Who you calling normal?

“Next to Normal,” a musical that earned both a Pulitzer Prize in drama and three Tony Awards, is being performed through October 28 at the Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. It’s a joint production of Arizona Theatre Company and San Jose Repertory Theatre. “Next to Normal” features book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt.

When the Broadway production went on tour, Arizona wasn’t in the line-up. Instead, Valley fans of “Next to Normal” traveled to San Diego’s Balboa Theatre and other parts to see the show. I first saw “Next to Normal” with my daughter Lizabeth in San Diego on a night Alice Ripley reprised the role of “Diana.”

The Arizona Theatre Company production features Kendra Kassebaum (Diana), Joe Cassidy (Dan), Jonathan Shew (Gabe), Andrea Ross (Natalie), A.J. Holmes (Henry) and Mark Farrell (Dr. Madden and Dr. Fine). All deliver genuinely moving performances and powerful vocals, which are strongest during shared musical numbers filled with heartwrenching harmonies.

“Next to Normal” simultaneously explores several relationships — husband and wife, mother and daughter, patient and doctor, girlfriend and boyfriend. Even mother and son, as Diana is haunted by delusions that the son who died during infancy is now grown and still in her life. Arizona Theatre Company’s production capably balances the attention and importance given each one. Though Dan and Diana’s relationship feels like a hot burning sun, not everything is forced to rotate around them.

I enjoyed Kassebaum’s performance no less than Ripley’s, but struggled to picture her in mother mode given the fact that she looks nearly as young as the actress playing daughter Natalie. It’s equally hard to imagine that a woman taking medications for bipolar disorder would be quite that thin. Still, Kassebaum exquisitely conveys the emotions of a woman vanquished by vacillations between extreme highs and lows.

“Finale: Light” from the ATC production of “Next to Normal.” Photo Tim Fuller.

Seeing “Next to Normal” is especially poignant for those living with mental illness in the family. They know the toll it takes on everyone it touches, and will feel most keenly the musical’s explorations of what causes mental illness and what’s best done by and for those who are affected. But others will find plenty of material that resonates.

Can we be too trusting of our doctors? Would we choose to lose bad memories if we knew the good ones would go too? How important is happiness? When should we put self before others? Why does so much healing hurt? Is loss the price we pay for love? What if a cure is worse than the symptoms? How do we balance the needs of various family members? And what’s really normal?

“Next to Normal” is directed by ATC artistic director David Ira Goldstein, and Kathryn Van Meter serves as assistant director. Christopher McGovern is music director, John Ezell is scenic designer, Kish Finnegan is costume designer, David Lee Cuthbert is lighting and projection designer, and Abe Jacobs is sound designer. Together they create a production that’s delightfully playful despite its serious subject matter.

The Arizona Theatre Company set has a ground floor and second level, plus an elevated area traversed by Shew when the family feels highjacked by Gabe’s grip on Diana. The center looks a bit like someone used a cookie cutter to create the cut-out of a house. It’s got several layers, including one that’s clear and conjures images of broken glass. The house is sometimes filled with blocks of bright colors, white clouds rolling behind four white windowpanes or a cascading flow of neon-colored pills.

Several “Next to Normal” scenes incorporate the bright colors that have come into fashion only recently, giving the musical a fresh new feel. Some elements, including square tiles of light traveling along the floor and tall towers with protruding dollhouses, feel like overkill. It’s all over the top in a scene that introduces Diana’s second doctor as if he was the star of a weird “Hair” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” mash-up. Even so, ATC’s production is a creative conduit for the emotional electricity at the heart of “Next to Normal.”

“Next to Normal” is one of those rare musicals, like “Rent,” that treats one of society’s toughest challenges authentically rather than artificially. Though dialogue in several scenes conveys information about diagnosing and treating mental illness, it never feels contrived or condescending. And it never interferes with story or song.

Six musicians play for “Next to Normal” — including Christopher McGovern (conductor/pianist), Jeff Snider (percussion), Claudia Vanderschraaf (cello), Timothy Blevins (violin/keyboard), Steve Anderson (bass guitar) and David Shoup (electric/acoustic guitar) — and several are visible behind scenes taking place on the set’s ground level. Their music is magnificently moving.

Arizona Theatre Company has partnered with several Arizona agencies to share information about mental health and community resources with interested audience members. Partner agencies staffed resource tables at the Herberger Theater Center for Thursday night’s performance and Friday’s audience enjoyed an exhibition by Art Awakenings, which promotes empowerment through creativity for youth and adults living with mental illness.

