A lingering family tragedy is at the heart of Next to Normal, the rock musical now playing at the Both Theater on Broadway. These Next to Normal tickets are more like rock opera tickets as the tragic story of a family still torn asunder by the tragic death of the Goodman's eldest son years is told through hard-edged pleas backed up by rock music.
The Goodman's are all reeling from the death, but it is the mother that is the focus of the musical Diana Goodman has recently begun to have hallucinations about her deceased son. She believes he is still alive, unbeknownst to the father (Dan) and the teenage daughter (Natalie) until one day when she is preparing sandwiches for both of them before they leave for work and school. It turns out that she has been living in some sort of a world that is Next to Normal for the past 16 years where she believes her son is alive.
Diana begins to see a therapist (Doctor Fine) as Dan silently suffers from his own depression. Diana is pumped full of drugs to the point at which she is numb to the world. Eventually the son comes back and she goes off her meds. This leads to another doctor, Doctor Madden.
Doctor Madden suggests an extreme therapy that called electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) after Diana tries to commit suicide. Next to Normal takes a new turn as Diana now has forgotten the past 19 years of her life. Dan and Natalie try and remind her of life, encouraged by the Doctor who sees this as nothing more than a simple lapse that can be fixed by the re-introduction of Diana to her life.
Eventually, one of those pictures that has been hidden from her by Dan, who is trying to protect her comes to light. The picture of Gabriel, the deceased son, reawakens all her memories. In the end she leaves unable to cope in a household that tries so hard to protect her from her warranted grief.
Next to Normal has more than one storyline though. Natalie is an overachiever at school, must likely as a way to cope with her home life. She meets Henry, but refuses to let him into her life despite the fact that she does care for him. Instead she eventually turns to drugs and alcohol to ease her personal strife. Eventually she must learn to let Henry in, just as Dan must learn to deal with his depression by letting his mind dwell on the death of his son.
Next to Normal took seven years to make the rock musical a realization out of Tim Kitt and Brian Yorkey's work. The play began as Feeling Electric in 2002. Through readings at the Cutting Room and the Musical Mondays Lab in New York, the musical began to slowly change and take the shape it has today.
