Review of Next to Normal, at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Canada, through November 11, 2013
By Graham Hicks
A successful twisting of the dramatic dial always arouses great interest, and, given the intelligence level of the audience it attracts, great expectations.
Thematically, the musical Next to Normal, that opened on the Citadel Theatre's Shoctor Stage last Thursday (Oct. 25, 2012) for an 18 day run, is not all that unusual.
The pathos and humour within dysfunctional contemporary North American families has been a familiar backyard for American playwrights since Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. This time around, the emotional rawness is given believable depth by genuine mental illness on momma’s part.
Technically, Next to Normal is darn fascinating – leaving the safety of conventional musical theatre to edge much closer to opera, pushing much closer to Stephen Sondheim than to Rodgers and Hammerstein but delivering the whole show in an over-drive tempo that would do AC/DC pride.
The six actor/singers , particularly Kathryn Akin as the lead character Diana, must be drenched in sweat and absolutely exhausted by the end of each show, so much is expected of them.
Equally drawn upon is the live six-man band led by the incomparable Don Horsburgh. Rarely has accompanying music been asked to carry so much of the dramatic load. When the mind needed some respite from the emotional barrage happening on stage, it was sheer joy to soak in the musical complexities of every one of the 38 (!) tunes in this show. However, would whoever is running the sound board please turn down the band about 10%.
And while we’re at it, kudos to lighting designer Michael Walton and the lighting technicians. The lighting was strikingly effective in illustrating both interior and exterior mood.
So why did I leave Next to Normal feeling slightly unfulfilled?
An old adage about musical theatre comes to mind: That those with great voices are rarely the greatest of actors, and great actors rarely have the greatest of voices.
Next to Normal is unforgiving. It’s an emotional mountain of a play, piling demand after demand on the two lead actors, the mother/wife Diana and the husband/father Dan. The musical side is so complex, so fast, furious and unusual, that it could only be truly conquered by the very best of voices.
Put simply: Kathryn Akin as Diana had a great voice, but isn’t the greatest of actors. The familiar Rejean Cournoyer as Dan is a very fine actor, but isn’t the greatest of singers.
Akin is to be much praised for simply staying on top of this sprawling role upon which is heaped the entire expectations of both the drama and the music. But her acting vocabulary was limited – she pulled out the same basic 10 facial grimaces, the same basic 10 dramatic poses throughout the very long show. Oh, if only Fiona Reid could sing!
Cournoyer did a fine job as an actor, being most believable in a role that, as an actor who’s at his best with quiet pauses and nuance, wasn’t a natural fit. But on the musical side, he has a good, but not a great voice, and this score calls for a tenor whose voice should get richer the higher it soars.
Both did the very best they could with what they had. I’m sure director Ron Jenkins worked just as hard as his two leads to pull out all they were humanly capable of.
But this script and score cannot be utterly fulfilled unless it has the very best actors/singers in the world in those two lead roles. The Citadel Theatre and co-producer Theatre Calgary simply wouldn’t have that kind of star-power payroll.
And let’s be fully honest. There wasn’t much innate chemistry between Akin and Cournoyer. Almost like the two characters, they worked so hard at trying to convey the intimacy of the difficult yet loving relationship in the play, but just couldn’t seem to nail it.
The supporting cast was excellent, especially U of A acting grad Robert Markus as the very active ghost of Gabe. A fine actor, with a fine voice, this young man has a gold-plated future in musical theatre.
Hats off to The Citadel and Theatre Calgary for tackling Next to Normal, for doing as best a job as possible with this show when the payroll doesn’t allow for super-stars in the two lead roles. And how exciting to think the creative team of composer Tom Kitt and book/lyricist Brian Yorkey is just getting started!
But it’s the first time in many, many years that I found myself leaving the Citadel Theatre, thinking this was a “regional” theatre production probably not comparable to an original Broadway production.