Several works will be exhibited at the Herberger Theater Center throughout the show’s run, and resource partners will be on hand for the talkbacks that follow certain performances. Arizona Theatre Company’s play guide features information on both the production and mental health related issues, maximizing the musical’s potential for raising awareness about mental illness and its impact on individuals, families and communities.

Learn more at www.arizonatheatre.org.

— Lynn

Note: Those who attend today’s 1 p.m. matinee can stay after the show for a free post-show discussion. Click here to learn about additional community engagement opportunities. Click here to enjoy a PBS interview with Yorkey and Kitt.

Coming up: Artist goes underground, In a New York minute

Feeling next to normal

Alice Ripley (L), Aaron Tveit (center) and J. Robert Spencer in "Next to Normal" at the Booth Theatre (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Some musicals mirror our lives. Others manage to change them. For our family, “Next to Normal” did both. So news that it’ll open Arizona Theatre Company’s 2012/13 season hits home. Our son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during middle school, and the road from first symptoms to stability was a rocky one.

For many years, the everyday experiences of living with mental illness took a toll on every member of our family, including Christopher’s two younger sisters. For Lizabeth, who’s long been interested in stage and screen, the musical “Next to Normal” felt an anthem of sorts in ways that only she can fully explain.

“Next to Normal” imagines the life of a suburban family fraught with depression and denial. Parents Diana and Tom battle their own demons, and each other, long after the death of son Gabe. Other characters include daughter Natalie, a friend of hers named Henry and Doctor Madden.

It features music by Tom Kitt, and book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey — and is being directed for ATC by the company’s artistic director, David Ira Goldstein. The Broadway production won a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for drama and three Tony Awards, including one for best musical score.

"Next to Normal" on Broadway (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Lizabeth saw the musical during its Broadway run at the Booth Theatre, and we traveled together last January to see the touring production featuring Alice Ripley (who originated the role of Diana on Broadway) at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego. I’m hoping she’ll be on fall break during Arizona Theatre Company’s Oct. 11-28 run in Phoenix.

If not, we’ll continue our tradition of exchanging show stories. I’ve enjoyed hearing her accounts of everything from “Seminar” to “Porgy and Bess.” Some shows, like “Godspell” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” she’s seen more than once. Others, like “The Book of Mormon,” are tough to take in on a college student’s budget.

If Lizabeth gets to “Freud’s Last Session” at New World Stages in NYC, we’ll be able to compare notes on imagined conversations between Sigmund Freud and C.S Lewis — because Arizona Theatre Company is co-producing the Southwest premiere of this work with San Jose Rep as well. A Feb. 14-March 3 Phoenix run means those of you with a warped sense of humor have Valentine’s Day planning in the bag.

The 2012/13 season for Arizona Theatre Company also includes “Lombardi” (a play about Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi), “Emma” (a musical based on Jane Austen’s novel), “The Sunshine Boys” (a Neil Simon play about comedians reuniting to rehash their old schtick) and “Clybourne Park” (a play exploring race and real estate in America, which received the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in drama).

Theater has long been a normalizing force amidst circumstances sometimes isolating and unpredictable. Works like “Next to Normal” remind families living with mental illness, or grief following the loss of a child, that they’re not alone. I’m not sure whether seeing “Next to Normal” again will feel more like applying a bandage or ripping one off. Both are necessary for healing.

— Lynn

Note: Click here to learn more about Arizona Theatre Company’s current season and here to explore their 2012/13 offerings (show are performed at both Tucson and Phoenix venues)

Coming up: Dust in the wind

Update: “Clybourne Park,” which my hubby James saw during his last trip to NYC, has been nominted for several 2012 Tony Awards — including best play. Click here for a full list of this year’s Tony Award nominees. 5/1/12

Book to stage: The Great Gatsby

Last year at about this time, Stephen Wrentmore dug out his very old copy of “The Great Gatsby,” the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel published in 1925 — considered by many the “great American novel.”

He was talking at the time with David Ira Goldstein, artistic director for Arizona Theatre Company, about possible programming for the 2011-12 Arizona Theatre Company season. Wrentmore was named the company’s associate artistic director in January, and will be directing “The Great Gatsby” for ATC later this season.

The thrill of returning to “The Great Gatsby,” says Wrentmore, was greater than any other experience revisiting works he’d previously read. Reading it cold as an adult, he muses, beats being force fed the novel as a child. “It’s such complex and rich writing for a hungry mind,” shares Wrentmore.

This first edition of The Great Gatsby was sold at auction by Christie's for $163,500

American students are expected to read “The Great Gatsby” but that’s not the case for students in London, where Wrentmore was born and raised. “I read ‘Huckleberry Finn’ by accident when I was 11 or 12,” recalls Wrentmore. Seems immersion in the writings of modern American authors isn’t considered essential within the British education system.

