Amanda Flahive (left) and Claire Latourette portray a mother and daughter struggling with the mother’s mental illness in “Next to Normal.” Elgin Summer Theatre will present the musical July 17-19 and July 24-26 at The Hemmens in Elgin.
When a family member is diagnosed with an illness, more than one person struggles with the condition.
In the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, “Next to Normal,” the story of a mother’s battle with mental illness is told. The show explores the effects of the mother’s illness on those who love her.
“She’s bi-polar with manic depressive episodes. It’s about the family working through all that,” director Charlie Brieger said. “She goes through therapy and medication and various other things. And the toll it takes on the family and their relationships.”
Elgin Summer Theatre presents the musical at 8 p.m. July 17-19 and July 24-26 at The Hemmens in Elgin. Dealing with mature themes, the show is recommended for those ages 16 and older.
The pop/rock musical is a sung-through show, similar to “Rent” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
“There’s a few spoken lines, but they happen within song,” Brieger said. “So the audience has to pay a lot of attention.
“Thankfully most of the actors were very, very familiar with the show. They came in knowing the lyrics already,” he said. “We had to work out the harmonies and things like that and timing. It’s kind of a bucket list show for a lot of actors. A very powerful piece of theater.”
Brieger said “Next to Normal” is different from other musicals, in that it is “not 30 people doing big production numbers.” Instead, it features a cast of just nine actors. The staging of the show puts audience members right in the middle of the story, with the farthest seat 12 feet from the acting area.
“We have the audience sitting on stage with the actors on three sides, so it allows us to do some different things than we’ve done in the past,” Brieger said. “Which is a big challenge for the production team, the actors and it will be a different kind of experience for the audience. To be two feet away from someone singing, that’s really powerful.”
The cast and crew, he said, welcomed the challenge.
“It’s the type of show that, I think, in a big theater would lose some of that power and punch, the impact,” he said. “Everybody has stepped up and said, ‘Let’s try this.'”
The cast of nine comes from throughout the suburban area. In some shows you just need actors or just need singers, Brieger said.
“In this case you need actors who can sing and singers who can act,” he said. “You have to be on all the time and have to be very honest.”
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While the mother is going through manic-depressive episodes at the beginning of the musical, it is only later in the show the audience learns what triggered them.
“The audience doesn’t find out what the cause is until about a third of the way through the show,” Brieger said.
He declined to elaborate further on the cause, so as not to reveal important plot points for audience members.
The characters work through something that affects all of the relationships – as a family as well as individual relationships with each other.
“At the end, I think the audience is thinking ‘did they all make the right choices?'” Brieger said. “Did each character do what is right for them, and the family?”
‘Next to Normal’
When: July 17-19 and 24-26
Where: The Hemmens, 45 Symphony Way, Elgin
Tickets: $15
Information: 847-931-5900
Kathy Cichon is a freelance writer.