[NEohioPAL] Review of "Next to Normal" at PlayhouseSquare

[Bob Abelman]

'Next to Normal' at PlayhouseSquare is everything but entertaining

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 6/17/11

 

 

The PlayhouseSquare Broadway Series season ticket holder to my right, who was thrilled with South Pacific, charmed by Shrek, amused by Billy Elliot, confused by West Side Story and bored by Les Miserables, squirmed throughout Act 1 of Next to Normal and never came back for Act 2.  

 

"I came to be entertained," she huffed as she worked her way out of her seat and toward the nearest exit. "What a terrible evening."

 

There are two realizations about theatre that result from my good neighbor's disappointment, both of which speak well for this remarkable production of this most remarkable play by Brian Yorkey.

 

The first is that a play winning several 2009 Tony Awards is no guarantee of a fun evening, not when it's coupled with a 2010 Pulitzer Prize.  In fact, a Pulitzer is pretty much a death knell for a good time.

 

The Pulitzer for journalism that year was given to The Washington Post for a series of exposes on the mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  Not one article in the series made for a pleasant, enjoyable read.  While the Tony inspires visions of bright lights, happy endings and high-kicking chorus girls, Pulitzer is code for serious and thought-provoking.

 

Next to Normal is serious, thought-provoking stuff.  The play is about a contemporary American family crippled by mental disease.  It offers a portrait of a manic-depressive, delusional mother and demonstrates how this disease infiltrates and infects her supportive husband, troubled teenage daughter, and spiritual son.  

 

The production, directed by Michael Greif (who also directed the Broadway production of Rent, the last musical to win a Pulitzer Prize), is emotionally gripping from start to finish.  So gripping, in fact, that you forget to blink, you can't breathe, and you don't realize that you're crying.  

 

Yorkey's powerful lyrics expose raw nerve to arctic air.  Tom Kitt's pulsating rock-operatic music, played by a core of superb on-stage musicians armed largely with string instruments and percussion, works you from the inside out.  Enthralling, but not what you'd call entertaining.

 

The second realization is that musicals can be so much more than their music.     

 

Next to Normal offers us riveting dramatic performances.  Alice Ripley, who created the role of Diana Goodman in the original Broadway production, is astounding.  Her every movement, gesture and response is riddled with disease as she goes through the motions of normalcy and drags her shell of a self from one attempted medical treatment to another.  Ripley's diaphragm-driven vocal delivery-an acquired taste-creates the impression that each musical number requires an extraordinary exertion of energy that simply exhausts her character.

 

Her performance is most certainly matched by Asa Somers, as Diana's husband, an incredible Emma Hunton as her daughter, the explosive Curt Hansen as her son, Jeremy Kushnier as her doctors, and Preston Sadlier as the daughter's boyfriend .  These are not supporting performers; they are phenomenal actors and accomplished singers who help manifest and maintain the high level of pain that courses through this play.

 

The scenic design by Mark Wendland also serves this function.  The house-a labyrinth of transparent levels and steep stairwells-gives form to Diana's delusions, and the lighting adds color to the fluctuating mood states of the dysfunctional family that dwells in it.  The pieces and parts of this production fit together beautifully to form an original, intense, world-class theatrical presentation.

 

My good neighbor to the right was correct in that this show is not entertaining.  Not in the least.  But it makes for a terrific evening.  

 

Next to Normal continues through June 19 at PlayhouseSquare's Palace Theatre.  For tickets, which ra nge from $10 to $65, visit www.playhousesquare.com.
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