by Brian Yorkey
next to normal was produced in November 2008 by Arena Stage (Molly Smith, Artistic Director; Edgar Dobie, Managing Director). It was directed by Michael Greif with musical staging by Sergio Trujillo. The set design was by Mark Wendland, the costume design was by Jeff Mahshie, the lighting design was by Kevin Adams, the sound design was by Brian Ronan; the music director was Charlie Alterman; the orchestrations were by Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt, drums and additional percussion arrangements were by Damien Bassman, the vocal arrangements were by AnnMarie Milazzo; the production stage manager was Judith Schoenfeld and the assistant stage managers were Kurt Hall and Kathryn L. McKee. The cast was
DIANA Alice Ripley
GABE Aaron Tveit
DAN J. Robert Spencer
NATALIE Jennifer Damiano
HENRY Adam Chanler-Berat
DOCTOR MADDEN/DOCTOR FINE Louis Hobson
next to normal opened on Broadway in April 2009 at the Booth Theatre where it was presented by David Stone, James L. Neder-lander, Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo and Second Stage Theatre. It was directed by Michael Greif with musical staging by Sergio Trujillo. The set design was by Mark Wendland, the costume design was by Jeff Mahshie, the lighting design was by Kevin Adams, the sound design was by Brian Ronan; the music director was Charlie Alterman; the orchestrations were by Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt, the vocal arrangements were by AnnMarie Milazzo; the music coordinator was Michael Keller, the production stage manager was Judith Schoenfeld and the stage manager was Martha Donaldson. The cast was:
DIANA Alice Ripley
GABE Aaron Tveit
DAN J. Robert Spencer
NATALIE Jennifer Damiano
HENRY Adam Chanler-Berat
DOCTOR MADDEN/DOCTOR FINE Louis Hobson
characters
DIANA Sexy. Sharp. Delusional bipolar depressive. Thirties or forties.
GABE Her son. Dashing. Gentle. Bright. Playful. Everything a mother, etc. Almost eighteen.
DAN Her husband. Handsome. Genuine. Constant. Tired. Thirties or forties.
NATALIE Her daughter. Sixteen and trying to be perfect. It’s not going well.
HENRY Musician. Romantic. Stoner. Slacker. Philosopher king. Seventeen.
DOCTOR MADDEN On the young side of ageless. Assured. A rock star.
Voices, Anesthesiologist, Nurses, Doctors and others are all played by the company. A Psychopharmacologist (Doctor Fine) is played by the actor playing Doctor Madden.
songs
Act One
Prelude (Light) Band
Just Another Day Diana, Natalie, Gabe, Dan
Everything Else Natalie
Who’s Crazy / My Psychopharmacologist and I Perfect for You Dan, Diana, Doctor Fine, Voices Henry, Natalie
I Miss the Mountains Diana
It’s Gonna Be Good Dan, Gabe, Henry, Natalie
He’s Not Here Dan
You Don’t Know Diana
I Am the One Dan, Gabe
Superboy and the Invisible Girl Natalie, Diana, Gabe
I’m Alive Gabe
Make Up Your Mind / Catch Me I’m Falling Doctor Madden, Dan, Gabe, Diana, Natalie
I Dreamed a Dance Diana, Gabe
There’s a World Gabe
I’ve Been Dan, Gabe
Didn’t I See This Movie? Diana
A Light in the Dark Dan, Diana
Act Two
Wish I Were Here Diana, Natalie
Song of Forgetting Dan, Diana, Natalie
Hey #1 Henry, Natalie
Seconds and Years Doctor Madden, Dan, Diana
Better Than Before Doctor Madden, Dan, Diana, Natalie
Aftershocks Gabe, Diana
Hey #2 Henry, Natalie
You Don’t Know (Reprise) Diana, Doctor Madden
How Could I Ever Forget? Diana, Dan
It’s Gonna Be Good (Reprise) Dan, Diana
Why Stay? Diana, Natalie
A Promise Dan, Henry
I’m Alive (Reprise) Gabe
The Break Diana
Make Up Your Mind / Catch Me I’m Falling (Reprise) Doctor Madden, Diana, Gabe
Maybe (Next to Normal) Diana, Natalie
Hey #3 / Perfect for You (Reprise) Henry, Natalie
So Anyway Diana
I Am the One (Reprise) Dan, Gabe
Light Full Company
act one
prelude (light)
Music.
Then the lights go out.
A moment, and Diana turns on a light. She sits alone in a chair, waiting.
Gabe enters.
GABE: What are you doing up? It’s three-thirty.
just another day
DIANA:
It’s the seventh night this week I’ve sat till morning . . .
GABE: Great. Here we go.
DIANA:
Imagining the ways you might have died.
