{"id":11341,"date":"2014-04-27T20:11:44","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T03:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=11341"},"modified":"2014-04-27T20:13:41","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T03:13:41","slug":"next-to-normal-please-come-back-we-need-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/next-to-normal-please-come-back-we-need-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Next to Normal: Please come back, we need you"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a little late in the game to be posting a review of this show:\u00a0 today\u2019s (4\/27\/14) 2:00 matinee was the last performance of Navato Theater Company\u2019s Next to Normal<\/span>.\u00a0 It played to a full house\u2014we were lucky enough to get the last two folding chairs before the box office closed for good and had to turn away the last of the eager late-comers.\u00a0 News of this show had spread like wildfire, and with good reason.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a musical, but not like any other you may have seen.\u00a0 It deals with mental illness.\u00a0 Very directly.\u00a0 It presents the life of a modern American family, dysfunctional as any those we in the audience know from our own lives already.\u00a0 But above all the tense interactions and confusions and denials lies a shadow.\u00a0 The doctors have their ideas, their proposals, their drugs and procedures. \u00a0But they don’t know the causes of the turmoil and despair, and they can\u2019t cure them.\u00a0 The healing, partial and imperfect but a start towards something better, comes from within.\u00a0 Director Kim Bromley sums it up in the liner notes. \u00a0“You are on your own path to discovery, as are these characters.\u201d\u00a0 I know I was.<\/p>\n

Next to Normal<\/span>\u00a0 as drama, with its unflinching look deep into this family\u2019s problems, is hard to watch.\u00a0 For many, it looks to closely into their own.\u00a0 But the intensity is leavened, lightened, by its presentation as a musical.\u00a0 The music is driving and passionate, winsome and lyrical when it needs to be.\u00a0\u00a0 The singing and acting talent of each of the six on stage was uniformly superb.\u00a0 I\u2019ll briefly mention Julianne Thompson, whose nuanced performance as the teenaged daughter made this seem like a real family.\u00a0 Like one you have known.\u00a0 Alison Peltz\u2019s portrayal of the bipolar Diana is beautifully, painfully accurate.<\/p>\n

The show ends on a joyous note, a powerful anthem that brought the crowd to its feet.\u00a0 So, why post a review now, when the show\u2019s over?\u00a0 Because this show, by this cast and direction, has put together a show that really ought to be seen by a much wider audience here in Marin.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to see a groundswell of support for another showing or two on a larger stage.\u00a0 I know it would be difficult-to-impossible to arrange something like that.\u00a0 The run is over, the set already dismantled.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a show that touched and moved me deeply, and will be impossible to forget.<\/p>\n

Novato Theater Company:\u00a0 5420 Nave Dr, Novato, CA 94949 \u00a0(415) 883-4498<\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0 www.novatotheatercompany.org<\/a><\/p>\n

David Hirzel website: \u00a0www.davidhirzel.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a little late in the game to be posting a review of this show:\u00a0 today\u2019s (4\/27\/14) 2:00 matinee was the last performance of Navato Theater Company\u2019s Next to Normal.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[502,716,491,503,504,281,501,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-11341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-david-hirzel","7":"tag-alison-peltz","8":"tag-david-hirzel","9":"tag-drama","10":"tag-julianne-thompson","11":"tag-kim-bromley","12":"tag-musical-theater","13":"tag-next-to-normal","14":"tag-novato-theater-company"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"