Bligh Voth Photo by David A. Lee

In an art form where "musical comedy" was once the nom de genre, Next to Normal would be better described as musical therapy and not just because therapy sessions are part of the storytelling.

Sometimes inspired, sometimes veiled, and sometimes misguided or weighed down with ill-advised tropes, the subjects of mental health and its treatment have long been dramatic source material for successful plays and films. At one point Diana, the leading character, sings "Didn't I see this movie with McMurphy and the nurse?" Who can't name that film's title?

When it opened on Broadway in 2009, after a decade-long development period during which it was originally titled Feeling Electric, Next to Normal truly electrified critics and audiences alike with its unflinching look at grief, depression, and bipolar disorder. It won three Tony Awards, became a career-defining role for star Alice Ripley, and was the eighth musical to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. (The closest thematic predecessor is The Light in the Piazza which, interestingly, will be presented at CVR later this season.)

So, meet the Goodman family on "Just Another Day," as the opening song defines it. Diana (Bligh Voth) is sitting up, waiting for her teenage son Gabe (Tyler Donovan McCall) to get home from a late night. As the morning advances, she encounters her over-achieving daughter Natalie (Maya Jade Frank) and husband Dan (Eric Kunze) starting their morning rituals. What seems like the picture of a "perfect loving family" begins to fray as Diana starts frenetically making sandwiches on the kitchen floor and everything stops around her.

Diana has been under treatment for bipolar disorder, and something has triggered her again.

Disease and trauma never affect just one member of a family. Part of the brilliance of Next to Normal is how it refracts the causes and effects through each lens. Dan is hopeful and loyal, but also frustrated and unsure. Natalie is fearful, tired, and impatient to escape. Only Gabe seems to accept Diana without judgment, encouraging her to follow her own path even if that means abandoning medical treatment.

If you've never seen or heard Next to Normal, you might already be tempted to move down the line to something perkier. Don't succumb. The rewards in the score by Tony winners Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey are plentiful. "I Miss the Mountains" is Diana's haunting cry for clarity, bookended late in the evening by "So Anyway" with that clarity–or something next to it–achieved. "My Psychopharmacologist and I" tartly litanies the world of medication management, while "Superboy and the Invisible Girl" is a stinging assessment of sibling rivalry for parental attention. "You Don't Know" rocks Dan and Diana's conflicting assumptions about their marriage and the closing "Light" delivers its titular promise.

Musicals that rely so heavily on their score–this one is almost through-sung–need to be cast with pipes and this production delivers, ably guided by music director Stephen Hulsey. Voth, channeling more than a touch of Ripley in style, is solid and relentless, fearlessly driving Diana through the fights with Dan and the doctors (all played by Patrick Wallace), then heartbreakingly poignant, lost in the mist of memory on "I Dreamed a Dance." Kunze is wonderfully versatile, tender in "He's Not Here" and "Song of Forgetting," frustrated and perplexed on "Who's Crazy?" and in sublime denial on "It's Gonna Be Good." Frank deflects Natalie's fears and desperation with perfect snark on "Everything Else," and deftly alternates sweetness and despair in her songs and scenes with boyfriend Henry (the genial and optimistic Henry Crater), including "Perfect for You" and "Hey" with its multiple reprises. The anthemic "I'm Alive" and the eerily seductive "There's a World" get expert treatment from McCall, who has played the role before and flies effortlessly from a rocker wail to a whispered falsetto. The auditory experience is enhanced by consistently crisp sound on the solo and duet work that lets every word be heard but muddies a bit in the balance of singers in the ensemble parts even when they are singing a common lyric.

The physical production is functional, if unremarkable technically. The costumes are naturally everyday costumes with a nice bit of mirroring between Dan and Gabe, and a static, stylized set seems to want to suggest something, but nothing is really revealed through its multiple playing areas. There are no projections, which could have been enhancing or distracting given the dark and inconsistent lighting design.

Fortunately, these are lesser concerns. Crucially, director Adam Karsten and his excellent cast keep the narrative in focus, undulating when necessary and moving quickly when appropriate. All "the feels"–the rage, the terror, the despair, some hope, and yes, the humor, black as it might be at times–are genuine, organic, and they keep you in the moment with this newfound family and their journey. At times bleak, occasionally hopeful, consistently illuminative, there is something to learn on this path about ourselves, our families, our communities in the mirror the Goodmans hold up, whether your view of the reflection is sharp or diffuse.

If you are still not feeling next to Next to Normal, still resistant to the possibly challenging, seemingly oxymoronic entertainment value of a night of singing about mental illness, consider some advice from Diana's doctor:

Make up your mind that you're strong enough
Make up your mind
Let the truth be revealed
Admit what you've lost
And live with the cost
At times it does hurt to be healed

Next to Normal runs through November 24, 2024, at Coachella Valley Repertory, 68510 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City CA. Performances are on Wednesdays at 2:00 and 7:00 pm, Thursdays and Fridays at 7:00pm, Saturdays at 2:00 pm and 7:00pm, and Sundays at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $90. For tickets and information, please visit cvrep.org.

Music by Tom Kitt
Book and Lyrics by Brian Yorkey

Cast: Henry Crater (Henry), Maya Jade Frank (Natalie), Eric Kunze (Dan), Tyler Donovan McCall (Gabe), Bligh Voth (Diana), and Patrick Wallace (Dr. Madden).