GABE: Ah, yes, and tonight’s winner is?
DIANA:
In a freak September ice storm with no warning . . .
GABE: Because that happens.
DIANA:
There’s a gang war, there’s a bird flu, trains collide.
GABE: What’d we say about watching the news?
DIANA:
Now you act all sweet and surly,
But you swore you’d come home early
And you lied.
GABE: You gotta let go, Mom—I’m almost eighteen.
DIANA: Are you snorting coke?
GABE: Not at the moment.
DAN (Off): Who’s up at this hour?
DIANA: Your father. Go. Up the back way.
GABE (Going): Why does he hate me?
DIANA: Because you’re a little twat.
GABE: You can’t call me a twat.
(But she shoos him off as Dan enters.)
DAN: Everything okay? I heard voices.
DIANA: Just me. Talking to myself, you know. Now you head on upstairs—I’ll be up for sex in a minute.
DAN: You’ll . . . uh . . . are you sure you’re okay?
DIANA: Go.
(She ushers him off, then sings:)
They’re the perfect loving fam’ly, so adoring . . .
And I love them ev’ry day of ev’ry week.
So my son’s a little shit, my husband’s boring,
And my daughter, though a genius, is a freak.
Still I help them love each other
Father, mother, sister, brother,
Cheek to cheek!
(Natalie enters, the way Gabe just left, with a pile of books and a tallboy of Red Bull, muttering to herself.)
Natalie? It’s four in the morning—is everything okay?
NATALIE: Everything’s great. Why wouldn’t it be great? It’s great. I’ve just got three more chapters of calculus, a physics problem set, a history quiz and two pages on floral imagery in Flowers for Algernon which is like duh. Everything’s so under control it’s just like . . . calm.
(She gulps from the can.)
DIANA: Honey, you need to slow down, take some time for yourself. I’m going to have sex with your father.
NATALIE: Great. Thanks. I’m so glad I know that.
(Diana goes; Natalie drops the books on a table and sings:)
So it’s times like these I wonder how I take it,
And if other fam’lies live the way we do—
If they love each other, or if they just fake it,
And if other daughters feel like I feel, too.
’Cause some days I think I’m dying
But I’m really only trying to get through.
(Gabe is in his room, before a mirror, getting dressed for the day.)
GABE:
For just another day . . .
For another stolen hour
When the world will feel my power and obey.
GABE AND NATALIE:
It’s just another day . . .
GABE:
Feeling like I’ll live forever . . .
NATALIE:
Feeling like t
his feeling never goes away . . .
GABE AND NATALIE:
For just another day.
(Lights. It’s later.
In the bedroom, Dan holds Diana, after.)
DAN: That was great, wasn’t it? It was great. Oh Christ, I’m late.
DIANA: That’ll teach you to take a whole ten minutes.
DAN: Sorry, what?
DIANA: I said, isn’t it a beautiful day?
DAN: Okay. Sure. I mean, it’s cloudy, and raining, and really cold for September, but beautiful.
DIANA: Makes you want to dive in with both feet, doesn’t it?
DAN: Absolutely.
(Diana goes. Dan speaks to us:)
I never know what she’s talking about.
(He sings:)
When it’s up to you to hold your house together . . .
A house you built with patience and with care . . .
But you’re grappling with that gray and rainy weather,
And you’re living on a latte and a prayer—
(Diana bustles in to the kitchen.)
DAN AND DIANA:
Can you keep the cup from tipping?
Can you keep your grip from slipping in despair?
For just another day
(Gabe is in his room, dressing for the day.)
DAN AND GABE:
In the hustle and the hurry
DAN:
You want to wipe your worry clean away.
DAN, GABE AND DIANA:
For just another day
DIANA:I will keep the plates all spinning
DIANA AND NATALIE:With a smile so white and winning all the way
DIANA, NATALIE, DAN AND GABE:’Cause what doesn’t kill me doesn’t kill me,
So fill me up for just another day.
(Gabe sees Dan in the hall, and avoids him.)
GABE:It only hurts when I’m here.
GABE, DIANA, NATALIE AND DAN:Bum, Bum, Bum . . .
(Gabe joins Diana in the kitchen.)
DIANA: You’re going to be late, and you’ve got a huge day.
GABE: You have no idea what I do all day.
DIANA: Jazz band before school, class, key club, then football.
GABE: Not bad.
DIANA: Now get out of here.
(As he goes, to us:) It only hurts when he goes.
DIANA, GABE, NATALIE AND DAN:Bum, Bum, Bum . . .
(Gabe steps out of Natalie’s way as she strides into the kitchen.)
GABE: Morning, sunshine.
