Next to Normal

Next to Normal
By Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. Rockdale Musical Society. Director: Elle Zattera. Musical Director: Joshua Ransom. Choreography: Craig Nhobbs. Rockdale Town Hall. April 4 – 12, 2014.

Compelling Pulitzer Prize winning rock musical Next to Normal engages its audience with the life of Diana, a woman with a rapidly escalating bipolar disorder, and the impact on the family of this mother and wife’s illness. It’s an unrelenting journey haunted by the spectral presence of her son, embodied as the young man he never lived to become, after dying as an infant.

Does any other leading lady in musical theatre cut closer to the bone of contemporary life than Diana? It’s as powerful a leading lady’s role as any in musical theatre, doubly so because she’s a woman leading a fairly ordinary suburban life.

Charmaine Gibbs’ Diana drives the musical, evoking empathy and drawing us into her dark, intense life journey with accomplished acting, fine stagecraft and fabulous musical theatre voice. Her richly nuanced, truthful portrayal is cutting-edge community theatre.

Rock vocals and persona make her dead son Gabe a powerful presence, and Ben James physicalizes and vocalises the role, constantly inside Diana’s head, with appealing, youthful, grunge rock energy.

Forced to play second fiddle to a long-dead brother, Diana’s anguished teenage daughter Natalie has a layered, moving arc, from alienated and emotionally locked down, to the beginnings of trusting her own feelings and entering a relationship with her mother. Emma Taviani taps into this vein convincingly, building a sense of promise beyond the play’s end, and truly delivering on her portion of the rock score, as it vents teen angst and concealed vulnerability.

The role of Diana’s husband Dan always feels relatively secondary (it’s very much in the writing), and he’s really only allowed to begin his own journey as the musical draws to a close, once Diana has moved on. Until then he’s caring, but totally overwhelmed and somewhat ineffective in the relationship. Patricio Ulloa characterises Dan as sympathetic, steadfast, yet generally rather bemused. His vocals and diction on opening night lacked the clarity and punch of other cast members; was it projection or his microphone? Blocking occasionally forced Mr Ulloa to upstage himself, most notably for me in what should have been a considerably more powerful bedside moment.

Julian Luke is warm, pleasant and credible as Natalie’s patient, sketchily written love-interest Henry.

Capable performer Tyler Hoggard’s youth works against his believability as the show’s two doctors, one of whom we’re told is a highly respected therapist, whose experience is clearly well beyond Mr Hoggard’s years, even if he’s another Doogie Howser. M.D. He does, though, deliver the vocals and narrative with assurance and clarity. He also designed the effective skeletal set, well suited to the musical’s theme.

Leading a splendid rock band, Musical Director Joshua Ransom keeps the show pumping throughout.

In this newly renovated Town Hall, particularly with this show’s rock sound, I’d recommend sitting a little further back in the auditorium if you want to enjoy the balance between voices and band to maximum advantage.

Congratulations to Rockdale Musical Society on their courage in staging this challenging Sydney Premiere, and especially to Charmaine Gibbs for her (well-supported) tour de force performance.

Make the effort to get along to the second weekend of this production, prepared for a truly touching musical, which doesn’t pull its punches, and where even the very minimal comic relief tends to disturb and challenge.

Neil Litchfield

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