Next to Normal Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Foreword

  production history

  characters

  songs

  act one - prelude (light)

  just another day

  everything else

  who’s crazy / my psychopharmacologist and i

  perfect for you

  i miss the mountains

  it’s gonna be good

  he’s not here

  you don’t know

  i am the one

  superboy and the invisible girl

  i’m alive

  make up your mind / catch me i’m falling

  i dreamed a dance

  there’s a world

  i’ve been

  didn’t i see this movie?

  a light in the dark

  act two

  wish i were here

  song of forgetting

  hey #1

  seconds and years

  better than before

  aftershocks

  hey #2

  you don’t know (reprise)

  how could i ever forget?

  it’s gonna be good (reprise)

  why stay?

  a promise

  i’m alive (reprise)

  the break

  make up your mind / catch me i’m falling (reprise)

  maybe (next to normal)

  hey #3 / perfect for you (reprise)

  so anyway

  i am the one (reprise)

  light

  Copyright Page

  “A work of muscular grace and power, next to normal features a surging tidal score by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey that—while sustaining the electric momentum of a rock opera—keeps shifting shapes. No show on Broadway makes as direct a grab for the heart—or wrings it as thoroughly. Simply to describe what occurs doesn’t do justice to the excitement this show generates. It is a brave and breathtaking musical.”

  —Ben Brantley, New York Times

  “Incongruously, sometimes agonizingly, beautiful. Grade: A!”

  —Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly

  “Next to wondrous! Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey have created an exceptional show that says something meaningful and powerful. These songwriters’ words and melodies resonate after you leave the theater.”

  —Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News

  “A startling, emotion-drenched musical about one family’s attempt to cope with mental illness. The show is an impressive achievement, a heartfelt entertainment that tackles the uncomfortable subject of manic depression with a straightforwardness that is commendable. And it’s emotional, too, in that Brian Yorkey, who wrote the book and lyrics, and Tom Kitt, who composed the music, have crafted an affecting contemporary tale that doesn’t shortchange character or plot in their attempt to tell a difficult story.”

  —Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press

  “next to normal offers a welcome, indie-like reminder that Broadway musicals can be about people rather than pyrotechnics.”

  —Brendan Lemon, Financial Times

  “Its choice of subject alone is reason to admire next to normal. Too many small-scale musicals think even smaller. But the creative team here poses a potentially hackneyed question—Is it better to feel pain or smother it?—and gives it freshness, urgency and emotional integrity.”

  —David Rooney, Variety

  “next to normal is that truly rare beast in the Broadway song and dance jungle: a creation with heart, guts and brains, served up in equal proportion. Not since Spring Awakening has a musical come along that quickens the pulse rate like this one does. With amazing balance, the book by Brian Yorkey (who also penned the often witty, always sensible lyrics) avoids the pitfalls of melodrama and sentimentality, letting us see these people in the raw, ragged state where years of living on the edge have left them.”

  —Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star

  “Rock is alive and rolling like thunder in next to normal. It is mesmerizing—an emotional powerhouse with a fire in its soul and a wicked wit that burns just as fiercely. Composer Tom Kitt and writer-lyricist Brian Yorkey have broken the shackles of tired Broadway tradition, pushing it in new directions. Next time you think the Broadway musical is dead, head off to next to normal. It’ll pin you to your seat.”

  —Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

  “A perfect musical. Simply put, next to normal is truly one of the most powerful, surprising and invigorating original musicals in recent memory.” —

  Matt Windman, am New York

  “A gutsy, unconventional Broadway show. This is not only a serious, substantial, dignified and musically sophisticated new American work, but a frequently moving picture of an empathetic nuclear family whose members are struggling, like many of us, to take care of themselves and each other, and to keep the stitches in the fraught fabric of their daily lives.” —

  Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

  “I was surprised—jaw-droppingly so—by next to normal, a musical about the effects of manic depression that is, appropriately enough, leaving audiences both teary-eyed and elated at Arena Stage’s Crystal City theater. next to normal is about smart people who deal with tricky issues of love and loss and who do so in soaring, searing melodies, in ways that prove exhilarating and roundly affecting.” —

  Bob Mondello, Washington City Paper

  “next to normal is that rare musical that touches your heart and gets under your skin. It’s a great collaborative effort. Tom Kitt, who composed the music, with Brian Yorkey, crafting the lyrics and book, propel the story to fanciful and emotional heights.”

  —Roma Torre, NY1

  “A fresh, intelligent, compassionate and extremely touching experience. Tom Kitt’s music and lyrics by Brian Yorkey probe the characters’ minds and motivation with great psychological understanding. An exciting leap into the possibilities of musical theater.”

  —Robert Feldberg, Record (New Jersey)

  “A seamless, riveting, must-see event. next to normal artfully zooms in on a family in crisis, and the things that cripple them—denial, numbness, the refusal to examine difficult issues—things that often cripple modern musical theater audiences. Kitt and Yorkey’s irresistible story will grab you and force you to look, listen and feel.”