(Natalie does not acknowledge him; she speaks to Diana:)
NATALIE: So I got the date for my winter recital—do you think you guys can come?
DIANA: We’ll put it on the calendar.
NATALIE: Mom, the calendar is still on April of last year.
DIANA: Oh. Well, happy Easter!
NATALIE: Happy Easter, Mom.
(She goes, passing Dan as he enters.)
DAN: Hi, sweetheart.
NATALIE: She’s on fire this morning.
DAN: Oh, I know.
NATALIE (Oh, right): Eww.
DAN: Hon, can you do the shopping today? I’m slammed at work, and we’re out of everything.
DIANA: I keep cave clean. You go out, get fire!
DAN: Uhh . . . absolutely.
(To us) Again, no clue.
(He leaves the kitchen, gathering his briefcase, coat, portfolio.
Natalie and Gabe find backpacks and coats, tie shoes, get ready for the day.
Diana pulls out the fixings for sandwiches, and starts making them on the table.)
DIANA:It only hurts when I breathe.
DAN:It only hurts when I try.
GABE:It only hurts when I think.
NATALIE:It only hurts when I cry.
DAN:It only hurts when I work.
GABE:It only hurts when I play.
NATALIE:It only hurts when I move.
DIANA:It only hurts when I say . . .
(Diana’s now making many sandwiches.)
NATALIE, GABE AND DAN: DIANA:
It’s just another day A busy, busy day.
And the morning sun is stunning I will hold it all together.
And you wish that you
Were running far away. I will hide the mess away.
It’s just another day— And I’ll survive another day
Birds are singing, things are growing And I will pray
And you wish you could be going To hold on just this way
But you stay. And for my fam’lys sake—
And you stay and stay forever, I’ll take what I can take—
Though you know it’s now or never, I’m only just awake . . .
And you know that for forever . . .
DIANA:
Every day is just another
And another . . .
And another . . .
(Diana’s now making way too many sandwiches, and just keeps making them.)
DIANA:
I will hold it all together
We’re the perfect loving fam’ly
If they say we’re not, then fuck ’em
DAN (Going to her): Diana. Diana.
DIANA:The perfect loving fam’ly
I will keep the plates all spinning
And the world just keeps on spinning
And I think the house is spinning . . .
(As Natalie and Gabe stand together, watching, Dan bends to her.)
DAN: Diana. Honey?
NATALIE: Dad?
DAN: Don’t worry about it. Go on ahead. You’ll miss the bus.
GABE: Mom?
DIANA: Everything’s fine! I’m just making sandwiches. On the floor. You go on ahead. You’ll miss the bus.
DAN (To Natalie): Go.
(Natalie goes, and after a half beat, Gabe follows.)
Sweetie? Everything okay?
DIANA: I wanted to get ahead on lunches.
DAN: Sure. Let me help you up.
DIANA: I guess I got carried away.
DAN: Maybe a little. (Helps her up) Let’s go see Doctor Fine. This is just a blip. Okay? Nothing to worry about. I’ll wrap up the, um, sandwiches, and then we’ll go.
(Lights. School bell. Music.
Natalie is playing piano in a school practice room.)
everything else
NATALIE:
Mozart was crazy.
Flat fucking crazy.
Batshit, I hear.
But his music’s not crazy.
It’s balanced, it’s nimble,
It’s crystalline clear.
There’s harmony, logic—you listen to these,
You don’t hear his doubts or his debts or disease.
You scan through the score and put fingers on keys
And you play . . .
And everything else goes away.
Everything else goes away.
And you play till it’s perfect, you play till you ache,
You play till the strings or your fingernails break.
So you’ll rock that recital and get into Yale,
So you won’t feel so sick and you won’t look so pale,
’Cause you’ve got your full ride and your early admit—
So you’re done with this school and with all of this shit
And you graduate early, you’re gone as of May
And there’s nothing your paranoid parents can say
And you know that it’s just a sonata away . . .
And you play . . .
And you play . . .
And everything else goes away.
(Henry slips into the room, watching.)
Everything else goes away.
Everything else—
(Natalie sees Henry and stops.)
HENRY: Sounds good.
NATALIE: I still have this practice room for seven and a half minutes.
HENRY: Yeah, I mean, I know—I just like to listen. I’m Henry.
NATALIE: Natalie.
HENRY: Yeah. I mean, I know.
NA
TALIE: It’s a little creepy that you know.
HENRY: We’ve gone to school together for, like, six years.
NATALIE: Really?
HENRY: I sit behind you in four classes.
NATALIE: Uh-huh. Also creepy.
HENRY: You’re in here a lot. Before school, and after.
NATALIE: Right. Seven minutes.
(A brief moment, and Henry turns to go.)
You give up way too easily.