There’s nothing “normal” about Next to Normal at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati

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THERE’S NOTHING NORMAL ABOUT “NEXT TO NORMAL” AT ENSEMBLE THEATRE

Back in 2008 Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s rock musical received its earliest performances. It’s the story of Diana Goodman, a mother afflicted with severe bipolar disorder. Her symptoms are growing worse, and her medications are making things worse. Her husband and her two children are profoundly affected by her condition. Prior to its Broadway opening in April 2009, it had successful runs at an Off-Broadway theater and then at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage. Once it was on Broadway, it was nominated for eleven 2009 Tony Awards; it won three — Best Original Score, Best Orchestration and Alice Ripley for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. It received an even greater accolade in 2010 when it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, just the eighth musical in history to be honored. The Pulitzer Board called it, “a powerful rock musical that grapples with mental illness in a suburban family and expands the scope of subject matter for musicals.”

Not long after its Broadway debut next to normal (usually configured with only lowercase letters) had its first production outside of New York by Cincinnati’s own Ensemble Theatre. It opened ETC’s 2011 season in September and was so popular that it was brought back to conclude that season in April 2012, with virtually the same cast, led by Jessica Hendy, a Cincinnati native and 1993 musical theater graduate from UC’s College-Conservatory of Music. Hendy was already well established on Broadway with performances in Cats and Aida.

For CityBeat I wrote about both productions, which featured young talent including Mia Gentile, a 2011 CCM grad playing the daughter Natalie Goodman. Here are links to my comments about the fall opening [https://tinyurl.com/Normal2011] and the springtime reprise [https://tinyurl.com/Next2Normal2012].

ETC has brought the show back yet again (Sept. 13-Oct. 5), with Hendy again in the powerhouse role of Diana. Artistic Director D. Lynn Meyers says, “This isn’t a remount; this is a reinvention, a revival of the magnificent show we produced 14 years ago. We were the first theater in the country to receive the regional rights to do this show in 2011 and, after a hugely successful run, it honestly never occurred to me that we could or would do it again. But for our 40th Anniversary, we wanted to do something from the vault. In a time when there’s so much discord in our world, we needed to stop and focus on what it means to lose, to gain, to make our own choices and to stay alive. It’s an exceedingly real look at how trauma and grief can change someone and be unapologetic about what it costs to truly love someone.”

Meyers again is the production’s director. Hendy (who recently produced an autobiographical one-woman musical, Walking with Bubbles, Off-Broadway and earning a Drama Desk nomination) is back as Diana. The cast features a trio of current CCM students making their noteworthy ETC debuts: Julianne Ferguson as Diana’s daughter Natalie; Carter Minor as Natalie’s boyfriend Henry; and Jameson Zoller as Diana’s tragic son and the source of her mental illness. Charlie Clark, who in 2011-2012 played the psychiatrists who treat Diana, returns this time as Dan, her long-suffering. An ETC veteran who also works in Chicago and the Twin Cities, he is a caring if perplexed man who tries to do what’s best for his spouse. Rory Sheridan, a familiar performer on Cincinnati stages over the past decade, makes his ETC debut in the roles of the psychiatrists.

Brian c. Mehring’s CEA spectacular multi-level set from 2011-2012 has been recreated, again using his evocative lighting — ranging from fluorescents for some of the harsher, more surreal moments, warm, starry incandescents during more tender scenes. The production’s band, conducted by keyboardist Steve Goers, includes guitarist Aaron Almashy, bassist Matt Wiles, and drummer William Mullen. They are tucked into nooks on stage left and right, visible but not intrusive. next to normal has a lot of music over its 2:20 performance length, and the musicians are right there with accompaniment and sharp underscoring.

Kitt’s score is dazzling, and Meyers’s cast has the vocal chops to handle solo and ensemble numbers with power and emotion. Everhyone kicks the action off with “Just Another Day” (which is really anything but). “Perfect for You,” first sung by Dan and Diana comes back around for Natalie and Henry. For me, the show’s most evocative number is “I Miss the Mountains,” which Hendy totally nails as the sad story about how her meds have erased all the highs and lows in her life. Zimmer’s Gabe raises the roof with his rendition of “I’m Alive,” and Ferguson’s Natalie nails the heartbreaking “Superboy and the Invisible Girl,” about being overlooked. I’m always touched by “Song of Forgetting,” delivered in the sad aftermath of Diana’s electroconvulsive treatment.

Don’t think that next to normal is a downer because of the subject matter. In fact, it’s a story about the healing power of unconditional love. And it’s a good reminder of how lucky Cincinnati theater fans are to have ETC as one of our best producers.

Performances of next to normal continue through October 5, 2025. Tickets: ensemblecincinnati.org or 513-421-3555.