Next To Normal – Donmar Warehouse, London

Music: Tom Kitt

Book and Lyrics: Brian Yorkey

Director: Michael Longhurst

Next To Normal won a Pulitzer Prize in 2010, two years after it opened Off-Broadway, but it’s only now that the musical reaches London. In the intervening years a lot has changed about the way we talk about mental health and because of this Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s show is surprisingly direct and, in some places, shockingly explicit. It seems a little out of step with 2023.

The story of a wife and mother battling depression may just be too triggering for many to enjoy despite Kitt’s buoyantly rocky tunes. Diana Goodman waits up for her son to come home every night. She worries that he may have been killed in an accident or by bird flu. Her love for him eclipses that for her daughter. Indeed, in the first song, Diana calls Natalie a freak. It may be made in jest, but Natalie’s drive to overachieve is fuelled by energy drinks that she gulps down in the middle of the night so that she can continue to study. A psychologist would say her behaviour is a symptom of neglect.

In this same song, Diana confesses that her husband is boring and she isn’t too far from the truth. Dan, steady and solid, proclaims that his wedding vows are forever, that he’ll love her through thick and thin and depression. This kind of love suffocates Diana.

When we first see signs of her bad mental health – manically making sandwiches on the kitchen floor – it seems as if Diana is suffering from some kind of 1960s hysteria which second-wave feminist Betty Friedan called ‘the problem with no name.’ Feeling trapped by early pregnancy and the resulting marriage, Diana has never fulfilled her potential as an architecture student. Instead, it appears that life in the domestic space – safe and steady like her husband – has worn her down. She feels as if she will “die alive”.

But in a first act twist, which would be unfair to divulge, the audience realises that her mental illness comes from another source. It will take a lot of pharma-psychology to bring stasis to Diana’s problems rather than cure them and the musical is unflinching in showing how mental illness is treated from talking therapy all the way to ECT.

So what kind of music should accompany such a harrowing story? Kitt throws in almost every American music genre possible from soft rock in such songs as I Am The One to indie rock in Song of Forgetting. The final number Light is pure musical theatre heaven. This eclecticism means that the musical slightly lacks a coherent identity and with few motifs or repetitions like those used by Andrew Lloyd Webber or Sondheim for example, Next To Normal comes close to being a concert.

However, this is not a criticism as the performances and the story provide the continuity that the music doesn’t. As Diana, Caissie Levy is phenomenal, a real powerhouse, and her voice, especially in the country-inspired I Miss The Mountains, is as clear as Alpine air. Eleanor Worthington-Cox is also excellent as Natalie, the daughter destined to become her mother. Initially, it seems as if Worthington-Cox peaks too early, belting out her sections in the earlier numbers, but this enthusiasm matches her character’s restlessness and insecurity. Jamie Parker is solid as her solid father, capturing the weakness that comes with loving too much. And Jack Ofrecio has a wonderful timbre in his voice as Natalie’s sweet-natured boyfriend Henry.

But it is Jack Wolfe as Diana’s son who really impresses and who steals the show as his character must. When Wolfe sings I’m Alive with a microphone he acts like a perfect rock star, channelling a little bit of Harry Style’s charm into his performance. It’s a breath-taking turn from the young actor and his voice is perfect for the rockier compositions by Kitt.

It seems incredible that all the action takes place in a kitchen, wonderfully and intricately designed by Chloe Lamford that takes up all of the Donmar’s stage. Jars of pasta are placed on the fridge, knives hang next to the sink and chopping boards rest against the sink. It’s the kitchen you’ve always dreamed of having. An accomplished band of six sits above the stage always ready with their electric guitars for the heavier tracks. The set demonstrates how easily security can become sterility.

Next To Normal is already sold out for its entire run which is no surprise. This is the biggest hit the Donmar has had for some time. We can only hope it transfers.

Runs until 7 October 2023