Next to Normal is a brave and breathtaking musical that focuses intensely, with heart-breaking credibility, on the crippling tribulations of a suburban family. This portrait of Diana Goodman, a manic-depressive housewife, and the people whom she both deeply loves and deeply wounds, forcefully invites us to consider the liberating effect of confronting the origins of our pain. An emotional powerhouse, Next to Normal, slices through to the staggering revelation of the cause of Diana’s illness, and the impact it has had on her family: her husband, Dan, and her children, Natalie and Gabe. The relentless, electric momentum of the surging score mercilessly mirrors the characters’ confusion, disconnection, and self-imprisonment.