I saw a production of Next to Normal last night in a little theatre in El Cerrito. A friend of mine played the lead, which is why I decided to brave the subject matter (which I'm not comfortable with, and I couldn't tell you why if you asked me!) and go see the show. It was a great production. I'm glad I finally saw the show. Do I need to see it again? No... would i work on the show? Absolutely. It's amazing how it all works together so well. The music works perfectly with the story. I didn't love it, and I did leave the theatre thinking that these great songs were somehow wasted on the subject matter, but it all worked well.