A Pulitzer-winning musical
‘Next to Normal’s’ main character struggles with bipolar disorder The Pulitzer Board said the show is “a powerful rock musical” that, with its examination of a family dealing with mental illness, ‘expands the scope of subject matter for musicals’
Lisa Foss hasn’t acted in a musical for a decade. It’s been a lengthy hiatus for someone who has loved acting since she first hit the Lisbon Central School stage in fifth grade in “Peter Pan,” went on to get her bachelor of fine arts in musical theater from Carnegie Mellon University, acted in New York and on Royal Caribbean cruises, and eventually settled back in Lisbon and started a family. She’s now program manager for the Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University in Middletown.
Some roles and some shows, though, just can’t be ignored. Foss was drawn to playing the lead role of a mother struggling with bipolar disorder in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Next to Normal,” which she is doing now at the Chestnut Street Playhouse in Norwich.
Foss has remained involved in the arts over the years, but mostly behind the scenes. She has, for instance, been board president of the Chestnut Street Playhouse since 2014.
“I’ve directed and choreographed dozens of shows at the playhouse, but it’s hard to be the one onstage, when you’re the one running everything,” she says.
She auditioned for “Next to Normal” and is thrilled to be doing it.
Foss says it’s a dream role that’s challenging both vocally and emotionally.
“It’s very raw, and it’s very true. I think one of the wonderful things about this show in particular is, yes, it is difficult subject matter, though the music is so engaging and so great and so honest that performers love to do it,” she says. But, she says, the show offers characters that people can relate to — either in the sense that an individual theatergoer relates to a character or in the sense that a character reminds a theatergoer of someone in his or her life.
Director Hunter Parker says, “It’s a beautiful, compelling, complex story about a family that’s struggling to heal. … Every character has a struggle, and it’s honest and authentic.”
A Pulitzer for ‘Normal’
In “Next to Normal,” the character of Diana has been dealing with her bipolar disorder for years, dating back to when her infant son died. Her battle with mental illness has affected everyone else in her family, including her supportive husband and their bright but tightly-wound daughter, who isn’t getting the attention she needs.
“Next to Normal,” which offers sparks of humor and some vibrant pop songs in the midst of its moving story, features book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and songs by Tom Kitt. Yorkey and Kitt also
collaborated on “If/Then” and the soon-heading-to-Broadway “Magic Mike the Musical.”
Kitt was the music supervisor, orchestrator and music arranger for the musical “American Idiot” and, with playwright John Logan, wrote “Superhero,” which was developed in 2017 at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Music Theater Conference and is scheduled to open off-Broadway on Feb. 28.
“Next to Normal” made its Broadway debut in 2008, and it not only won several Tony Awards, but is also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
In naming “Next to Normal” only the eighth musical to earn the Pulitzer for Drama, the Pulitzer Board said the show is “a powerful rock musical” that, with its examination of a family dealing with mental illness, “expands the scope of subject matter for musicals.”
“Next to Normal” explores such questions as what is healing and how do people heal? In this story, everyone is trying to fix somebody else, Foss notes.
When it comes to mental illness, there isn't necessarily one solution that works for everyone.
“For some people, absolutely, medication can work great,” Foss says. “And for some people, other treatments can work great. For others, there are other things to acknowledge. One of the lines that resonates with my character — she says, ‘What happens if the cut, the burn, the break was never in my brain or in my blood but in my soul?' How do you heal that?”
Parker and Foss both did research on bipolar disorder to prepare for the show. Parker says the truth is, “Nobody's story is the same and nobody's experience is the same,” but the writers captured the nuances of what it's like to wrestle with mental illness.
After seeing a rehearsal of “Next to Normal” at Chestnut Street Playhouse, Becca Atkins of Artreach, a mental health and arts agency in Norwich that supports mental health through the arts, says, “I think it's a wonderful show, and I'm really happy that a show featuring a bipolar mother is being performed in Norwich.
“... I've worked in mental health here for years, and what I've repeatedly been told by, for example, the local business community is that no one wants to sponsor shows related to mental illness because nobody wants to talk about that or think about it. Which is hard. Everybody wants for the mental health crisis to be solved, but it's not going to get solved without dialogue and understanding. I think this show can promote both of those things.”
Back onstage
Foss has been involved with the theater on Chestnut Street since 2002, back when it was the Spirit of Broadway. In fact, she was the first Actors' Equity performer that then-artistic director Brett Bernardini hired for the venue.
But in recent years, her work has been offstage. Returning to starring in a musical now coincides with her children getting older. (Foss is divorced.) Elder daughter Sophia, 19, is in college at Western Connecticut State University, and younger daughter Emma, 17, is a senior at Griswold High School.
Foss says she loves performing, adding, “It's really great to be back in that process. You know, every now and then, I have to change hats and be ‘board person' or whatever, but I love the process. There's no place I'd rather be than in a rehearsal room. I think it's the most creative and exciting place to be.”
All that work in the rehearsal room, of course, comes to fruition when the show moves in front of an audience.
“When you love and you want to honor the material, if somebody is seeing the show and had experienced this, I want them to say, ‘Yes, I see my truth in what this woman is doing,'” Foss says. “What I most want to convey is I want them to hear the truth in my voice. When I'm singing these songs, I'm trying to bring my whole self to the material, all the nuances and the pain and the exhilaration and the anger and the fear.”
That said, she notes that “Next to Normal” concludes with the song “(There Will Be)
Light,” in which Diana sings “Some ghosts are never gone but we go on … and you find out you don't have to be happy at all to be happy you're alive.”
“Ultimately, this show does have a message of hope,” she says.