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By MARILYN STASIO
O.K, let's wrap this one up and send it out where it can do the most good. Despite
the downbeat subject of this message-heavy musical,
Transport Group's sensitive take on teenage anorexia could lighten
the load on any family caught in the destructive spiral of a child
with an eating disorder. Jack Cummings III's severely stylish
production addresses the entire family dynamic, using the intimacy of
confessional songs to examine the complex psychological factors that
compel a "normal" child to starve herself to death.
Cast adrift on John Story's stark white set of vertical flats and
stripped bare of all defenses by R. Lee Kennedy's needle-nosed
lighting, the Freeman family has nowhere to hide from the truth about
itself. But that doesn't stop the Freemans from denying that
something is seriously wrong with the family.
In the show's searing opening number, "Happy Family," Gayla Freeman,
her hysteria barely under wraps in Barbara Walsh's strong perf, leads
her spineless husband and screwed-up kids in a dissonant musical
declaration that everything is just perfect in their ideal family.
Forget that Robert (Adam Heller) has given up on playing his paternal
role ("Father Fantastic"). Don't think about the pressure on Gayla to
find a job outside the home ("Racing"). Ignore young Zachary's
(Nicholas Belton) attempts to talk about things that are upsetting
him ("Breaking Things"). And for God's sake, don't anybody mention
that Polly has stopped eating and is spending all her time alone in
her room ("Pretty to the Bone").
The spare but articulate score provides a musical release for each
character to drop the burden of denial and open up. These individual
moments are painful, and the collective impact is devastating --
bearable only because Yvonne Adrian's book takes such care to go
beyond the pain to offer real insight into the family dynamics behind
Polly's seemingly irrational behavior.
Does this show resolve anything? Not really, and the ending is a real
emotional cliffhanger. But it's rare to see such a compassionate,
nonjudgmental attempt to examine why some families refuse to
acknowledge that anything is amiss in their domestic paradise -- and
why some children just can't swallow that lie.
NY POST
FULFILLING ANOREXIA MUSICAL
By FRANK SCHECK
November 1, 2005 -- YOU can't accuse the Transport Group of playing it safe. The troupe's last production, the acclaimed musical "The Audience," dealt entirely with the reactions of the theatergoers watching the show.
Now comes "Normal," a feel-good musical about a teenage girl with an eating disorder. And while it's occasionally prone to ponderousness, it ultimately shows that any subject, if handled right, is grist for the musical mill.
The main character in the piece is ultimately not Polly (Erin Leigh Peck), the anorexic, but her indomitable mother, Gayla (Barbara Walsh), who finds herself fighting for her daughter's life as she copes with such conundrums as "Cooking for the Starving," as one number puts it.
The musical relates its story mainly through song as it depicts the internal tensions suffered by the family, which also includes perplexed father Robert (Adam Heller) and older brother Zachary (Nicholas Belton), as they all struggle to help Polly survive. A trio of actresses (Nancy Johnston, Toni DiBuono and Shannon Polly) enact numerous other characters who figure in the story, including doctors and nurses. Director Jack Cummings III's stylized production, performed on a mostly bare stage bathed in white light, has an almost clinical feel as it dissects the various aspects of the situation, one that has come to affect so many teenage girls in particular.
While the show is ultimately more notable for its thematic rather than creative aspects, the score by Tom Kochan (music) and Cheryl Stern (lyrics) is impressively sophisticated, and Yvonne Adrian's book handles the difficult topic with sensitivity and welcome dashes of humor.
The performers invest their characterizations with great heart, with particularly moving work by Peck as the troubled teen and Walsh as her dedicated mom.
"Normal" may not be a normal musical, but it's well worth seeking out.
BROADWAYWORLD
nor'mal: Pretty to the Bone
November 1, 2005 - by Michael Dale
Anyone interested in witnessing the unique dramatic power that can be achieved through musical theatre -- a stunning three minutes when story, song, acting and staging achieve what millions of dollars worth of production values could never match -- should get themselves to the Connelly Theatre for Transport Group's premiere production of nor'mal:. Erin Leigh Peck, toning down her singing technique to effectively portray a suburban teenager, rocks out across her bedroom, celebrating the loss of another pound as she experiences the opening stages of anorexia. Like an amateur Britney, she shakes her thin body, barely noticeable under baggy clothes, to her pop anthem, "Pretty to the Bone", singing sophomoric imagery comparing herself to a tiny bird who can fly higher as she gets smaller. "Nothing will ever taste as good as I feel", she sings, caressing her flat chest and striking what she thinks is a sexy pose as she feels how small her butt has become. We already know she's stopped having her period and has been avoiding food entirely. The irrepressible joy she exudes as she shows off her severely flattening tummy and feels her ribcage is horrifying.
nor'mal: is easily the first of the current crop of musicals in town I'd recommend for families with teenage children. (Heck, I'm recommending it for anyone.) As the spelling of its title suggests, Yvonne Adrian (book), Cheryl Stein (lyrics) and Tom Kochan (music) have written a show about trying to fit in with the accepted definition of your role in a family unit, and the frustration of finding that love and understanding doesn't always make everything better.
