BWW Reviews: Wilbury Group Ends Season with Spectacular, Must-See NEXT TO NORMAL

Some great musicals are great because they take us to another time, another place, perhaps another world entirely, one unrecognizable and filled with magic and fantasy. Others are great because they offer us a realistic and recognizable image of our own lives, a mirror in which we see our struggles, hopes, joys, failures and successes. The really great ones do so while offering an audience a captivating story, deeply developed and universally human characters, stunning music and unforgettable songs with amazing lyrics. One such musical is Next To Normal, now playing as the final show in The Wilbury Group's current season.

When Next To Normal appeared on the Broadway scene in 2009, it won a number of Tony Awards, including Best Original Score, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, one of only a handful of musicals to do so. With book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, this is a rock musical that takes the audience down what seems at first a familiar path and then leads them into the middle of an unconventional and extraordinary journey.

At first, Normal appears to be treading well-torn territory, albeit in song, about a suburban family and their typical suburban lives. Diana, the mom, at first seems to be your typical wannabe-supermom, trying to hold it all together and do it all at once. We see her husband and two children, one son and one daughter, as they all struggle to survive the best way they know how. Things quickly turn more serious as we find out that Diana is seeing a psychotherapist and being treated for depression and bipolar disorder, with most treatments taking the form of lots of drugs. Suddenly, a plot twist takes the audience and the entire musical into an entirely new direction. A past tragedy continues to haunt Diana as we see her spiral downward and see her family fight for her sanity and their own.

Yorkey's book and lyrics don't play all of this as satire or parody, although there are a few moments of dark humor. This is serious drama, played straight, and expressed in a long line of amazing pieces of music. Yorkey's talent, and his major victory here, is taking all of these disparate moments in life, both great and small, and finding the perfect lyrics to describe and express them. For example, there have been a million different stories about teenage girls struggling with their adolescent lives, but few have been as perfectly and concisely summed up as Yorkey does with the song "Superboy and the Invisible Girl." It's making these kind of seemingly mundane or everyday experiences into heartbreaking moments in song that Yorkey excels at. He also doesn't shy away from creating musical moments that might otherwise seem daunting at best or impossible at worst. It's not every musical that has a song where a husband tries to convice his wife to agree to have electroshock therapy. This one does, and somehow Yorkey manages to make it a perfect, beautiful musical moment, as he does with pretty much every moment, from an adolescent boy trying to express his love to a girl ("Perfect for You") to a family trying to help their wife/mother regain her memory ("Better Than Before").

Of course, all of this is helped by the music of Tom Kitt, who also didn't just play it safe. Like Yorkey, he takes the music into some unconventional or unexpected places, and manages to pull it off. The feeling of the music and songs comes closest, in my experience, to Jonathan Larson's RENT. There are numerous emotional highs and lows, all of which are delivered by both the words being sung and the music that carries them out into the audience.

Supporting all of that is one of the season's best directorial efforts by Wendy Overly. There are a few different ways a director can be great. One is by a lack of presence in the final product, which is to say that everything happening on stage feels so natural and organic that you never realize or feel that there was a director involved. Another way is the opposite, which is that a director really puts their stamp on a production, shaping and crafting it, staging it in precise and powerful ways that wouldn't just happen on their own. The former is what Overly has done here, crafting some of the most beautiful and impactful stage moments in recent memory.

Overly could also teach a master class in how to use raised platforms on a stage for maximum effect (I doubt that class actually exists anywhere, but if it does, she should teach it). The simple, perfect set (designed by Katryne Hecht), primarily consists of two raised platforms, one higher than the other. Overly uses them perfectly, allowing the levels and differences in height to make the story even more clear and more powerful. She's also a master at using the entire stage and creating moments where two, or even three, scenes are happening simultaneously. There are many times when multiple moments are happening at the same time, involving any number of characters, something which could become muddled or unclear. That never happens here, though, as Overly keeps things crisp, clear and never confusing.