Wrentmore discovered American novels shortly after taking his exams at age 16, and says he soon became “obsessed with American literature.” Wrentmore recounts reading American novelists like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald through the end of his university studies — when he finally got to visit America.

He first traveled to Arizona in 2000, and still marvels today at the differences between British and American culture. Comparing life in Arizona to life in London, he says, is like comparing two distinct languages. “I knew in my head that it would be different,” shares Wrentmore. But “the different energy levels” of Arizona life and London life are more stark than he’d imagined — by virtue, he says, of both climate and distance.

“Europeans walk everywhere,” reflects Wrentmore. “And there’s a greater sense of the outdoors in Europe.” In London, he says, you meet people on the pathways. “There are more opportunities for random encounters.” In Arizona, he’s observed, people seem to live in their cars. There’s no popping out to the market late at night unless car keys are involved, and it’s isolating.

Hence the added importance of arts and culture to Arizona communities, reflects Wrentmore. People who attend a concert or play have a shared experience. They develop a sense of community — something Wrentmore says we need more of. The arts, adds Wrentmore, forge a connection between “our common humanity.”

Wrentmore has been busy casting “The Great Gatsby” in Tucson, Phoenix and NYC — but says he’s only about 70% there so far. The Arizona Theatre Company production of “The Great Gatsby,” the final work in their “America Plays! Celebrating Great American Stories” series, runs Feb. 25-March 17 in Tucson and March 22-April 8 in Phoenix.

Cover of my daughter Jennifer's $12.95 copy of The Great Gatsby

“People have great expectations,” reflects Wrentmore. “We have to tell the story in a way that resonates with contemporary audiences.” Wrentmore recognizes that whatever they do, it’s likely to collide with various audience member visions of the work. “For every reader of ‘The Great Gatsby,’ there’s a different Gatsby,” says Wrentmore. “It’s completely liberating.”

“Some people won’t get it,” says Wrentmore, “and some will see a truth in it.” Wrentmore says he feels more freedom to choose historical periods and other elements when directing the works of Shakespeare. But “The Great Gatsby,” he says, must “relate with the period and how people remember the story.”

Still, Wrentmore says he’s observed that people’s memories of “The Great Gatsby” are hazy. You can ask anyone, he says, about “The Great Gatsby.” They all know it and they all have an answer — a different answer. Not all novels translate well to the stage, according to Wrentmore. But he sees “great theatricality” in the work, and is certain it’ll travel to the stage “with elegance.”

“The Great Gatsby” has been adapted several times for the big screen. The 1974 film starred Robert Redford and a 2012 film will star Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s being filmed in Australia and directed by Baz Luhrmann, and will be released by Warner Brothers Pictures in both 2D and 3D on Christmas Day 2012. But it’s rare, according to Goldstein, for the Fitzgerald estate to grant rights for theatrical adaptations. They’ll be performing an adaptation by Simon Levy.

Wrentmore notes that “The Great Gatsby” is supremely relevant for contemporary American society. “These characters live in a bubble of privilege,” says Wrentmore. “They drink, lay about and engage in dangerous liaisons.” It’s hardly a reflection, says Wrentmore, of the Protestant work ethic in which folks work hard for money they then put to good use.

“I come from a society that believes in a sense of society and culture,” says Wrentmore. “We give back.” But the characters in “The Great Gatsby” don’t give back. Wrentmore notes that the Gatsy story “kicks us again about the elusive idea of the American dream.”

“These characters are, for the most part, the one percent,” says Wrentmore. Just a few of them “represent the 99 percent.” Fitzgerald’s tale reminds us all to ask ourselves what it really means to be successful. And to consider, once we’ve achieved wealth and status, what we ought to be doing with it.

— Lynn

Note: The West Valley Arts Council is featuring “The Great Gatsby” in “The Big Read,” a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. A visual arts competition for ages 12-22 closes on Dec. 8 so click here ASAP for details if you or someone you know might like to participate. 

Coming up: Musings on “Mozart’s Sister,” Visual arts classes for youth, Ethnic studies translated for the stage

Update: Arizona Theatre Company is seeking donations of new and used copies of the book “The Great Gatsby” — which can be dropped off at The Temple of Music and Art in Tucson or one of three Phoenix locations — the Herberger Theater Center, the ATC Phoenix box office and the Downtown Phoenix Partnership. Watch the education section of the ATC website for details coming soon. And click here to check out the NEA’s “Big Read” blog.  12/06/11

Seeing red

It’s starting to feel like a bit of a conspiracy theory. Now that my daughter Lizabeth is readying to leave Arizona for college, several of the shows she’s most eager to see have started popping up around the Valley.

