Review: NEXT TO NORMAL Next to Perfect at Oyster Mill

NEXT TO NORMAL is an extraordinary musical, one that covers everything that it seems musical theatre shouldn't - mental illness, medical ethics, suburban dyafunction, familial dysfunction, and ambiguity right through to the ending and beyond. And it does it marvelously, to the tune of eleven Tony nominations and three wins, along with a Pulitzer Prize for drama. It is one of the musicals - though it's no musical comedy - that this writer can watch repeatedly without wearying horribly of it. And it's one that really does bring new insights every time it's seen.

Just on the Oyster Mill Playhouse stage, Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt's masterpiece of total dysfunction is the perfect musical for Oyster Mill. It's a show that's hopelessly lost on a large stage, better suited, unlike most musicals, for a small stage. In the Oyster Mill space, better yet, it's as if one were sitting within the home of Dan and Diana, completely present for all that breaks down, completely present for every psychiatric examination Diana seeks. The intimacy of Oyster Mill made this one of the most riveting productions of this show this writer has seen.

Director SFJ Martin brought together a particularly fine cast for this production, of whom most, surprisingly, are new to Oyster Mill. In particular, Michael Zorger is perhaps the finest Dan that this writer has seen in a community theatre production of this show. He's caring to a fault while showing all of his own cracks - Diana may be the schizophrenic, but her husband is no prize, and Zorger makes Dan's positives, his vulnerabilities, and his warts all immediately visible, as they should be.

Alyssa Dienner is no slouch, however, as Diana; she's perfectly cast. Although there's a prior movie, DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE, the part played by Carrie Snodgrass in that is nothing like Diana, whose madness is not based in an unhappy marriage but in real mental illness issues. Dienner brings on a Diana whose highs are above the ceiling, whose lows are beneath the earth, whose disorientation is palpable. It's a lovely piece of work, especially combined with the feeling in her singing. Dienner's husband, Adam Dienner, is also delightful, though unlovable, in a dual role as Diana's negligent, self-important psychiatrists, who juggle pills, therapies, and ECT as various tools in a series of trial-and-error efforts to improve Diana's condition.

Diana goes through all of the extremes of feeling for bipolar and schizophrenic treatments - feeling that medication is suppressing any real emotion, loss of memory, disorientation, living in a chemical fog, and determination to throw all the pills away and go about without medication. But all of these aren't her ride alone. She brings along Dan, her daughter Natalie, a musician (beautifully portrayed by Alyssa Rhodes), and Natalie's sometimes-boyfriend, Henry (Nik Olson), the stoner jazz lover who in many ways is the only "normal" person around. And then there's Gabe, her son - what about him? Gabe is played by Ryan Dean Schoening, and he brings Gabe an interesting turn. His "I'm Alive" is less frenetic than many performances, with an intriguing sexuality to it. In a show that's about character development more than anything, when most have little to none of it, Schoening's Gabe shows more change than many productions allow, and it's nice to see. In this production, all the characters develop. Do they grow? Not necessarily, but they do change, none of them static.

Lindy Mack as musical director brought one of the best orchestra pits of the season to date, with a string section that's vital to the sound of this show.

What little comedy is in this show is mostly black humor - unsurprising, given the subjects. There are no easy answers, no magic wands, and the show ends ambiguously, as it must, since as it closes Diana's therapeutic journey, Dan's journey to find himself, and their daughter's journey into early adulthood are all far from finished. This is not a show for those who want neat closure to their stories. There's no closure, just as any given point of a life lacks closure. There's no clear-cut happiness, no brass ring for anyone to grab. But that doesn't mean there's no hope, though the only constant in the show, as in life, is change.

This is one of the most perfectly realized musicals Oyster Mill has done, and there is much to congratulate here. This is the way the theatre should make use of its space. Few theatres in this area are so well equipped to handle the small musical, just as most of them have stages too large to make farces or drawing room murders feel properly sized. It's a wonderful thing to see.

Up next at Oyster Mill, another show calling for Oyster Mill's stage size and spatial intimacy: HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES. Call 717-737-6768 or visit oystermill.com for tickets and information.

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