At the same time, Overly is always working to serve the story, characters and songs. There's never a time where the action distracts or takes away from the story or what is happening to these people. There's only one moment, when three actors stride down to the edge of the stage and sing, looking out over the audience, that feels clunky and awkward. It feels that way because everything else is so perfectly fine tuned and sharply staged, it sticks out a bit like a sore thumb.

Working in this show's favor along with Overly's skillful direction is her talent for assembling and guiding a talented cast. She and music director Juan Rodriguez have brought together one of the season's most brilliant ensembles and utilized all of their impressive talents.

In the role of Diana, the performance of Moira Costigan-Carraher is nothing short of miraculous. The only thing more amazing is the fact that she can do it again and again over the run of this show. Costigan-Carraher, who I can't recall seeing on stage before, is a revelation here. Her ability to nimbly handle all of the vocal and lyrical acrobatics while always maintaining a believable emotional truth behind what she's singing is exciting and, at times, awe-inspiring to watch. She handles moments where Diana is basically losing her mind as she sings about losing her mind just as well as she does moments of quiet, touching beauty. It is a performance that by itself is worth the price of a ticket.

As Diana's daughter, Natalie, Julia Bartoletti brings the kind of talent, charisma and stage presence we've come to expect from her. She is perfectly cast here as a young woman struggling to figure out her life, find herself and find something even close to a "normal" life. Bartoletti never misses a beat in both the musical numbers, where she always shines, and the character-driven, acting moments, where she proves her mettle as a performer who can act just as well as she can sing. Her chemistry with her castmates creates some of the most endearing and wonderful moments (between girlfriend/boyfriend and mother/daughter) that you're likely to see on stage.

The long-suffering husband of Diana, Dan, is played here by James Fernandes. This is another powerhouse performance, in a role that doesn't offer any easy answers for this character. Is Dan a good guy? A bad husband? The one to blame for everything? Or not at fault at all? Fernandes gives that kind of nuance and complexity to the character, allowing all of those questions to wash over him, even if they're never answered. At the same time, he uses his deep, resonant voice to convey the very recognizable and believable struggle of this man.

As Gabe, Diana's son, Andrew Iacovelli gives his usual exceptional performance. He does tend to get drowned out vocally by his castmates, which isn't really his fault. His soft, almost-whispering voice just can't stand up to the powerful singing voices that will not be denied. Still, Iacovelli makes up for this with a wonderful, fascinating performance in a unique and complex role. He's at times sadly heartbreaking and at other times seems almost sinister, but he's always believable.

Jeff Church, always a welcome sight on any stage, makes his Wilbury debut here as Diana's two psychotherapists. He demonstrates a fine singing voice to go along with his always reliable acting talent. He gets the chance to ham it up a bit, which he does very well, but also succeeds in creating just as much seriousness and depth of feeling in the dramatic moments.

On the night I attended, it was a planned performance for the understudy in the role of Henry, the young man in love with Natalie. David O'Connell certainly made the most of the opportunity, absolutely knocking it out of the park with his performance. O'Connell has an excellent singing voice, although he seemed to have a bit of difficulty with high notes on an occasion or two. Again, noticeable mostly because he was so good the rest of the time. In this role, he brought an impressive combination of adolescent awkwardness and adult gravitas, which is no small feat and can only make one believe he has on-stage success in his future.

All of the actors and every member of the creative and technical teams are a part of this show's huge success. While some of Wilbury's past musicals have been hit-or-miss, this is the most polished, most professional and most perfectly executed musical the company has produced to date. It portends exciting things for next season, but that is then and this is now, and right now, you need to make sure you see Next to Normal before it's gone.

Next to Normal is running through June 13th at The Wilbury Group, located at the Southside Cultural Center at 393 Broad Street in Providence. Performance times are 7:30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 2:00 on Sunday (May 31st only). Tickets are $15 to $25 and may be purchased by visiting the company's website at www.thewilburygroup.org.

Pictured: Jeff Church and Moira Costigan-Carraher. Photo by Maggie Hall.

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