BWW Reviews: NEXT TO NORMAL at Musical Theater Heritage

Saturday evening marked opening night for Musical Theater Heritage's "Next To Normal" running through August 21 at Crown Center. A stellar cast of six leads its audience on a perilous journey into the tortured mined of Diana (Ashley Pankow). Diana suffers from bi-polar disorder. She lives the perfect suburban life, when we witness her breakdown, and we see the ways it affects the rest of Diana's nuclear family.

"Next to Normal" is about the horrifying experience of mental disease. This painfully effective theatrical enterprise (it is not sufficient to call it a show) reaches out, grabs its audience, shakes them, and never lets go until the final curtain. This 2009 rock musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey operates on numerous levels, but on any level it is excellent story telling.

The couple at the center of the family maelstrom is Ashley Pankow (Diana) and Ben Gulley (Dan). Both are exceptional actors. During its 2009-2011, Broadway run, "Next to Normal" earned eleven Tony nominations, won three, plus the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The original lead actress (Alice Ripley) playing Diana took home the Best Actress Tony for 2009. The meat of the role allows the actor with the blessing of this part to display an extraordinary range of emotion.

Ashley Pankow becomes Diana. Opposite her is the magnificent tenor voice of Ben Gulley as Dan. Both are excellent communicators. The audience experiences her pain and is unwittingly drawn into her private Hell. Dan recognizes Diana's difficulties and supports her through treatment. .

Diana endures every therapy known to man. She tries talk therapy, drugs, hypnosis, and combinations of all of these before attempting suicide and agreeing to electric shock therapy (ECT). Results are mixed. Drugs make her feel like a zombie. ECT wipes almost all of her memory. The several Doctors come to life in the person of the estimable Robert Hingula.

It turns out Diana's her marriage to Dan was of the shotgun variety. Their first child has died in infancy. Diana is unable to get past her son Gabe's (Corbin Williams) passing. He remains very much alive to her troubled brain. We meet him as a 17 year old seeable only to Diana.

Dan and Diana's second child, Natalie (Paris Naster) is your typical sixteen year old with typical problems with a determined young boyfriend Henry (Daniel Verscheilden). Natalie (the daughter) samples the prescription drugs from her Mom's medicine chest.

"Next to Normal" is here produced stripped down to its essential elements in the quasi-concert MTH fashion by musical director Sarah Crawford. Audience members feel the pain of these excellent performers and the sensitivity of a skilled director. "Next to Normal" is almost a rock opera. The cast sings thirty-six listed songs. All require immense skill and range. There is not a single weak performer in this very, very good cast. It is unusually deep and effective in ways not often seen.

As always, the accompanying orchestra under the baton of Jeremy Watson is far beyond good. Sets, sound, and lighting is given the MTH treatment. While spare, it is enough to communicate necessary elements while doing away with the flotsam and jetsam.

Tickets for "Next to Normal" are available on the Musical Theater Heritage website, by phone, or at the box office. Serious admires of the Musical Theater art form should not miss it.