  —Amy Krivohlavek, Show Business Weekly

  To Rita, Michael and Julia

  —Tom

  To Bev, for waiting outside every rehearsal, in the station wagon, with the dogs

  —Brian

  acknowledgments

  next to normal has been an unlikely project from the very start, and as its authors, we owe debts of gratitude to far too many people to list in a book this size.

  But you wouldn’t be holding this book in your hands at all if it weren’t for producer extraordinaire David Stone, who believed in the show, and in us, long past the point others would have given up.

  The same goes for the smart and passionate Michael Greif, who cared deeply about every word, every note, every moment, and brought our show to brilliant life.

  The amazing producers, actors, designers and stage managers listed on the following pages have each made indelible contributions to the strange and wonderful journey of this show, and we thank them. Many others contributed to readings and workshops along the way, and we are grateful to each and every one of them as well.

  The Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation provided support at an essential time; thanks to Nancy Kassak Diekmann and the Larson family.

  Thanks to Kurt Deutsch, Noah Cornman, Steve Norman and everyone at Sh-K-Boom records, early and ongoing supporters.

  Peter Askin and James Lapine guided us in finding what the show wan
ted to be, and believed we could get it there, which meant the world to us.

  So did Carole Rothman, Chris Burney and everyone at Second Stage, and Molly Smith, David Dower and everyone at Arena Stage.

  Dr. Anthony Pietropinto, Dr. Nancy Elman and Dr. Quentin Van Meter provided invaluable medical advice, though any errors are ours alone.

  Laura Pietropinto, Tom D’Ambrosio and Brandon Ivie looked out for us at moments of great overwhelmedness.

  Anthony Rapp and Alex Lacamoire are awesome human beings.

  next to normal was presented in an early form at the New York Musical Theatre Festival (Isaac Hurwitz, Executive Director) under the title feeling electric, produced by Reno Productions and Terry Byrne, Kristin Kopp and Amanda DuBois.

  feeling electric was developed at Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington (Robb Hunt, Executive Producer; Steve Tomkins, Artistic Director), and was subsequently presented in concert form at the Cutting Room in New York City (produced by Kurt Deutsch, Melissa Justin and Sh-K-Boom Records) and by Musical Mondays (Bick Goss, Artistic Director, and Frank Evans, Producing Director).

  The show was born in the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and our gratitude and great respect go to Jean Banks, Maury Yeston, Skip Kennon and everyone there, with special remembrance of Richard Engquist, a mentor and a gentleman.

  Thanks to Howard and Judy Kitt for their support throughout the years, and to the Kitt, Pietropinto and Yorkey families for standing by us and never telling us to get a real job.

  Last and most, eternal thanks to John Buzzetti, the king of Broadway, and Joy Gorman, his queen.

  foreword

  There’s something about the quintessentially American art form known as musical theater that can either drive me crazy or melt my heart forever. Even though my biggest successes as an actor have come in musicals, I’ve always sympathized with some folks’ allergic reactions to the cornball razzamatazz of the old-school shows like 42nd Street (although I do enjoy a good tap number) or The Music Man (although as a kid I did my best to memorize and emulate Robert Preston’s indelible delivery of “Ya Got Trouble”). Instead, I’ve always been much more drawn to what I consider the breakthrough shows: Gypsy, West Side Story and Sweeney Todd, shows that honor many of the traditions of musical theater—a remarkable combination of music, lyric, dialogue and dance—but turn some of those traditions on their heads to venture into the darker, more complex corners of the human heart.

  In 1994, after quite a few years in the business—most of which had been spent not doing any musical theater—I was fortunate to get the role of Mark Cohen in the latest breakthrough musical, a rock opera called Rent. Written by a young man in his thirties, Jonathan Larson, it was that rare thing in musical theater: a show that spoke directly to me about the world I lived in. It utilized music that sounded more like the modern rock I listened to than anything from traditional musical theater, and featured characters that reflected the lives of myself and my friends. I hadn’t known anyone was even attempting to write a musical like it, let alone succeeding. But what was especially exciting about Rent wasn’t simply that it was modern; it also had an undeniable emotional power, a compelling story, and an irresistible life force running through it. And did I mention the music? I relished the opportunity to help bring it to fruition.

  Rent’s journey—beginning in obscurity at New York Theatre Workshop, moving to Broadway in a flurry of publicity, winning multiple Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize, and becoming one of the longest running shows in Broadway history—has been well documented. The untimely and tragic death of Jonathan Larson, right before Rent premiered Off-Broadway in 1996, has also been well documented. But when we began rehearsals under the generous, collaborative and inventive vision of our director Michael Greif, we couldn’t know what was to come. We just put our purest hearts and minds and talents together and did our very best work, and hoped that it would connect with the folks who came to bear witness to it.

