BWW Interviews: Jacqueline Martin & Graham Fleming Talk NEXT TO NORMAL at the LOT, Emotional Scenes, and Cast Chemistry

NEXT TO NORMAL is Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey`s Pulitzer Prize winning musical about Diana, a mother and wife, and how she, with her family, copes with her mental illness. With direction by Heather Braaten and musical direction by Paul Moody, The Lower Ossington Theatre is putting on a productuion of the emotional, tearjerker of a show. NEXT TO NORMAL is a show that has become iconic in the world of musical theater, and fans can now look forward to the LOT taking it on as it`s next project

The LOT`s production of the heartbreaking yet touching show will star Kylie McMahon as Diane Goodman, Mark Willet as Dan Goodman, Jacqueline Martin as Natalie Goodman, and Graham Scott Fleming as Gabe Goodman.

The show`s siblings, Natalie and Gabe took some time to talk about the emotional nature of the show, the cast`s incredible chemiostry, and what makes the LOT such an incredible experience for both cast and audience.

BWW: With NEXT TO NORMAL you are making the transition from your previous show, AVENUE Q, to a show with real people and real emotions. Is it nice to play people and not puppets this time around?

Jacqueline Martin: Well I mean, there's something interesting about having to channel your emotions, your facial expressions, and everything through a puppet on your hands. The content is really different. So, it's nice to be a human, until you have to have actual emotions. It's a little bit more complicated I think...not that puppeting isn't complicated.

Graham Fleming: I think that the biggest thing for me is [that]? the content is extremely different. They are on opposite sides of the spectrum I guess. With puppets it's all happy, campy, dancy. In this show, we`ve had two rehearsals and everyone has ended up in tears. It's a completely different show, in the best way possible.

BWW: AVENUE Q is demanding considering you have to sing, dance, operate puppets, etc. I feel that NEXT TO NORMAL is demanding in different ways. What was it like transitioning from the demands of one show to the other?

J: It's interesting because NEXT TO NORMAL is a much more organic acting process. We aren't looking at getting into the text or the meaning, we are just sitting down and speaking and reading through all things. With AVENUE Q it was, ``these are what you are going to have to master. Your going to have to be puppeting, you are going to have to be singing, you are going to have to remember these lines, and your going to have to be dancing, and then you have to do them all at the same time.`` It was more of a multi thought process versus anorganic acting, building process. [It was] more difficult, but very different in style and technique.

BWW: Jacqueline, you seem to be getting my favourite female roles. As Kate Monster, Lucy, Joanne, you tackle big show stopping numbers. Natalie is a lot more toned down and intense than your past characters. What has it been like having to tone it down and be a more soft-spoken character?

J: It's funny because I often get cast as someone who's loud and outgoing, and more character-y, so it`s been interesting, I've been working hard to find things I love about Natalie because she's not the star of the show, and she's not an attention seeker in that way. It`s been a really good exercise in listening and trying to give more energy to the cast members than what your giving to the audience. It`s such an ensemble piece that Natalie`s a small cog in the bigger workings.

BWW: Graham, Gabe is a very unique character. What has it been like diving into this complicated and unique role

G: When I was first cast in the role I wasn't quite sure how it was going to pan out. I remember the first rehearsal going into this, we were kind of up on our feet. We weren't really working with the material, more character work I guess. We were walking around and our director said, ``Now, don't notice Gabe`` - as in me. ``Don't notice him, and just walk around and see how that feels.`` It's very strange for me because, like Jackie, I'm normally cast as the big energetic role. I``m also a huge attention seeker in real life (laughs) so playing this role where no body notices me, it's scary. It's real, it's fun, and it's something I'm very looking forward to. Also, Gabe is normally played as this, our director said,``demonic character,`` who is always trying to pull the mom into this other world. In this rehearsal process, we are finding Gabe also sympathizes towards the other characters, and kind of wants his family to be happy. So, we are finding different routes with Gabe, which I'm excited about.

BWW: So have you gotten to rehearse ``I'm Alive`` yet? That's my favourite number of the show, so I'm excited to hear about it. Are you excited about it?

G: I actually haven't, I sang through it once because we sang through the whole show yesterday. Today is actually the day I'm going to be working on ``I'm Alive.`` I'm so exited, it's one of those songs that you listen to on the soundtrack. It stands out, and you want to perform it at open mics and cabarets, for me at least.

BWW: What's your favourite song to perform in the show?

