Next to Normal

Recently, the hubby and I saw the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Next to Normal. I don't want to give away the plot, but this is a very heavy musical. To say it is about a dysfunctional family is quite the understatement. Some topics of the play are mental disorders, family, and drugs. They ask the very deep and provocative question Which is worse - the treatment or the disease?
Alice Ripley, who played the mom, must have been sick because her singing voice was very unpleasant - loud, scratchy, and almost hungover sounding. She won the Tony for this role, so I'm assuming something was dreadfully wrong with her throat that night. There were times I couldn't even understand her. Wow. I just looked her up on Youtube, and her voice is amazing. Here is a clip from their performance at the 2009 Tony Awards:



What I find fascinating is everything I see calls this an "up-lifting" show. That's the opposite of what I would say! It was so depressing and heavy that even now weeks later, I feel emotionally moved by it.
I really loved the daughter and the son in the cast we saw. This was one of my favorite songs in the show:




Not much else to say because I truly don't want to give the plot away, but they must do something right if it's still weighing on my mind.