CREATION ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST

Brian Yorkey (lyricist/librettist) and Diana: Alice Ripley

Tom Kitt (composer) met in college and
wrote a ten minute musical about a
bipolar woman called Feeling Electric for
a workshop. Eleven years later, Next to
Normal opened on Broadway at the
Booth Theatre. 
Dan: J. Robert Spencer
Natalie: Jennifer Damiano
Gabe: Aaron Tveit
Henry: Adam Chanler-Berat
Dr. Madden/Fine: Louis Hobson

PRODUCTION DETAILS
Director: Michael Greif 
Producer: Barbara Whitman
Casting: Bernard Telsey Casting, Inc.

Next to Normal ran for a total of 754

performances (including previews)
before closing in Jan. 2011. It set not
one but two box office records for the
Booth Theatre.

AWARDS
Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2010
“Next to Normal” does not, in other
Tony Award, Best Original Score
words, qualify as your standard feel-
Tony Award, Best Orchestration
good musical. Instead this portrait of a
Tony Award, Best Actress in a
manic-depressive mother and the people
Musical - Alice Ripley
she loves and damages is something
Outer Critics Circle Award for
much more: a feel-everything musical,
Outstanding New Score
which asks you, with operatic force, to
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Score
discover the liberation in knowing where
it hurts.”
    The New York Times, April ‘09
ACT 1
Suburban mother Diana Goodman waits
up late for her curfew-challenged son,
and attempts to comfort her anxious
and overachieving daughter, Natalie. In
early morning, their son returns, and the
whole family prepares for their day.
Everything appears normal until Dan
(the father) and Natalie realize that
Diana is in the midst of a breakdown.
Dan helps the disoriented Diana.
We find Natalie seeking refuge in a
school practice room playing piano. She
is practicing for a recital, but is
interrupted by Henry, who introduces
himself and confesses listening to her
play daily. It is clear that he likes her,
but she makes him leave
We then find Diana receiving
prescriptions from Doctor Fine while
Dan questions his own depression in the
car. Fine diagnoses Diana as bipolar
depressive with delusional episodes.
Doctor Fine continues to adjust her
medications over the visits until Diana
says that she doesn't feel anything... at
which point, he declares her stable.
Natalie and Henry have grown closer,
spending time together in the practice
room. We find Natalie at Henry's house
as he prepares a bong. Natalie declines
smoking because she's scared of being
a disaster and Henry tells her he loves
her. Diana remembers and misses her
highs and lows. With her son's
encouragement, Diana flushes all of her
new medications.
We flash back to Dan, excited for a
dinner with his family and Henry, which
goes well until with a cake for her son’s
birthday. Dan has to remind her that
their son died 16 years ago. 
Natalie storms out to her room. Diana
confesses to Dan that she flushed all of
her new medication. Diana gets angry
when he offers to get a new round. Both
her son and her husband try to calm her.
In her room with Henry, Natalie vents
about her mother. Diana comes in and
unsuccessfully appeases the situation,
followed by an unseen Gabe, who taunts
her. Henry offers Natalie weed and she
takes it. Meanwhile, Dan has found a
new doctor, Doctor Madden. Diana
spends several weeks with Doctor
Madden, who appears to her as a rock
star. Her son asserts his existence.
Natalie, trying to cope, samples some of
the her mother's pills. Natalie bombs her
recital when she notices her parents
aren’t there. Meanwhile, Doctor Madden
is using hypnosis to root Diana's
trauma. Finally, Diana agrees that it's
time to let her son go. She goes home
and begins to purge her son's things.
Upon finding and opening a music box,
Diana becomes drenched in a vision of
dancing with her son, who invites her to
come away with him. She attempts
suicide.
Diana is treated, sedated and restrained.
Dan joins Doctor Madden at the
hospital, where Madden explains that
electroconvulsive therapy  is the next
standard course of treatment for drug-
resistant patients who are suicidal.
However, the therapy requires both Dan
and Diana's consent. Dan goes home to
clean up, sort his thoughts and decide
what to do. Diana lashes out at Doctor
Madden, refusing the treatment, until
