A spectacular Mazie Rudolph’s star turn as a woman struggling with manic depression is just one reason Broadway’s Next To Normal makes for one of Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center’s best.

 One of only nine musicals in Broadway history to have won the Pulitzer Prize, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Next To Normal introduces us to suburban couple Diana and Dan Goodman, long-married spouses who would, on the surface at least, appear to be heading “the perfect loving family.” Admittedly, as Diana puts it, her husband’s “boring”, her son “a little shit,” and her daughter “though a genius is a freak,” but what household is perfect?

The Goodmans are far from even coming close.

 That Diana (Rudolph) is battling bipolar disorder is something we begin to suspect from the moment she sets about scattering slice upon slice of bread on the kitchen floor, the better to speed up morning sandwich prep.

 “Zoloft and Paxil and Buspar and Xanax… Depakote, Klonopin, Ambien, Prozac…” are just some of the prescription meds prescribed by Diana’s shrink Dr. Fine (Craig Sherman), and though these drugs may have lessened her anxiety, they have left her with headaches, blurry vision, and no feeling in her toes.

A dosage adjustment does manage to reduce Diana’s delusions, but it worsens her depressive state before another adjustment leaves her with “absolutely no desire for sex, although whether that’s the medicine or the marriage is anybody’s guess.”

 While Dan (Nick Newkirk) does his best to hold his house together, and seventeen-year-old golden boy Gabe (Trevor March) brags that soon “the world will feel my power and obey,” aspiring pianist Natalie (Kayley Stallings), a year Gabe’s junior, has only her music to maintain her relative stability, that and the attentions of head-over-heels classmate Henry (Andrew Allen).

 Meanwhile, missing “the mountains, the dizzy heights, and all the manic, magic days, and the dark, depressing nights” and encouraged by Gabe, Diana decides to go it alone, sans shrink, sans drugs, sans annoying side effects.

It’s about this time that Henry shows up to meet the parents and discovers a heretofore unspoken bit of Goodman history that causes us to reevaluate all we’ve come to believe about this not even next-to-normal family—and we’re still only about half-an-hour into the show.

As deep and dramatic and gripping as the best-written contemporary two-act play, the almost entirely sung-through Next To Normal takes this often overblown genre and gives it an intimacy blockbusters like Miss Saigon and Les Miz lack.

Add to that a score by composer Kitt and lyricist Yorkey that combines rock rhythms, catchy melodies, and clever, insightful lyrics, and you’ve got a musical that will leave you entertained, shaken, better informed about mental illness, and profoundly moved.

Fred Helsel directs for Simi Valley with imagination, attention to detail, and theatrical flair, eliciting some absolutely terrific performances from his cast of Cultural Arts Center favorites and newbies.

 A recent online interview documented leading lady Rudolph’s own battle with clinical depression, just one reason her Diana Goodman rings especially true. It may take a minute or too to buy the frequent Simi Arts musical director as old enough to have kids in their teens, but that minor hurdle quickly overcome, Rudolph proves every bit up to the role’s considerable challenges, playing Diana with gut-punching power, emotional range, and glorious vocals to match.

 The power-piped Stallings gives Natalie fire, vulnerability, and heart opposite the utterly charming Allen in one of the Simi Valley favorite’s finest performances to date.

Newkirk delivers on Dan’s vocal demands and some eleventh-hour dramatics while Sherman creates two distinct shrinks, each equally golden-throated.

 As for Gabe, who must a) be every mother’s dream son (and occasional demon) and b) reach sky-high notes with effortless ease, March not only meets both challenges, he adds heartbreaking emotional notes to the older sibling’s final scenes, all of the above adding up to the most memorable of the eight Gabes I’ve seen.

Choreographer Tori Cusack inserts bits of movement and dance here and there, with cast vocals and a Grade-A band under Tyler Stouffer’s expert musical direction and Kevin Kahm scoring points for his expert sound design mix.

 Scenic designer Seth Kamenow eschews a literally depicted Goodman home for a more abstract multi-level scaffolding-based look, and it works, especially as lit with particular flash and flair by Michael Rathbun, with Helsel’s just-right costumes completing the production design.

Helsel and David Ralphe are producers and Kim Kiley is stage manager.

Next To Normal may not have generated the national buzz that turned its fellow Pulitzer Prize winners Rent and Hamilton into box office bonanzas, but the emotional payoff it provides is every bit as powerful. With the amazing Mazie Rudolph doing Diana Goodman proud, the latest from Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center earns deserved cheers and tears.

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley.
www.simi-arts.org

–Steven Stanley
May 13, 2018
Photos: Jon Neftali Photography

Tags: Brian Yorkey, Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, Tom Kitt, Ventura County Theater Review