The plot revolves around the Freeman family, dressed in average contemporary suburban clothes (costumes by Kathyrn Rohe), who stick out oddly in a world colored completely in pristine white. The set, by John Story, is a bare stage walled with white flats. There are minimal props, all white, and scenes are set by actors moving around white semi-squares. The trio who plays all non-family members (terrific work from Toni DiBuono, Nancy Johnston and Shannon Polly) are clothed entirely in white.
Life for Gayla Freeman (a lovingly comic and sympathetic Barbara Walsh) can be a bit frazzled at times, but she can still force a smile and almost convince herself that she's mothering a perfect family. With both her kids in high school, she decides to re-enter the work force, but as she instantly adapts to the modern corporate world, daughter Polly (Peck) blows her chance to become accepted as one of the cool kids (A clever song and dance has Shannon Polly, as a popular girl, teaching Polly the rules of her clique.) and no one seems to notice her plunging self-esteem as she finds herself unable to live up to mom's vision of a perfect daughter.
When a doctor's check-up reveals Polly's signs of an eating disorder, Gayla is positive that good mothering can solve all her daughter's problems, but force feedings and bed-checks to make sure she isn't exercising at 4AM don't stop Polly from steadily losing more weight.
Her well-intentioned husband, Robert (Adam Heller), is a non-authoritative pushover with the kids and not exactly an ace at romance, continually finding himself needing to release his frustration at being an ineffective father and spouse with vigorous workouts at the gym. In a striking musical scene he imagines himself as a boxer punching out his family as a substitute for actual violence. Heller plays the scene with a mixture of anger and just enough helplessness to keep you from believing his character would ever strike a loved one.
Big brother Zach (Nicholas Belton), a budding rock musician whose achievements are being ignored during this time of crisis, is the first to realize that Polly is the only one who can help Polly, and that a loving family is not the cure for everything. Belton nicely balances his character's underdeveloped maturity with a need to be the grown-up.
But despite the serious subject matter the tone of the piece is rarely somber. Kochan's music, played by a small string and woodwind ensemble is generally light and energetic as Gayla tries to smile her way through everything. Stern's lyrics eschew poetry and wit for immediate and conversational language that blends seamlessly in and out of Adrian's highly stylized book, both favoring short, sharp sentences that quickly zip from one time and space to another. Jack Cummings III stages the musical as a non-dancing ballet with a whirlwind of frenetic activity. Choreographer and associate director Scott Rink supplies minimal plot-driven dance when needed.
Saying that nor'mal: is a musical about anorexia is a convenient shorthand, but Polly's condition can be exchanged with any crisis that challenges the functioning of a family unit. Those lovely framed photos of happy smiling faces are usually planned and posed. Perhaps if we saved more candid shots from when our lives were a mess we'd have an easier time feeling good about how we're doing now.
offoffonline.com
All in the Family
by Amy Krivohlavek
We want
to be normal. We need to be normal. We constantly calibrate our lives to
land within the safe, normal margins of being. Try as we might to protect
ourselves, however, tragedy can interrupt at any moment, shattering even the
most elaborately constructed facades.
The Transport Group's ambitious new musical, Normal, brings us up close
to a quintessentially normal American family disrupted by a daughter's eating
disorder. Although it sometimes veers dangerously close to cheesiness, this
production is ultimately an immensely rewarding exploration of a family in
crisis. Normal courageously exposes fractured lives and messy situations,
where glaring abnormality has the power to precipitate epiphanies.
The Freemans are an emphatically normal nuclear family (father, mother, son,
daughter), and they first appear to be quite cartoonish. They sing and dance in
unison in the opening number, "Happy Family," but their disconnection from one
another quickly becomes apparent. When teenage Polly (Erin Leigh Peck) tries to
talk to her mother, Gayla (Barbara Walsh), over the sound of her hair dryer,
they both stare straight ahead without making eye contact.
Soon Polly succumbs to the forces of peer pressure?we watch as one of her
classmates, straight out of Mean Girls, dictates the rules of being
popular. Polly takes these rules to heart, and she also creates some rules of
her own. She is determined to become, as she sings, "Pretty to the Bone." Her
excessive exercising and starvation eventually bring her to a hospital, where
her family stands by as she hovers near death.
