Next To Normal

Over the past decade I have reviewed this unique musical five times. I’m not complaining. It’s a truly brilliant show and easily in my list of Top 10 Musicals of ALL time.

However, it’s fair to say that a show about a family being torn apart by the mother’s mental illness - 16 years bi-polar - is not your average fare. This is a very personal show that is confronting by reminding us that we are all human. It’s special in all aspects, as its four Tony Awards (from 11 nominations), a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and various other awards testify.

But is it a downer? Heck NO! It’s uplifting, evocative inspirational, moving, witty, sometimes outright hilarious and IMPORTANT. It has things to say - things we shy away from saying in public. Mental illness is still taboo, and we don’t mention the toll it takes on an entire family. Director Nathan French states clearly that he wants people in the audience to connect, to feel that there are other people out there who feel exactly how they do.

Javeenbah is a little theatre company on the Gold Coast that punches way above its weight – and Nathan French is one of a handful of young directors here who truly knows his stuff. He has by-passed any production tricks or focus pulling diversions to concentrate on what really counts in this show - the emotional connection. Ultimately this is a show about love, and how far it pushes us. It doesn’t need big production tricks (just as well since Javeenbah operates on a miniscule budget) but it does require truth and honesty, and this production has that in spades. The set is simple – a normal looking house in the burbs, but it works a treat.

Most importantly the show needs incredible singing. Though billed always as a rock musical, the music itself is complicated, full of descant, counterpoint, and dissonance. At times it’s almost operatic, even though it swings between out and out rock and gentle waltz time. It needs great voices and a brilliant vocal director. Fortunately it has both, with a sensational cast and a dynamic MD (and Assistant Director) in Taylor Holmes, who absolutely nails the vocal gymnastics, giving us harmonies to die for.

There are no weaknesses in the stellar cast either.

Rowena Orcullo Ryan gives the mentally ill Diana gravitas and empathy which make her a heart-breaking, rather than pathetic, figure. Her top vocal register is as pure and true as you will ever hear, and if songs like “I Miss the Mountains” (about the glorious manic highs bi-polar brings that are decimated by meds) don’t bring a lump to your throat, then you truly are made of stone. Ms Ryan plays the very ordinariness of the character, and that draws us even closer and makes the connection stronger - no Diva, leading lady, “actor” elements in the performance, just an honest middle class wife and mother desperately clinging to sanity and trying to save her family from herself. Small wonder we are so drawn to her.

Lee Stoka has just the right presence as husband Dan, forced to be a rock and stop the family disintegrating, even though he is falling apart himself. The frustration, anger and, above all, love he feels is played subtly, but his voice conveys all that his actions cannot. A stellar performance with some spectacular heartfelt singing, as in the beautifully simple “A Light in the Dark.”

When Yasmin Fitzgerald shows us the anger and fear in daughter Natalie, afraid of succumbing to her mother’s illness herself, and pushed aside in the family, I thought “wow, what a find.” And she just got better as the show progressed. Although only twenty, she has a wealth of experience and I shall certainly be looking out for her in future productions. She nailed it.

Peter Santos gives Henry (Natalie’s boyfriend) an honest normalcy amid chaos. He has an easy-going stage presence that is very appealing, and of course the perfect voice for the rich harmonies.

Mitch Walsh, a fine director in his own right, as both of Diana’s psychiatrists, is a force of nature, as I have seen in other productions. Towering physically above everyone else on stage, he downplays his natural charisma (not an easy thing to do) except for a few hilarious OTT moments.

But the biggest surprise and breakout performance for me is Hunter Wall in the role of the mysterious all controlling son Gabe. Hunter vacillates between neediness and control, always at the centre of his own, and his mother’s, universe. He owns the stage at every entrance - part of that is Hunter’s talent, part is French’s direction. After all, it’s Gabe’s very presence that is tipping Diana over the edge into insanity and slowly killing the rest of the family. Wall gives Gabe an edge, a tension, that commands focus. His rendition of “I’m alive”, for which it’s easy to substitute “Look at ME!” is absolutely electrifying – and he brings an intense physicality to Gabe that I haven’t seen in other productions. He's in your face, disruptive, demanding. This is a very exciting young talent.

There is a line in the show, “Pain is the price we pay for feeling.” And don’t we all know that, in real life, that is the truth? And without feeling, we can’t love – which would make being here pretty pointless on all levels. This is theatre of the highest level, and to see it performed so well by a small community company is a gift to us all. So see it once, or maybe twice…and let yourself feel a little. You’ll be glad you did.

Coral Drouyn

Photos: Buttery Smooth Images