Review: Next to Normal at the Hobby Center

THE Houston Press I wasn’t going to criticize the Houston Broadway Theatre’s production of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to normal because its lifespan lasted only one weekend for four performances. A showcase this fleeting doesn’t wreak havoc, as they say.

But after seeing Saturday night’s show, you have to be careful. There are two more shows, Sunday morning and Sunday night. If there’s room in the Zilkha Room at the Hobby Center, run there. Don’t wait!

But who is this troupe? And why the hell are they so good?

Next to normal This is their first album with the Houston company, and if this is what they can do, then please bring us more. Lots of more.

What a stunning production – a Broadway-caliber musical of the highest order. The band’s volume could perhaps have been toned down a bit for the singers, but that’s the only problem. Tim Macabee’s physical appearance is marvelous: modern mesh screens that rotate on casters, Greg Emetaz’s projections that fade into the background and dissolve in and out like they were in Hollywood’s golden age, lighting designer Alan G. Edwards’ neon-tinted borders that glow in different colors to set the mood, and glorious performances by all that will blow you away.

The little houses seen from above, like houses on a Monopoly board on steroids, are the perfect touch. But there are so many perfect touches that it’s hard to list them all. The whole show has the perfect touch.

There’s no doubt about it, this is a show as rich in terms of production design and vocal talent as any seen in Houston in recent seasons. Their mission statement reads in part: “HBT is dedicated to captivating and uplifting the Houston community by delivering exceptional and compelling musical theater productions.” Wow, that promise is delivered in spades.

Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s award-winning musical has an unprecedented first act. What other show has its heroine enter the operating room for electroshock therapy and then stop for intermission? There’s room on the musical stage for almost anything, and Normal (Broadway debut in 2009, after impressing off-Broadway in 2008) tackles the subject of manic depression and turns what could be an ultra-depressing show into about as accomplished a piece of musical theater as you can get. It’s a deeply moving, yet very uplifting, work.

Diana, a suburban housewife (Mary Faber, in a flawless and masterful performance as the battered and uncomprehending mother), is a disaster. She doesn’t know why. She hates her life, has no feelings for her ordinary husband Dan (Constantine Maroulis, from The Rock of Ages, Jekyll and Hyde, And American Idol (fandom) and doesn’t identify at all with his teenage daughter (Mary Caroline Owens), who is herself on the verge of depression, barely clinging to the lifeline thrown to her by her stoner classmate Henry (Josiah Thomas Randolph).

Diana, however, pays inordinate attention to her son Gabe (Tyce Green, a founding member of HBT, which produced the Broadway revival of Who’s Tommy), who appears to her almost as if in a dream, appearing behind her and whispering in her ear. She comes alive in his presence. He is her favorite, without a doubt. But the stress of daily life is crushing her and the fallout is scalding her family. When she makes sandwiches for her children to take to school and finishes buttering the bread on the floor, there is no denying the seriousness of her problem.

The medical establishment, represented by Dr. Fine and Dr. Madden (Manuel Stark Santos, in a superb voice), is as bewildered as Diana’s family, who have no idea what’s going on. Pills seem useless to calm their incessant rages. When the family’s long-buried secret is revealed during an ordinary family meal (a revelation that arrives with horrifying calm and hits us in the gut with utter surprise), Diana attempts suicide. That’s when the terror of electroshock therapy is brought up. There is the possibility of a cure, but it could wipe out Diana’s memories – the only gentle things keeping her grounded.

Featuring a stunning contemporary soundtrack and biting lyrics, the show never ceases to surprise by returning to the melodies of the past and spinning them with ever greater power. The soundtrack is labeled “rock,” but that may have more to do with the high vocal line and power of the voice required for the emotional force of the songs. The specter of Sondheim and, especially, the late great young Turk Jonathan Larson (To rent out) swirls everywhere, but so do Rogers and Hammerstein.

This is Broadway songwriting of an exceptionally high order. Ballads like Henry and Natalie’s “Perfect For You” or Diana and Gabe’s “I Dreamed a Dance” are lilting, charming, sweet romances, contrasting with the boisterous “Make Up Your Mind” or “Superboy and the Invisible Girl,” powerful, dramatic, dynamic anthems. Gabe’s “I’m Alive,” as he seeks to seduce Diane into his orbit and not be forgotten, is terribly effective, sung by Green as if her life depended on it. Gabe’s life, yes.

The HBT ensemble is first-rate. Perhaps even more than first-rate. There is no fault to be found with them. Their singing, their moans, their coos vibrate the ceilings. It is all exhilarating and ethereal, powerful and moving. Directed by theater professional Joe Calarco, with musical direction by Michael Ferrara and choreography by Hope Easterbrook, Next to Normal is far from normal. It is exceptional!

Next to Normal will have two more performances at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 28, at Zilhka Hall at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-315-2525 or visit houstonbroadwaytheatre.com. $32.50 – $132.50.