[NEohioPAL] REVIEW: NEXT TO NORMAL at Players Guild Theatre

[Tom Wachunas]

Rising From the Wreckage

By Tom Wachunas 

“…Who's crazy? Theone who's uncured, or maybe the one who's endured; the one who has treatmentsor the one who just lives with the pain …” - lyrics by Brian Yorkey 

   Could any of usever experience hope without first floundering in despair? Or savor lightwithout first tasting darkness? These vexing questions and their complexrepercussions resonate throughout Next toNormal, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical from 2010, with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, and music by Tom Kitt. Inaddressing them, this deeply engaging story about the damaging effects of amother’s mental illness on her whole family goes far beyond any gentle tuggingat your heartstrings. It relentlessly yanks and twists them into torturousknots. 

   For this PlayersGuild production, Jonathan Tisevich set a very high bar for himself in hisdouble-duty as director and actor. But he and his marvelously adroit castmembers have successfully joined to become a dynamic entity. Together, they’rean astonishing family unit in their own right, telling their anguished talewith practically operatic force driven by a profound and riveting emotionalintensity. They elevate Yorkey’s lyrics – which on paper might at times seemlike so much cosmetic sentimentality – to a level of startling sincerity. Inthe process, this courageous ensemble becomes  empathy itself.     

   The tiered setdesigned by Joshua Erichsen, with its pixelated images of a house and faces onpanels floating in the air, is a stark metaphor for the fractured anddysfunctional life that has crippled the Goodman family for 16 years. Theever-shifting moods and textures of that life are sharply reflected in themusic, which is an edgy pastiche of idioms flavored with rock, countrified melancholy,and dreamy lyricism, and all superbly articulated by the small yetplush-sounding live orchestra conducted by Steve Parsons.

    Diana Goodman is a housewife diagnosed withsevere bipolar disorder, and hopelessly imprisoned in a futile cycle of painmanagement protocols including an arsenal of drugs, psychoanalysis, and evenelectro-convulsion treatments. The merciless progression of her disease ispresented in such a way that we don’t learn about the shattering event thatfirst triggered it until after we’ve witnessed a number of scenes with herhusband Dan (Jonathan Tisevich); daughter Natalie (Hallie Walker) and herboyfriend Henry (Devin Pfeiffer); son Gabe (Dominic Iudiciani); and DoctorsMadden and Fine (Michael Burke). 

   In the dauntingcentral role of Diana, Keitha Brown is an uncanny embodiment of unmitigateddramatic power in the way she makes us vicarious participants in herbrokenness. With exceptionally powerful singing, she draws us deep into hercharacter’s ravaged psyche, her wounded heart, her ferocious groping for areality that makes some sense. Yet, caught as she is in her numbing inwardspiral of tears and terror, she’s not so far gone that she can’t see or dreamof a reasonable way to reclaim her real self, as she reflects with tender andurgent yearning in the song, “I Miss the Mountains.”

   To her role ofdaughter Natalie, Hallie Walker brings a poignant credibility that’s equalparts sardonic and sad. There’s an understandably bittersweet yet visceral qualityto her singing when she reveals Natalie’s feelings of invisibility, as if herlife at home has been erased. Her heart has been hardened by too many years ofneglect from her mother who has been in turn pathologically focused on herother child, Gabe. In that role, Dominic Iudiciani is intriguingly stealthy andlithe as he basks in his mother’s constant fawning, particularly when he sings“I’m Alive” with all the panache of a rock’n’roll star. 

   Meanwhie, Nataliebegins to find some solace in her slow-growing affection for her charismaticstoner classmate, Henry. Devin Pfeiffer conveys all of Henry’s amiablequirkiness with delightful aplomb. 

   And then there areDiana’s two therapists. Both are played by Michael Burke, who deftly conveystheir frustrating if not humorous cluelessness in identifying the precisenature of the affliction they’re trying to treat.   

    Jonathan Tisevich can be both breathtaking anddownright excruciating to watch in his role of Diana’s beleaguered husband,Dan. In the face of Diana’s   terrible pain, he’s an eminently loyal mantrying to be an anchor, a present haven of comfort and “normalcy” – whateverthat means anymore. It’s a sublime depth of passion and searing expressivitythat Tisevich brings to this production. As the husband and wife in this storyappear to be inexorably fading away from each other, Dan’s desperate graspingat even the faintest glimmer of hope for recovery grows all the more. That’sthe point of the show’s thunderous, ebullient closing number, simply called “Light”– the stuff that untangles our knotted heartstrings.    

   And what I most wantto know is, where on earth, if on earth at all, did Tisevich go to get thatsinging voice of his? I’d like to visit there for a while, then come back andsing to you all about it.  

NEXT TO NORMAL, atCanton’s Players Guild Theatre on the William G. Fry stage, 1001 Market AvenueN., Canton, through March 3rd/ performances on Fridays & Saturdays @ 8:00 PM, Sundays @ 2:00 PM, as wellas Thursday, February 28th at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $32.00 for adults, $29.00 for seniors and $25.00 for those17 and younger / purchase online at www.playersguildtheatre.com or at the Players Guild Box Office,located in the Great Court of the Cultural Center for the Arts, 1001 Market AveN. Tickets may also be purchased by phone: 330-453-7617.

For other commentaries by Tom Wachunas on the performing andvisual arts in the greater Canton area, please visit his blog, ARTWACH, at  www.artwach.blogspot.com
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