Type – Rock Musical, contemporary musical
If you liked – Dear Evan Hansen
Next to Normal: Sadness, anger, mayhem and desperation collide with a bold rock music base
Pulitzer Prize and three-time Tony Award winning rock musical Next to Normal is a musical portrait of a standard, suburban family and the toll that grief and mental illness takes on their home life. Brought together by grief, and undone by its lingering, the Goodman family is torn apart under the same suburban roof they tried so hard to keep intact. Since is 2010 Broadway debut, the work remains poignant and relevant and continues to open doors for challenging conversations through its educational, witty, heart breaking and brave storytelling .
From a small theatre in Lindfield comes a booming sound. The music enters right away and announces itself as the main character with sustained intensity throughout. Musical numbers are belted to capture the rawness of emotion, high and low, as we ride the rollercoaster with the Goodman family. Strong performances are slightly outshone by the score, with the sheer volume of the music overpowering at times. It mirrors the production’s unsettling themes of mental health and the struggle to keep it all under control, ripping through the scenes and adding a profound heaviness to the story. Sadness, anger, mayhem and desperation collide with a bold rock base and loud, sometimes oppressive vocals that feel raw and unfiltered.
The set design utilises the space at Greenhalgh Theatre with elevated platforms on the stage that add physical dimension and expression to the emotional layers that unfold within the family unit. The design cleverly displays the emotional distance that keeps them each in view but just out of reach in such a fractured reality.
The family is made up of Diana (Izzy Tilden) who battles her way through each day with constant hallucinations and wild swings of emotion, and her husband, Dan (Simon Donovan) who is left to hold it all together. His mighty efforts land him in denial, repressing his own feelings, ignoring what is right in front of him. Together, Tilden and Donovan portray this crumbling couple with steady restraint to balance the two ends of the spectrum they’re on.
Alongside them is their daughter, Natalie (Raven Swinkels). Swinkels’ portrayal is a standout, tragically poignant performance of a fiery personality with all the wit and drama of a teenager who has felt like an invisible force in the family for years. Her vocals rise above the score and the emotion is evident as she portrays the deep longing to be seen, manifesting as fierce perfectionism that’s driven by a dread of ending up exactly like her mum. As she navigates a swirling storm of loneliness, her love interest Henry (Nye Morrison) becomes an escape from ‘normal’ life, where Morrison provides a strong performance as a lifesaving anchor in the chaos.
And then there’s her older brother, Gabe (Hugh Arthur). An abiding figure from the very start, his prominent presence was meant to create the friction that forces emotions to the surface. While Arthur does bring power to the role, at times the performance feels forced when needing to trigger each family member. It left me wishing for deeper intensity here to properly ignite the tension until it completely boils over.
The scenes between Diana (Tilden) and her doctor (Brayden Macfarlane-Walker) border on farcical, and introduce an edge of malevolence that feels like commentary on clinical overtreatment. In this part, Tilden shines in her character’s balancing act of vulnerability and resistance while Macfarlane-Walker’s delivery offers some darkly comic moments. Their wary relationship requires coaxing and ‘talking down from the ledge’ type tactics just to maintain the fragile illusion of control over a condition that has a name but that no one can truly define. And with all this, normal is still elusive.
Ultimately, Next to Normal asks if we are willing to look at ourselves and make changes. After all, what is better? And better for whom? It’s the raw unpacking of a family’s history. The story begins in the middle, floating between the past and the present to unravel the mess and try to clean it up. Yet, we come to realise that some messes are not actually messes at all, but simply life. The events that shape us are just that: events. It’s how we traverse them that sets us apart. Some of us hold it together, while others fall apart. In the vast expanse between those two extremes lies a kaleidoscope of emotion; the raw, the gritty, the scarring, and the bold, all wrapped into the human experience.
And it constantly asks, what exactly is ‘normal’? Is it what we expect will automatically happen over the course of our lives? Is it something that appears as if by magic, or something that requires a qualification? Is it even attainable? At times, it feels as though ‘normal’ is a concept created solely for other people to enjoy.
This play purely demonstrates that pretending to be normal is the ultimate trap. It forces us to behave as if everything is fine, even as the cracks widen and we spin uncontrollably. The healing only begins when the impossible standard is released and our own version of normal can grow. Even after the curtain falls, we are left with the haunting question, will next to normal be enough?
Is NEXT TO NORMAL Worth Seeing in SYDNEY?
As long as you’re prepared for the themes of grief and loss and the struggle with ‘normal’, the show is dripping in pathos underlined by a loud, edgy soundtrack that will leave you wondering if the price for normal is too much.
Is destination ‘normal’ really worth the trip? And who determines normal to be our optimal destination anyway?
Tickets and Practical Info for NEXT TO NORMAL in SYDNEY 🎟️
Presented by Sydney Musical Theatre
CONTENT WARNING: this work includes depictions of bipolar disorder, severe depression, grief, suicide, self-harm, medical trauma, and drug/medication abuse
Director: Sarah Shanahan
Producer: Althaia Frost
Music Director: Tom Borbilas
Asst Music Director: Kai Azoum
Cast
Izzy Tilden, Simon Donovan, Hugh Arthur, Raven Swinkels, Nye Morrison, Brayden Macfarlane-Walker
Author Biography