Dan convinces her that it may be their
last hope.
ACT 2
While Diana begins a two-week series of
ECT treatments, we find Natalie further
experimenting with drugs and clubs.
When she comes home, the Goodman
family realizes that Diana has lost 19
years of memories. Natalie leaves for
school, where Henry confronts her. He
questions her avoidance and sobriety as
well as asks her to the spring formal
dance. She leaves him without an
answer.
Dan and Diana visit Doctor Madden, who
assures them that Diana's memory loss
is normal. The family uses pictures and
memories to trigger remembering, with
minor success, but Dan will not bring up
their son. Diana can feel a memory
tugging at her. Diana returns to Doctor
Madden by herself and he nearly
discloses the root of her trauma.
Diana goes home and finds the music
box and the memories of her baby boy
rush back. When Diana confesses
remembering her son as being older,
Dan quickly insists they return to Doctor
Madden. At the same time, Henry arrives
to pick up Natalie for the formal, but
they witness Dan smash the music box
on the floor.
Diana confronts Dan, wondering why he
stays after how much trouble she's
been. Upstairs, Natalie asks the same to
Henry. Dan and Henry both answer with
vows to stay steadfast and true.
The son reappears downstairs, which
sends Diana bolting to see Doctor
Madden. Madden assures her that
relapse is common. Diana discovers that
it's not her brain that's hurting; it's her
soul. He urges her to continue ECT
treatment. If left untreated, her chronic
illness could be catastrophic. She
declines further treatments and walks
out.
Diana explains her decision to Natalie
outside, opening up to her daughter for
the first time. She urges Natalie to go
see Henry at the school dance. Natalie
arrives and Henry calms Natalie's fears
that she might end up crazy.
 At the same time, Diana finds Dan at
home and tells him that she's leaving
him because he can't always be there to
catch her. She needs to take a chance
and deal with things on her own. She
departs, leaving her son with Dan.Dan
grieves as his son slowly approaches.
Dan grows increasingly distraught until
he, at last, faces the boy and calls him
by his name for the first time: Gabe.
Natalie returns home to find her father
alone. She comforts him, assures him
that they will be okay. We come across
Diana, alone and still hurting, but
hopeful. We see Henry and Natalie,
committed, come what may. Dan visits
Doctor Madden to get an update on
Diana, but stays to talk about his own
struggle. Finally, we see Gabe arrive,
watching over them all. Normal life
continues.
PSYCHOLOGY IN NEXT TO NORMAL
The themes in the musical deal heavily with mental illness, Bipolar Disorder,
depression, drug abuse, grief, and suicide 
Yorkey mentioned in an interview that they did a "tremendous" amount of
research. In addition, they had a psychiatrist and a psychologist consulting
along the way.
Ethics in Psychology: "One thing we said early on- was that we were not
interested in setting up a straw man of a doctor who was part of the problem,"
says Yorkey. "The story that was interesting and most compelling to us was
about the very competent doctors who are still struggling with finding the
treatments that are right for their patients."

WHY WRITE NEXT TO NORMAL?

     "Tom and I each have a number of people in our lives who have struggled with
mental illness. They have certainly been on our minds throughout our time
working on the show. We wanted to get the story right and have the medical part
of it be as accurate as possible, for them and for all people who have similar
struggles. Our original inspiration for the show came when we were in the BMI
Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop for songwriters. The final project of the
first year of the workshop is a "10-minute musical" on the topic of your
choosing.
We wanted to do something a little different. So one night, when I saw a
"Dateline" news report about ECT, I had the idea:
     What about a story of a woman who has struggled with mental illness her
whole life and all the men who have tried to help her? From this kernel,
over the course of many years, Next to Normal grew.”

"OUR GOAL WAS TO SHOW HOW INSIDIOUS

THE DISEASE IS, HOW CHALLENGING TO
DIAGNOSE AND TREAT. AND SURVIVE."