Houston Broadway Theatre Delivers a Stunning Production of Next to Normal at the Hobby Center

The Houston Press wasn’t going to review Houston Broadway Theatre’s production of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal because its run lasted only one weekend for four performances. A showcase that is so evanescent won’t hit hard, as they say.

But after seeing the Saturday evening show, attention must be paid. There are still two shows remaining, Sunday matinee and Sunday evening. If there’s room in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center run to it. Don’t wait!

Who the hell is this troupe? And why in hell are they so good?

Next to Normal is their Houston company debut, and if this is what they can do then, please, bring us more. Much more.

What a stupendous production – Broadway caliber musical theater of the highest order. Perhaps the band’s volume might be toned down a bit for the singers, but that is the only quibble to be found. Tim Macabee’s physical look is wondrous: modern mesh screens that pivot on casters, projections from Greg Emetaz that wipe across the background and proscenium like Golden Age Hollywood lap dissolves, neon-tinged edges from lighting designer Alan G. Edwards that light up in various colors to set the mood, and glorious performances from all that will knock your socks off.

The tiny houses seen from above, like a Monopoly board’s houses on steroids, are  the perfect touch. But there are so many perfect touches that it’s difficult to list them. The entire show has the perfect touch.

No question about it, this is a show as rich in production design and vocal talent as any seen in Houston in seasons. Their mission statement reads in part: “HBT is dedicated to captivating and uplifting the Houston community through the delivery of exceptional and compelling musical theatre productions.” Wow, that promise they deliver in spades.

Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s multiple award-winning musical has a first act curtain like no other. What other show wheels its leading lady into the operating room to undergo electric shock therapy then breaks for intermission? There’s room on the musical stage for almost anything, and Normal (Broadway debut in 2009, after wowing off-Broadway during its 2008 run) takes the subject of manic depression and turns what could be an ultra-downer into as accomplished a piece of musical theater as possible. It’s a deeply moving work, yet highly exhilarating.

Suburban housewife Diana (Mary Faber in an immaculate, bravura performance as battered and uncomprehending mother) is a mess. She doesn’t know why. She hates her life, has no feelings for her average husband Dan (Constantine Maroulis, of Rock of Ages, Jekyll & Hyde, and American Idol fandom) and doesn’t relate at all to her teenage daughter (Mary Caroline Owens), who’s on the verge of a breakdown herself, barely clinging to the lifeline thrown to her by stoner classmate Henry (Josiah Thomas Randolph).

Diana pays inordinate attention, though, to her son Gabe (HBT founding member Tyce Green who produced the Broadway revival of The Who’s Tommy), who appears to her almost as if in a dream, popping up behind her and whispering in her ear. She comes alive in his presence. He is her favorite, no doubt about it. But the stress of everyday life is crushing her; the fallout scalds her family. When she makes sandwiches for her kids to take to school and finishes buttering the bread on the floor, there’s no denying the seriousness of her problem.

The medical establishment in the form of doctors Fine and Madden (Manuel Stark Santos in exceptional voice) is as stymied as Diana’s clueless family. Pills seem useless to calm her relentless furies. When the family’s long-buried secret is revealed during an ordinary family meal (a revelation that arrives with dreadful calm and smacks us in the gut with utter surprise), suicide is attempted. That’s when the terror of electroshock therapy is broached. There’s the possibility of a cure, but that might wipe out Diana’s memories – the only sweet things that keep her grounded.

Blessed with a stunning contemporary score and bitingly effective lyrics, the show keeps surprising as it returns to past melodies and spins them with ever greater potency. The score is labeled “rock,” but this might have more to do with the high vocal line and powerhouse delivery needed for the songs’ emotional heft. The specter of Sondheim and, especially, late great young turk Jonathan Larson (Rent) swirls throughout, but then so, too, does Rogers and Hammerstein.

This is Broadway song writing on an exceptionally high plane. Ballads, like “Perfect For You,” sung by Henry and Natalie, or “I Dreamed a Dance,” for Diana and Gabe, are lilting romances, lovely and soft; contrasted to the churning “Make Up Your Mind” or “Superboy and the Invisible Girl,” power anthems with drama and drive. Gabe’s “I’m Alive,” as he seeks to seduce Diane into his orbit and not be forgotten, is terrifically effective, belted by Green as if his life depended upon it. Gabe’s life does.

HBT’s ensemble is first-rate. Perhaps, more than first-rate. There is no flaw to be found in them anywhere. Their singing, wailing, cooing rocks the rafters. It’s all uplifting and ethereal, powerful and emotional. Directed by theater pro Joe Calarco, with musical direction by Michael Ferrara, and choreography by Hope Easterbrook, Next to Normal is far from normal. It is exceptional!

Next to Normal has two performances remaining at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, July 28 at Zilhka Hall at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-315-2525 or visit houstonbroadwaytheatre.com. $32.50 – $132.50.