By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: **** RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

WHEN?: Monday 14 August, opens 22 August and runs through 7 October 2023 UPDATE: Transferring to London’s West End in June 2024 Details

Think Dear Evan Hansen but where the mental health focus is on a middle-aged mother spiralling out of control rather than a struggling teen.

• Read on for reasons including how this is hard-hitting and well-performed material which is already finding its audience

Next To Normal was a Broadway hit before Hansen in 2009 and was nominated for 11 Tonys, winning three including Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Score and Orchestration.

With music by Tom Kitt and book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, this is very much a rock musical and makes its UK debut at this intimate 251-seat London venue thanks to its artistic director Michael Longhurst.

Caissie Levy plays Diana Goodman, a suburban mother in the US, who has bipolar disorder and very different relationships with her teenage son and daughter.

Levy’s great casting, has a strong voice yet can also burrow under the skin of our protagonist and she has most recently appeared on Broadway in Leopoldstadt and Longhurst’s own production of Caroline, Or Change.

We follow Diana’s treatment and there’s humour in early number My Psychopharmacologist And I as she riffs on The Sound Of Music observing ‘These are a few of my favourite pills’, surrounded by her nearest and dearest who shake them like percussion and keep an eye on the fridge door in the family kitchen with neat revolve which serves as the setting for much of the action.

The casting is similarly strong around her with Jamie Parker (Guys and Dolls, Savoy) as the devoted husband trying to do the right thing while occasionally dad dancing and Trevor Dion Nicholas (Aladdin, Prince Edward Theatre) playing Diana’s doctors including 1 as a Robbie Williams-esque rock God.

But we found ourselves most impressed by the 3 younger members of the cast. Jack Wolfe gives a charismatic turn as much-loved son Gabe especially during recurring song I’m Alive and his relationship with his sister Natalie played by Eleanor Worthington-Cox, a Best Actress Olivier winner for Matilda: The Musical, Cambridge Theatre) is well explored in song Superboy and the Invisible Girl.

It’s a credit to both she and Jack Ofrecio who plays her boyfriend Henry that we totally believed in their mismatched relationship and were rooting for it towards the show’s close.

Next To Normal is timely in that it explores a mental illness subject like Groundhog Day which closes at the Old Vic this week although its sense of humour is nowhere near as refined as that show.

At nearly 40 songs, it also felt a little long despite its running time but there’s no doubt that this is hard-hitting and well-performed material which is already finding its audience at this powerhouse venue.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Donmar Warehouse Tickets
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