We were “seeing red” recently when we realized she’ll be well into her freshman year (at a college yet to be decided) before the Arizona premiere of a play that won six 2010 Tony Awards — including “best play.”

The work is John Logan’s “Red” — which is based on the true story of an artist grappling with “the commission of a lifetime.” The play is described as “a searing portrait of an artist’s ambition and vulnerability.”

Apparently matters are complicated by a new assistant who questions the artist’s “views of art, creativity and commerce.” Their master/novice dialogue explores an age-old query: “Is art meant to provoke, soothe or disturb?”

“Red” is the final work in the recently unveiled Arizona Theatre Company 2011-2012 season, which opens with a world premiere titled “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club.” It’s a Jeffrey Hatcher work based on “The Suicide Club” by Robert Louis Stevenson and characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The 45th anniversary season slate for Arizona Theatre Company also features the Southwest premiere of Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage,” which won the 2009 Tony Award for “best play.” Picture grown-ups trying to be civilized as they discuss their children’s misadventures on a playground — only to unravel as “political correctness” dissolves into “character assasination.”

The fact that bullying is such a hot topic of discussion these days makes this work especially intriguing. Perhaps it’ll answer one of my one burning questions: Why are parents (and politicians) who bully so suprised when children follow in their footsteps?

They’ll also present the Southwest premiere of “Daddy Long Legs” — a musical that’s based on the novel by Jean Webster. It features book by John Caird (who also directs), and music/lyrics by Paul Gordon.

“Daddy Long Legs” couples coming of age saga and love story. Told “through a series of letters,” it’s described as “a testament to the power of the written word.”

Valley theater-goers might have had more experience with the next show in ATC’s 2011-2012 season — “Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps.” Lizabeth and I first saw this one at ASU Gammage, then at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

“The 39 Steps,” which features four actors in well over 100 roles, is described by some as “spy novel meets Monty Python.” It’s the tale of a mild-mannered man who finds himself tangled up with murder, espionage and a dash of flirtacious misadventure. When well cast (which I certainly expect to be the case with ATC), it’s one of the funniest shows around.

An additional offering in the ATC 2011-2012 season is Simon Levy’s adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” — based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name. It explores a world of wealth and privilege during the “jazz age” of 1920s America.

It’s hard to imagine a stronger season. And while Lizabeth is truly disappointed she won’t be here to experience these shows, ATC’s 2011-2012 offerings will serve me well by providing poignant, powerful fare and a much needed distraction as I miss my favorite theater companion.

— Lynn

Note: Arizona Theatre Company presents their “Curtains Up Cabaret 2011” Sat, April 30 at the Herberger Theater Center. Click here to learn more.

Coming up: Musings on “message” movies, Valley teen does comedy

Real drama in Wisconsin

Citizens opposing proposed changes to collective bargaining options in Wisconsin have been protesting at the State Capitol in Madison since mid-February. For folks unfamiliar with American theater history, it might feel like the first time high drama has come to Wisconsin.

But those who know the story of acting duo Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne, who graced American stages from the 1920s through the 1950s, know that plenty of drama took place at their summer home — an estate called “Ten Chimneys” that’s now a historical landmark.

This weekend is your last chance to see Arizona Theatre Company perform "Ten Chimneys" (Photo by Ed Flores)

It’s high on my list of places to tour if I ever find myself in that neck of the woods — a small town called Genessee Depot that’s just 60 miles from Madison. In the meantime, I can get my Lunt & Fontanne fix from Arizona Theatre Company’s production of “Ten Chimneys.”

This world-premiere by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, with direction by David Ira Goldstein, is being performed through Sun, March 6 at the Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. The uber-eager can go online for a play guide covering all things Lunt & Fontanne, which I read with rapt attention from front to back.

The play “Ten Chimeys” imagines Lunt & Fontanne working at their summer home to prepare for roles in Chekhov’s “The Sea Gull.” I’m especially grateful now that I attended a production of this Chekhov classic during my last trip to Pepperdine University in Malibu.

Next time you’re glued to the television watching something mediocre that passes for real drama, remember the tale of “Ten Chimneys.” Then make your way to the Herberger Theater Center for a magic blend of classic and contemporary theater.

Because that, my friends, is real drama.

— Lynn

Note: Click here to learn about a new PBS “American Experience” titled “Triangle Fire” which examines historical events and issues related to labor unions. (Students from Arizona School for the Arts perform the play “Triangle” next month). Another episode titled “Hoover Dam” also examines these issues. Click here to enjoy a taste of the “Odd Wisconsin” exhibit at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Coming up: A plethora of puppets, Theater tales from Scottsdale Community College