Written by orange• January 27, 2025• 5:25 pm• Cabrillo Playhouse, Musical, Review, San Clemente, Uncategorized

Next to Normal @ Cabrillo Playhouse in San Clemente – Review

photo credit: Aaron Carlow

Written Daniella Litvak

Making its Broadway debut in 2009, Next to Normal is a relatively recent show. In the short span between then and now, the discourse over the topics it unflinchingly tackles—mental illness, grief, and suicide—has changed a lot. However, the show remains as timely as ever. Being a musical, plus the humor sprinkled throughout, helps the medicine go down, but make no mistake—this is an intense story that goes to a lot of dark places.

Story:

From the outside, the Goodmans seem like a typical suburban family: Diana (Cindy Mendez) the mom, Dan (Jon Korbonski) the dad, and the kids, Gabe (Braxton McGrath) and Natalie (Sammy Spiegler). However, we soon learn the Goodmans have not been a happy family in quite some time, as Diana has been suffering from mental illness. This has led to Natalie feeling neglected, Dan struggling to hold the family together, and Gabe… Let’s just say there is a lot to unpack with Gabe.

Next to Normal is a story with a lot of meat on the bone. It features great songs such as “I Am the One,” “Superboy and the Invisible Girl,” and “I’m Alive.” The commitment to immersing us into Diana’s mental state with all the peaks and valleys it entails is to be applauded, but it does make the first act feel like it goes on for too long.

Acting:

Overall, the performances are solid. The more intense the material gets, the more the cast shines. Vocal performances tended to be stronger during reprises. Korbonski and McGrath make for great father and son casting. Not only do they look like father and son. But McGrath looks very much like a younger version of Korbonski, which adds fuel to the complicated Oedipal relationship Dan, Diana, and Gabe are tangled up in. McGrath also stands out for his ability to shift from being an angel to being a devil on a dime. As Henry, Natalie’s love interest, Ramy Alhawari is charming, especially during “Hey #3/Perfect For You (Reprise).”

Costume/set/lighting:

Due to the contemporary setting, there is not much opportunity for flash and razzle-dazzle in the costume department. Still, there were some nice costuming moments. In one instance, Dan and Henry wore the same shirt as they were respectively serenading Diana and Natalie. It underscores the similarities between the two love stories. Gabe wearing a tux during the sequence in which he dances with Diana was a nice touch.

Next to Normal is also notable for its set design, which usually consists of an outline of a single-family home and stairs and platforms, which literalizes the characters’ inability to be on the same level as one another. Rebecca Rubino’s set design keeps the house outline but uses partitions and screens to separate and isolate the characters. While the maze-like quality the partitions and screens brought was appreciated, the stairs and platforms were missed.

Jeremy Plant’s lighting design was beautifully expressive. The plant is not afraid of contrast and bold color choices. The scene of Diana witnessing Natalie and Henry’s budding romance from afar was made even lovelier because the warm lighting on the young lovers contrasted with the colder light shone on Diana. The lighting during “Who’s Crazy/My Psychopharmacologist and I” was another example of Plaint’s design for how the lighting visualized Diana’s mental state.