IN MUSICALS, INSANITY IS ALL THE RAGE!
Innovation in the Hit 'Next to Normal'
By Carol Benet
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area theater
Weeks starting Feb. 2, 2011
Vol.
13, No. 60
I
was incredulous.
If you said
that Next to
Normal offered us a terrific musical about an insane woman, I’d
have said, “You
gotta’ be kidding.”
But Next to Normal, now
at the Curran
Theatre, won
numerous Tony Awards as
well as the Pulitzer Prize for
Drama. The composer-lyricist team of Tom
Kitt and Brian Yorkey was a pair of college kids who just wanted to
“write
something” different. And that they did.
The story, all
sung as in opera, is about a family: mother Diana
(Tony winner Alice Ripley), father (Asa Somers) and daughter Natalie
(Emma
Hunton). The play starts with the
ensemble singing “Just Another Day,” going about “normal” activities. There is a son Gabe (Curt Hansen) who comes
and goes, and also Natalie’s boyfriend, Henry (Preston Sadleir). One other character plays the part of two
psychiatrists (Jeremy Kushnier). An
eight-piece
orchestra is perched on the top levels of a multi-leveled open set
(Mark
Wendland) that represents the house as well as the doctors’ offices.
At first this
seems a “normal” upper middle class family with an
attractive pair as the parents and a “normal” looking teenager, sloppy and overweight. But
she is not the focus here. First sign
of disorder is when the mother
starts
to prepare sandwiches by dumping two packages of bread
on the floor and start to spread the filling.
And anyway, who is this
son who keeps intruding? Looks like a
“normal” part of the family. This is Gabe, a phantom of Diana’s
imagination. Gabe (Curt Hansen) is the
son who died in infancy and would now be 17. Diana’s mental illness
will not
allow her to forget him.
The father
tries to help. He is always facilitating visits to the
two psychiatrists, who have very different diagnoses and treatments to
suggest. He keeps the small family
together, goes to his job, and is desperate for some way to help his
wife. This play would verge on the level
of a soap
opera if it did not have such wonderful, lively, rock music.
We see Diana
throwing away all her pills, but that does not
help. She is in analysis -- doesn’t
work. Finally, the treatment they choose, with her consent, is shock
treatment,
but there is a big caveat. This may
cause memory loss, but that is exactly what the doctor says that she
needs. She has to forget the missing son.
It is
interesting that the case for and against shock treatment
is again with us in the press and it is a legitimate treatment for
problems
like Diana’s. I won’t reveal the ending,
which is anything but standard. But then
nothing is “normal” about this unique and fascinating new form of
musical
play. Even Alice Ripley’s voice is not
normal for a musical; she really can’t sing in tune and it is weak on
the high
notes. But for someone in her condition,
maybe that is “normal.”
Broadway
needed to invent something new. It has
been stuck in the “replay” mode for
years. Most of the selections today are
old plays that have been brought back, or still hang around years after
they
opened. It seemed that the art was soon to
die.
This work
marks an historic turn of events signaling a revival of
long-absent creativity in the American musical theater.
(Ed. note, 2/1/11: Posting was delayed by transmission problems.
Apologies, readers!)
Next to Normal runs at the Curran
Theatre,
445 Geary Street, San
Francisco
through February 20. For info: (888) 746-1799, or go online.
#
© Carol Benet 2011
Carol Benet is a regular theater reviewer for artssf.com.
These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never
weakly)focus
on theater, dance and new musical creativity in performance, with
forays
into recordings by local artists, and a few departures into books (by
authors
of the region)as well.
#
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