  Well, it certainly did connect with many, many, many folks, all over the world. Over the last fourteen years, Rent has changed a lot of people’s lives, my own included, in every way possible. I’ve long said that if Rent were the last great project I were a part of, I could die satisfied. Of course, I hoped that I would come across something else that was special, but I knew that it was unlikely—Rent was a once in a lifetime show.

  And then, in 2005, I was asked to do a workshop of another new rock musical. Called feeling electric (which became next to normal ), it was to be a part of the nascent New York Musical Theatre Festival. I had worked on a reading of another show with its authors, two very cool young men named Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, so without hearing anything of its score, and after doing a quick perusal of its very promising script, I said yes.

  It turned out that I had just become part of yet another once in a lifetime show, one, like Rent, that dared to tell a story that on paper might seem unlikely material for a musical. Manic depression? Delusional behavior? Electric shock therapy? It featured all of those things and more, but it worked beyond reason, because Tom and Brian never shied away from finding a way to express the core truths of what living with all of those difficult circumstances meant. And once again, as with Rent, I was blessed to sing songs that expressed these matters of life and death in a musical vocabulary that captured the feel and sounds of my favorite artists. How could I be so lucky as to have stumbled into yet another beautiful, moving, thrilling, once in a lifetime, breakthrough show?

  During our rehearsal process, Tom and Brian shared with me that they had been deeply inspired by what Jonathan Larson had done for the medium of musical theater, and I know that Jonathan would in turn be as inspired by what they had done. I so wish he could see it.

  The journeys of Rent and next to normal are similar in many ways: both began as deeply personal projects that were born out of their authors’ desire to tell a meaningful, emotionally complex story, and both began their lives in a messy but thrilling state, undeniable in their power but very much in need of a sure hand to help them iron out their various creases. Both found that sure hand in Michael Greif. I’ve long felt that Michael has been the unsung hero in the story of Rent’s success, so I’m very happy that he’s starting to get his due with regard to next to normal . I didn’t continue on in a performing capacity as feeling electric became next to normal in the winter of 2008, but I did have the honor of serving as Michael’s assistant during its Second Stage run, and saw firsthand his remarkable capacity not only to see what was missing in the piece, but to communicate it to Brian and Tom in a way that they could then be inspired to do even more brilliant work to make it better.

  Credit must be given to its producer David Stone. He was steadfast in his belief that the show could work, and gave it the time and space it needed to fulfill its potential. He took wonderful care of his incredible cast—Alice, Brian, Jennifer, Aaron, Adam and Asa—as they made their way on the somewhat winding road from Second Stage to the Arena Stage in D.C. to Broadway. It was in no way a foregone conclusion that next to normal would find commercial success on Broadway, but David, Patrick Catullo and their other producing partners took a risk born of belief in its power, and have been rewarded for it. All of this patience and care on the part of producers is rare in show business these days; in a way, it’s sort of the manner in which old-school producers used to work. Old-school methods for a breakthrough show.

  This past April, when next to normal became the out-of-nowhere surprise pick as winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, I couldn’t help but feel that the ties that bound it to Rent had come full circle. I never got to congratulate Jonathan on his award back in 1996, since he had passed away a couple of months before it was announced, so it was with a very glad heart that I was able this time to join a dinner party in honor of my two friends Brian and Tom—young men who fervently believed in the power of musical theater to tell a meaningful story that could change people’s lives—and raise a toast in celebration.

  W
hen writing musicals—at least as far as I can tell, given the material that is presented to me—it’s easy to be clever, it’s easy to be corny, it’s easy to take the easy way out. It takes guts to get to the heart of the matter, to not flinch away from the painful truths and heartbreaks that we all live through. It takes guts to write about love and life and death and grief and joy. Thankfully, Jonathan Larson had those guts, and Tom and Brian have those guts. I cannot wait to see what new once in a lifetime story they decide to tell next. Hopefully I’ll get to be a part of it. I should be so lucky.

  Anthony Rapp

  New York City

  June 2010

  production history

  The world premiere of next to normal was produced in January 2008 by Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director). It was directed by Michael Greif with musical staging by Sergio Trujillo. The set design was by Mark Wendland, the costume design was by Jeff Mahshie, the lighting design was by Kevin Adams, the sound design was by Brian Ronan; the music director was Mary-Mitchell Campbell; the orchestrations were by Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt, the vocal arrangements were by AnnMarie Milazzo; the music coordinator was Michael Keller, the production stage manager was Judith Schoenfeld and the stage manager was Lori Ann Zepp. The cast was:

  DIANA Alice Ripley

  GABE Aaron Tveit

  DAN Brian d’Arcy James

  NATALIE Jennifer Damiano

  HENRY Adam Chanler-Berat

  DOCTOR MADDEN/DOCTOR FINE Asa Somers