J: ``Wish I Were`` here is probably my favourite. It`s at the beginning of act two, and it's a duet with the mom and the daughter. It's really syncopated, and has really complicated time signitures. It's great, a really good song. The writing of the show is so brilliant. Performing all the songs is amazing.

G: I guess mine would be ``I'm the One (reprise).``It's just the one that's hit me the most so far.

J: It's so sad.

G: Like she said, the writing of the show is brilliant, and we're all in love with the show. It's insane

BWW: Is it emotionally demanding to do this show, especially if everyone is in tears during rehearsal?

G: I remember even sitting off to the side watching [Jacqueline] and Diana, Kylie who plays Diana, they sang this...what duet was it?

J: It's "Maybe"

G: ``Maybe,`` and I just, blah, just like tears were just streaming down my face. Even trying to be in character on the side is new and fresh to us. We are still trying to find that middle ground [of] being able to hold our emotions...

J: And not being a sobbing puddle on the floor, which has happened a couple of times (Laughs). It`s emotionally exhausting but very freeing at the end when you get through it. It's a little more of a bittersweet ending, but it does have a little bit of hope at the end.

BWW: Is it hard to get into the mindset of those characters?

G: Our director, and cast in general and crew, they've made it a very safe space for us. All of us are able to fully emote when we feel and connect to the music. I myself feel very safe to let go and just feel what im feeling. I``m not trying to hold back or anything because I'm embaressed.

J: And it's important, all of us don't take it home with us, that heavy emotional part of it. [if I did], I just wouldn't be able to function all day. I'd just sleep all day [and] not get out of my bed.

BWW: If you could play any other role in the play who would it be?

G: I would be Henry. I'm in love with Henry. (Laughs) He's just this goofy character, such a kind hearted character as well [who] just means so well to Natalie.

J: I guess one day when I`m thirty years older, I'd love to play Diana. The songs that she sings are just iconic, I love them.

BWW: In your career as a performer as a whole, what has been your favourite part to play?

G: Honestly, right now, I feel like it's Gabe. Before, it was Roger in RENT.

J: Probably my favourite was Polly in CRAZY FOR YOU. She has to really dance and sing at the same time, which is my favourite thing in the world.

BWW: The most demanding role you guys have had?

G: I'm going to have to say it again, Gabe. It's going to be a lot of work prepping to get to the point where I am able fully dive into that role, also the thought that Gabe is not real life. Diving into this, this whole experience for me has been the most, [and] is going to be, the most demanding, and is right now.

J: I can easily give the most demanding role, Kate and Lucy, I hadn't been that challenged in a role ever in my professional career. It was crazy to be able to learn it, a really difficult sing and a fully new skill set to learn, its great.

BWW: Any dream roles you would eventually like to take outside NEXT TO NORMAL?

J: One day, Canadian premiere of WICKED, it's happening, I will be Elphaba, you'll see it.

G: I'm not quit sure. I haven't thought about it enough.

J: You've played a lot of dream roles.

G: I'm a country music singer first, so I never went to theatre school, so the very first musical I ever heard of was NEXT TO NORMAL. It``s the very first musical I'd seen as well, but in Toronto. (It) was still amazing, still Alice Ripley, so when I first got into musicals, Gabe and Henry and Dan were my dream roles because that was all I ever knew. Now I'm playing Gabe, so that's exciting.

J: Natalie's a dream role and, it's happening!

BWW: What makes the LOT different from other theatres?I always feel it's a different experience going to something intimate like the LOT compared to other bigger, more elaborate theatres.

G: The LOT really, for me anyways, definitely helped me grow as a performer. I got hired for LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL here and since then I've done RENT, AVENUE Q, and this. I've auditioned for each one, they don't hand it to you, you audition for each show. They've definitely helped me grow as a performer. They've definitely grown my range, acting skills, I think they've just taken me in. [They have] helped me grow, and gotten [me] to the point where I'm ready to go audition for bigger musical theatre companies, out West productions and such.

J: I remember speaking to one of the producers here, and their jet goal is to be able to create theater and roles for people who want to do this for a career, who are young and don't have their foot in the business yet. They give them the tools and the ability, and the incredible shows and sets and technical teams, to be able to really do what they love. They try to facilitate that for young artists in Toronto. I'm so thankful to them not just for me, but for providing opportunity for young artists in Toronto.

G: And the talent they get, and the productions they put on, are amazing. Even being in them, it's just a great experience.

J: I can't say enough great things about the LOT.

