Next to Normal
Score: Tom Kitt; Book & Lyrics: Brian Yorkey. At: Bank of America Theatre, 80 W. Monroe. Phone: 800-775-2000; $32-$95. Runs through: May 8
Passing Strange
Score: Stew and Heidi Rodewald; Book & lyrics: Stew. At: Bailiwick Chicago at Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green. Phone: 312-733-6000; $25-$35. Runs through: May 29
Many Broadway seasons nowadays are dominated by jukebox musicals with prepackaged pop hits or screen-to-stage adaptations. But now and then wholly original shows like Next to Normal and Passing Strange emerge to push the art form of musical theater in new directions with a distinctly contemporary sound and unconventional subject matter.
Next to Normal, now in Chicago through May 8 at the Bank of America Theatre, arrives with a distinguished pedigree: the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for drama and three 2009 Tony Awards (score, orchestrations and best actress in a musical). Composer Tom Kitt and librettist Brian Yorkey utilize a largely modern pop sound in their smart and emotional approach to Next to Normal, a musical exploring a family where the mother, Diana Goodman, struggles with treatment for her bipolar disorder.
It's an often harrowing work mixed with sarcastic humor as Diana juggles medication and psychotherapy to try and live a semblance of an ordinary life. Director Michael Greif stages this intimate story masterfully upon Mark Wendland's multi-level set with flashes of color-saturated lighting by designer Kevin Adams. Greif also elicits strong performances from his small six-member cast, who each largely meet the emotional and technical demands put upon them.
The only drawback to this tour of Next to Normal is what should have been its brightest asset: Alice Ripley recreating her Tony Award-winning performance as Diana.
At the performance I attended, Ripley's voice sounded raspy and was characterized by odd vowel enunciations now and then. Now the gravely Janis Joplin-type sound Ripley produced naturally matched with the unhinged nature of Diana, but I couldn't help but worry whether or not she should be put on vocal rest.
The 2008 Broadway musical Passing Strange isn't quite the same emotional roller-coaster ride as Next to Normal, but it definitely rocks out in the secure hands of Bailiwick Chicago and the local band JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts.
Passing Strange is about an African-American teenager who shuns his middle-class Los Angeles existence and journeys to Amsterdam and Berlin to become a musical "artist." Exploring notions of faith, identity and freedom (both artistic and sexual), Passing Strange is a touching and very thoughtful story of a man questioning his decisions as a rebellious teenager.
Director Lili-Anne Brown helms a versatile cast who are chameleons with multiple characters (a big shout out to the hilarious Aaron Holland as Christoph, the German performance artist), or by bringing to the fore the superlative vocal chops to flesh out their singular roles.
Both Passing Strange and Next to Normal point to new approaches in American musical theater, and they're not to be missed by anyone who cares about the art form.
There's more: Read a review of The Woyzeck Project online at www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com .