Walterdale carries off ambitious mental illness musical
It took director Bethany Hughes two years to put together the current Walterdale production of Next to Normal.
Along with musical director Sally Hunt, she scoured the local musical theatre scene and very carefully chose some of the best actor-singers from the bubbling amateur community – performers with proven track records, and others who have passed through various training organizations or are still in training.
The resulting production, at the Walterdale Theatre until July 14, shows that care. Hughes has come up with an accomplished production that resonates with an effecting emotional intensity delivered by an exemplary cast.
Mental illness is no joke. Too many families have been ripped apart and lives destroyed by the pernicious disorder to generate any laughter. In 2008, Next to Normal opened on Broadway demonstrating that bipolar disorder (and the resultant issues of grief, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry) is not only fertile territory for a probing dramatic exploration – but lends itself to the strengths of musical theatre. When emotions are too strong for words only music can transmit the depth of feeling.
The critics went wild – “brave and breathtaking!” burbled the usually reserved New York Times. It went on to win a clutch of Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize.
The work centres around a spectacularly dysfunctional family. Diana (Monica Roberts) is a suburban American housewife whose deepening descent into the hell of chronic bipolar disease has a profoundly destructive effect on her family. For 16 years the tragic, but not entirely unsympathetic Diana has been using pills to battle the demons that possess her. As Roberts portrays her, Diana is real and relatable. Her problems aren’t watered down or amped up, and neither are her family members’ complex cocktail of emotions, from love to denial to outright anger.
Diana’s marriage is shaky to start with. She has a devoted but distant husband (Mike Harding) who is unable to cope with the carnage around him. He sings, “I have to help her but I don’t know how…” and wonders, “Is the crazy one, the one who waits?” Her 16 year old daughter Natalie (Fiona Cain) is trying her best, but the wreckage is too much and she finds some relief by overachieving in high school. In desperation, she sings, “When you do the shit you have to do, to drain the stupid pain out; when you’re trying to disguise it all, while your father just denies it all,, and lets you sell him any sort of fable, you’re growing up unstable.” Natalie sees herself as a superhero, The Invisible Girl – “I’m not there.” A subtle and heartrending performance from this young lady.
Other characters include her friend Henry (Damon Pitcher) and her brother Gabe (Mark Sinongco). Natalie and Henry seem to be at the beginning of a relationship, but will it survive the maelstrom that surrounds them? Natalie, at one point in her jumble of emotions, becomes aware of one of the more frightening aspects of the illness that affects her mother – she may face the same problem. Pitcher has a lovely voice particularly in his head tones; and Sinongco, as the vaguely mysterious brother, sings expressively. They are both likeable, accomplished actors. Each actor in the play is given a complete character to explore as well as the time and space to give them real development.
There are also two doctors (played by one actor – Trevor J ) who represent two competing methods of treating the disorder.
Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics) have created an exceptional show that says something meaningful and powerful about surviving in a world of seemingly insurmountable problems.
Next to Normal may be billed as a rock opera – but it’s not really. With a violin and cello predominately featured in the excellent foce piece band (under the controlled direction of Sally Hunt) the sound is far more salon opera than J.C. Superstar. You may not leave humming the tunes but the evening is lyrical, expressive and accessible. The composer dips into a number of styles including classical, folk, metal, even a comic waltz, My Psychopharmacologist and I, which adds a few much needed laughs. The songs are complex and some of the harmonies so tight you wonder how the cast can navigate them – but they do with resounding success.
As the unmoored mother, Roberts gives a powerful performance. Remembering her pain free youth she recalls sadly, “The girl who ran through the fields was me.” Time and again, it looks as if she’s on the road to recovery but each time her tissue paper world folds in around her. “Do you know what it’s like to die alive?” she wails. Looking at her suffering daughter she offers helplessly, “I love you as much as I can.” In the country infused song, I Miss the Mountains, she explores the show’s probing question: “What’s worse – being pill-free and unpredictable or being drugged and numb?” In Yorkey’s serviceable and inspired lyrics, she sings of how she longs for “the manic, magic days and dark depressing nights.”
Next to Normal takes a while to warm up, slowly revealing layers as the family unravels.
Sure it’s dark but this remarkable piece of musical theatre is something of an early summer gift, a work of depth and agonizing beauty, in the end offering something hopeful and uplifting. Kudos to Walterdale for attempting so ambitious a production – and congratulations for carrying it off.