BWW: There also seems to be something very intimate about there not being a stage, about everyone being on the same level, about the stripped down productions you put on. I mean, there are so many connections between RENT and NEXT TO NORMAL just in the set design.

J; We just saw the set yesterday and it looks really good.

G: So good.

BWW: I mean, the dance number for ``I'm Alive`` is going to be really fun I'd assume, just swinging round.

G: Yeah, we will definiley see what happens

J: Come! You'll see Graham take off his shirt! (Laughs)

BWW: So what do you think makes NEXT TO NORMAL so iconic? Like you said, the roles are dream roles for a lot of actors.

J: Getting more into the technical side of it, the writers, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, as opposed to a lot of the shows [that] write most of their music in 4/4 time, which is a standard writing practice, [have gone] really beyond to complicated time signatures, to make it a more conversational piece. There's not a single song that doesn't have doesn't have at least two time signatures of 6/8 or 7/8, 9/8. It's really complicated music, but for the final process to be able to give the actors the most organic speaking, story telling that they can, that's why it won a Pulitzer. It``s not just incredible music, but it's also an amazing story.

G: Yeah, I think that also this family that everybody is going to be seeing, I feel like that everybody in some way can relate to one of the characters whether it's their motive or the way their feeling, or how they act (in a) certain situation. This family's just really real, of course there's unfortunate events that happen, but the way that they get through it, that each character gets through it, I feel like everyone's able to connect to [it].

J: I think it's rare to find someone who hasn't been touched in some way by mental illness. The LOT is in support of CAMH [Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) ]which we found a great partnership with, so we're going to be doing lots of fundraising and ticket sales with them as well because it's very important to us to get that message across.

BWW: Do you have any specific moments in the show that touch you? That you hold close to heart?

G: One that really affected me the other day, I was singing with Kylie who plays my mom Diana "I Dreamed a Dance." It [is] when I [try] to pull her over to my side when she's debating suicide, and it was very surreal to me. I was just totally lost in that moment. Our director's done a really cool thing where we are learning music, but we're also doing content with the music. She'll set us in a certain situation [and] get us to feel that way. The connection between our cast... our chemistry already is absolutely insane. Just, that moment with Kylie has really gotten me.

J: For me, there's obviously lovely lighter parts of the story, I play opposite Henry, so in the second act there's three songs all called "Hey." They are called "Hey," one, two, and three, and it's like watching their story of falling in love and finding each other again. It' really beautiful and I'm lucky enough to play opposite one of my best friends from school. We both came here and auditioned and got the part. It's really beautiful, their story is lovely.

BWW: Is there comfort in going into a show where you are with familiar faces, working with friends?

J: I think so.

G: Yeah.

J: It's nice to have a strong level of support, especially with a show like this. You're really going to be putting your whole heart into everything.

G: Yeah, it is very comforting. Every show you build a family with your cast, and in some casts you stay friends with people, and sometimes it moves on. I found especially with the LOT, when you do a show, you become a family with the cast in one way or the other. I kept in contact with everyone I've done a show here with. Moving on to different shows and other content with friends you've met here, it's fun.

BWW: What's your biggest similarities with your character, and the biggest difference?

J: I guess my biggest similarity [to] Natalie [is that she] is very musical, and loves music, and uses that as her release. I think that for me is very similar. The biggest difference is she's a little bit, I don't want to say cold, but she's very shut off from a lot of her emotions. I'm not...my heart is always out there, and everyone always knows what I'm thinking all the time.

G: I'm still finding out a lot about Gabe. We're finding sides of him where Gabe exists [as a] guy who's sympathizing with his family, finding moments Diana, with Natalie, lifting them up, and keeping them going. I'm still finding Gabe, I can't honestly say my biggest similarities and differences with him.

BWW: Any last words about the show? Reel them in. Why should people come see NEXT TO NORMAL at the LOT?

G: They just have to.

J: It's going to be so good. The talent...the people we work with are incredible, and this production team and Heather Bradley, who are just the most creative, wonderful open, people, are going to create a show that people are going to be laughing and crying and wanting to come back again and telling their friends about it. It's not what the LOT normally does, it`s not puppets and dirty jokes, it`s not world famous like RENT, it's a Pulitzer winning incredible play. You have to see it to understand touching it is.

G: Copy and paste.

NEXT TO NORMAL will run at the Lower Ossington Theatre on select dates from August 29 to September 29. Tickets are currently available for online purchase.

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