal chops that reflect the visceral power of musical theatre. Katie Thompson, in the dual roles of Dr. Madden and Dr. Fine, also commands attention, vocally and dramatically whenever she's on stage. Her character also comes equipped with some impeccably timed comic thrusts and musicality in her real and imagined scenes with Diana.
One of the best musicals of the 2022 Equity regional theatre season, "Next to Normal" is an affecting, moody, no-frills musical that celebrates its emotional nakedness and penetrating double-act shrewdness with three-dimensional size and scope. The electrifying honesty and unnerving edginess of Marcos Santana's kinetic direction, offset by the rich, raw, flavorful performances of its tremendously talented six-member cast, bring additional spark and pulse to the proceedings, making you tune in to every word, conversation and musical note of its accessible, sound-flowing palette.
Photos of "Next to Normal" by Carol Rosegg
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