the show

Next to Normal is a rock musical that follows the life of a suburban mother dealing with a worsening bipolar disorder. The piece examines how her condition and its treatment (including psychoactive drugs and electroconvulsive therapy) affect her family as they try to take care of themselves and each other. During the course of the show many complex emotional issues are explored, including grief, suicide, drug addiction and abuse and ethics in modern psychiatry.

Next to Normal began development in 2002 and finally opened on Broadway in 2009. It has won many awards, including three Tony awards and three Broadway.com Audience Awards. It also received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2010) – one of only eight musicals to have received this award. Successful productions have since been performed around the world, including an extended season produced by Melbourne Theatre Company in 2011.

This premiere Adelaide version is a collaboration between award-winning theatre company Six Foot Something Productions (The Last Five Years and Elegies: A Song Cycle) and film and theatre production house The Factory.

This will be a non-replica production, drawing on local talent both onstage and in production roles to create and stage a thrilling and brave iteration of this emotionally, musically and dramatically complex modern masterpiece.