Although Polly develops anorexia, the story focuses more on her mother's efforts
to help her. Walsh, who has proved her matriarchal prowess in acclaimed Broadway
roles in Falsettos and Hairspray, turns in a captivating
performance as the tortured, frustrated Gayla. Walsh doesn't just stand on the
stage; she grips it with her body. She scores with several
heart-wrenching ballads, and she is such a pro she can make even the silliest
bits of musical theater business (and choreography) convincing. Book writer
Yvonne Adrian renders Gayla as an extremely self-centered, fairly unlikable
mother, but thanks to Walsh's performance, we want to see her make peace with
her daughter and with herself.
Under the direction of Jack Cummings III, the intermissionless show feels
slightly schizophrenic from start to finish. The bright, presentational style of
the first half is usurped by the more ponderous?and more powerful?dynamic of the
final scenes. It is perhaps unsurprising that, with its serious subject matter,
Normal is most convincing when it takes itself seriously. The early
superficial spoofing sadly undermines the show's more reverent and thoughtful
conclusion.
This dissonance is reflected in the show's score as well, penned by Cheryl Stern
(lyrics) and Tom Kochan (music). Polly's early peer-pressure riff ("Got It?
Good!"), for instance, is a silly, annoyingly repetitive, rap-like performance
number, while her later duet with her mother, "Write This," is a powerfully
poignant exploration of Polly's sadness and Gayla's frustration.
At a further remove, the very talented Adam Heller (Robert Freeman) and Nicholas
Belton (Zachary Freeman) find many ways to shine as Polly's father and older
brother. In "Father Fantastic," Heller struggles with his lack of influence over
his family and his responsibility for his daughter's illness (as well as
impressively singing tongue twisters while jumping up and down). Belton's
"Breaking Things" is a brave, emotionally resonant study of his reaction to his
sister's illness and his attempts to deal with his parents' responses to it.
Rounding out the cast are Nancy Johnston, Toni DiBuono, and Shannon Polly, clad
in white to match John Story's stark, minimalist set. They make their marks
individually, each playing several supporting characters with aplomb, but they
also work efficiently in tandem. They combine to form a portentous trio, at
times operating as a Greek chorus, at other times more like the street urchins
of Little Shop of Horrors.
John DiPinto's talented band handles the pop- and jazz-influenced score with
style and ease. Although R. Lee Kennedy's severe lighting earns points for
innovation, it too often leaves characters stuck in squint-provoking shadows.
Normal is based on Adrian's own experience with her daughter's eating
disorder, and, as with many real-life stories, this is one told best in the
straightforward scenes, which feel, well, truer to life. Accordingly, Normal
is far better when it leaves behind the conventions of "normal" musical theater
for a more direct, gritty, and unapologetic storytelling technique.
If you can wade through the kitsch, the final moments of Normal are well
worth the journey. The Transport Group has produced an important piece of
theater that exposes a "normal" family in both its capabilities and
deficiencies, delivering an important critique of not only how we react and
respond to tragedy in our lives but also how we construct our lives in the first
place.
News from AmericanTheater Web
Musical Normal Ambitious
New York theatergoers, particularly ones who care about musical theater, take note: the Transport Group is once again proving that it is one of the city's most valuable purveyors of new music theater work with its premiere of Normal, which plays just through this weekend at the Connelly Theatre in the East Village.
This musical, while not perfect, reminds one what musical theater can be – exciting, challenging and moving: a trio of gerunds that cannot be applied to any of this fall's series of dismal musical offerings in off-Broadway's commercial venues.
In Normal, book writer Yvonne Adrian introduces audiences to the Freemans, a seemingly run-of-the-mill urban or exurban family, attempting to put forth a façade of being entirely functional, even as Cheryl Stern (lyrics) and Tom Kochan (music)'s opening song, "Perfect Family," establishes in a quirky way (reminiscent of the work of composer-lyricist Bill Finn) that they are anything but. There's a chilly distance between the parents, Gayla and Robert, and the children (both in their teens) attempt to have both entirely separate existences and ones dependent on their folks.
Crisis comes into the Freemans' lives through the daughter, Polly, whom one discovers early on is anorexic. Adrian's book, supported gamely by Stern and Kochan's score, works to show not only the progression of this insidious disease on the young woman, but also the disease's effect on the already fragile family structure, where mom hopes to return to work while also maintaining almost complete control of her loved ones.
As Adrian explores this relatively intimate story, she broadens her canvas to include Gayla's distant relationship with her own mother and attempts to contextualize the story by integrating suffragettes and their hunger strikes into a sort of dreamscape for Gayla. Both of these aspects to the script make Normal, which has ambition enough in its main thrust, almost overly ambitious – at least for its current 90-minute, one-act running time.
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