Next To Normal - Synopsis

Synopsis

Act I

Suburban mother Diana Goodman waits up late for her curfew-challenged son, Gabe, and comforts her anxious and overachieving daughter, Natalie. It is then morning and Dan, Diana's husband, rises to help prepare the family for the day ("Just Another Day"). When Diana's lunch-making takes a turn for the bizarre because sandwiches are on the floor, the rest realize something is not right. As Dan helps the disoriented Diana, their son and Natalie hurry off to school and, for Natalie, the refuge of the piano practice room ("Everything Else"). There she is interrupted by Henry, a classmate who likes to listen to her play and who is clearly interested in her.

Over the ensuing weeks Diana makes a series of visits to her doctor, while Dan waits in the car outside questioning how to cope with his own depression ("Who's Crazy" / "My Psychopharmacologist and I"). Diana has suffered from bipolar disorder coupled with hallucinations for sixteen years. Doctor Fine continually adjusts her medications until she says she doesn't feel anything, at which point he declares her stable. Natalie and Henry grow closer until one day he professes his love for her ("Perfect For You") and they kiss for the first time. Diana witnesses this and realizes her best years may be behind her, but she misses feeling her high highs and her low lows ("I Miss the Mountains"). With her son's encouragement, she flushes away her medication.

A few weeks later, Dan looks forward to dinner with his family ("It's Gonna Be Good"), but when Diana emerges with a cake singing "Happy Birthday" to her son, Dan and Natalie are devastated. Dan holds Diana and explains their son died sixteen years ago from an intestinal obstruction ("He's Not Here"). Dan mentions a return to the doctor, but Diana refuses, saying he can't possibly hurt the way she does ("You Don't Know"). Dan tries to coax her into trusting him when their son appears, convincing his mother to trust him rather than Dan ("I Am the One"). In her room, Natalie vents her anger to Henry and then refuses Diana's apology as her brother watches and taunts her ("Superboy and the Invisible Girl").

A few days later, Diana starts work with Doctor Madden. As her son tries to assert his presence ("I'm Alive"), Dan and Natalie doubt the sessions are helping. Doctor Madden proposes hypnosis to help Diana discover the roots of her trauma ("Make Up Your Mind" / "Catch Me I'm Falling"). Finally, Diana agrees it's time to let her son go. Diana goes home to clean out her son's things, pausing to listen to a music box ("I Dreamed a Dance"). Her son dances with her and then invites her to come away with him ("There's a World"). She does.

At the hospital, Diana lies sedated and restrained, with self-inflicted gashes to her wrists. Doctor Madden explains to Dan that ECT is the standard course of treatment for drug-resistant patients who are imminently suicidal. Dan goes home to clean up after Diana and decide what to do ("I've Been"). The next day, Diana lashes out at Doctor Madden, refusing the treatment ("Didn't I See This Movie?"). Dan arrives and convinces her it may be their last hope ("A Light In The Dark").

Act II

Diana receives a series of ECT treatments over two weeks. Meanwhile, Natalie explores clubs and drugs ("Wish I Were Here"). Diana returns home from the hospital, but she has lost nineteen years of memory ("Song of Forgetting"). At school, Henry confronts Natalie about her avoiding him, and invites her to the spring formal dance ("Hey #1").

Dan and Diana visit Doctor Madden, who assures them some memory loss is normal ("Seconds and Years") and encourages Dan to use photos, mementoes, and the like to help Diana recover. Dan gathers the family to do so ("Better Than Before"), with minor success, but when Natalie pulls the music box from a pile of keepsakes, he whisks it away, leaving Diana puzzled. Her son appears, unseen ("Aftershocks"), while Diana tells Dan there's something she's desperate to remember that's just beyond her reach. When Henry arrives looking for Natalie, Diana is given great pause, studying his face and asking his age. He reminds her of someone. Unnerved, Henry hurries up to Natalie's bedroom, to convince her to join him at the dance the next night ("Hey #2").

Diana returns to Doctor Madden ("You Don't Know" ) who suggests she further explore her history and talk more with her husband. Diana goes home and searches through the boxes of keepsakes, finding the music box, Dan tries to stop her, but the memories of her baby son rush back ("How Could I Ever Forget?"). When Diana confesses remembering her son as a teenager, and demands to know his name, Dan refuses and instead insists they need to return for more treatment ("It's Gonna Be Good" ). Henry arrives to pick up Natalie, who has dressed for the dance, just in time for both of them to witness an agitated Dan grab the music box from Diana's hands and smash it to pieces on the floor.

Diana confronts Dan, wondering why he perseveres after how much trouble she's given, while upstairs, Natalie asks Henry much the same question ("Why Stay?"). Dan answers, echoed by Henry, both vowing to stay steadfast ("A Promise"). As both couples embrace, Diana and Dan's son reappears ("I'm Alive" ) which sends Diana running to Doctor Madden.

Diana asks Doctor Madden what can be done if the medicine won't work. With her questioning comes the realization it is not her brain that's hurting, but her soul ("The Break"). Madden assures her relapse is common, and suggests more ECT ("Make Up Your Mind" / "Catch Me I'm Falling" ). Diana refuses. Doctor Madden urges her to continue treatment for her chronic, deadly disease. She thanks him and leaves. Natalie, waiting outside, is distressed to learn her mother has stopped the treatment. Diana explains herself ("Maybe "), opening up to her daughter for the first time. She urges Natalie on to the school dance, where Henry awaits to comfort and embrace her ("Hey #3" / "Perfect for You" ).

Diana tells Dan she is leaving him, explaining he can't always be there to catch her. She needs to take a risk and deal with things on her own ("So Anyway"). She goes and leaves their son with Dan. As Dan wonders how she could have left him after he stood by her for so long, their son approaches and tells Dan he's not going anywhere ("I Am the One" ). Dan grows more distraught until at last he faces the boy and calls him by his name for the first time: Gabriel.

Natalie comes home to find her father sitting alone in the dark, in tears. She comforts him and turns on the lights in the room, before assuring him the two of them will figure things out ("Light"). Henry arrives to study. Natalie tells him Diana has gone to stay with her own parents. Diana is alone and still hurting, but hopeful. Dan visits Doctor Madden hoping to talk about Diana, but stays to talk about his own struggle. Gabe watches over them all, and life goes on.