Live theater is back, and what a thrill that is, even viewed at a distance from the safety of one’s car outside Pasadena’s Gamble House, with Lineage Performing Arts Center’s superbly performed, ingeniously directed, imaginatively choreographed open-air staging of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Next To Normal.

Stephanie Lesh-Farrell and Paul Siemens star as 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 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 are just some of the prescription meds prescribed by Diana’s shrink Dr. Fine (Greg Safel), and though these drugs may have lessened her anxiety, they have left her with headaches, blurry vision, and no feeling in her toes.

While Dan does his best to hold his house together, and seventeen-year-old golden boy Gabe (Bobby Burkich) brags that soon “the world will feel my power and obey,” aspiring pianist Natalie (Jana Souza), a year Gabe’s junior, has only her music to maintain her relative stability, that and the attentions of head-over-heels classmate Henry (Sabin Shrestha).

Meanwhile, missing “the mountains, the dizzy heights, and all the manic, magic days, and the dark, depressing nights,” 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 sung-through Next To Normal has become a personal favorite of mine since its Broadway National Tour played the Ahmanson in 2010, and I’ve seen seven more productions since then, though none has been quite like this one, not by a long shot.

Lineage’s Next To Normal is performed on the outdoor steps, porch, walkways, and lawns of the iconic Craftsman home that once housed the Proctor & Gamble Gambles; its cast sport clear plastic protective face shields; and the audience is seated in a single row of cars facing the action, their FM radios tuned in to a station transmitting the show’s live soundtrack.

It’s a gorgeous setting, and a truly fortuitous find for directors Rob Lewis and Hilary Thomas, and though watching the production through one’s car windshield at a distance somewhat akin to a rear orchestra seat at the Ahmanson isn’t the ideal way to see a musical as intimate as Next To Normal, nor does it help that some parts of the “stage” are rather too dimly lit, or that vocals, while easily understandable, suffer from distortion when high notes are hit or several voices join together in song.

But at times like these when live theater has been replaced by virtual live streams of uneven quality, these complaints are minor compared to the utter joy of seeing living actors actually interacting with each other, and what a superb group of actors these L.A. performers are, beginning with two-time Outstanding Lead Actress Scenie winner Lesh-Farrell, digging deep into Diana’s decades-deep pain while revealing the fierceness and determination of a tiger in a powerfully sung, multi-layered star turn that may well be her finest to date.

Siemens provides topnotch support as the Goodman family’s loving but frustrated patriarch, and never more so than in Dan’s gut-wrenching final scene opposite rising star Burkich’s dynamic, charismatic Gabe.

Souza’s absolutely terrific Natalie reveals the pain of being an “invisible girl” overshadowed by her “Superboy” older brother; recent AMDA grad Shrestha makes for the most nerdishy charming of Natalie-smitten teens, and Safel excels in both his roles, particularly in sexy older rock star mode.

Not only have directors Lewis and Thomas elicited these six outstanding performances, they have made clever use of the Gamble House exterior, with choreographer Thomas scoring bonus points for integrating six Covid-masked dancers (Brittany Daniels, Caterina Mercante, Ericalynn Priolo, Teya Wolvington, Meghann Zenor, and Thomas herself) into the action, their movements embodying Diana’s bipolar brain at any given moment.

Music director Alan Geier earns high marks as well, conducting and playing piano in Next To Normal’s excellent three-piece orchestra, with Barbara Mullins Geier on flute and Jacob Bell on drums.

Design credits are shared by M Cantu, Brian Ellerding, and Mo Szalla (lighting and sound); Lesh-Farrell, Mercante, and Wolvington (costumes); and Lesh-Farrell and Sean Farrell (props). Ryan Creasey and John Guth are technical consultants. Cantu is stage manager. Next To Normal is produced by Peggy Burt.

As audiences await the eventual return of live performances, those fortunate enough to have attended Next To Normal’s brief, sold-out run at the Gamble House can count themselves among L.A. most fortunate of theatergoers.

The Gamble House, 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena.
www.lineagepac.org

–Steven Stanley
April 17, 2021

Tags: Brian Yorkey, Lineage Performing Arts Center, Los Angeles Theater Review, Tom Kitt