Winner of the 2009 Tony Award and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, “Next to Normal” is an American musical with lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. Considered one of the most mature musicals of recent decades, the show premiered on Broadway in 2008, and now reaches Romania.

With surreal touches, “Next to Normal” captures the emotional story of the Goodman family. The father is an architect, the mother is in a hurry to prepare breakfast and packages every morning, and their children are two temperamental teenagers. Under the guise of a happy family, their lives are far from normal. The mother, Diana, has been facing bipolar disorder, anxiety and mood swings for 16 years, to which the other members of the family do not know how to relate. The show invites the audience to enter the minds and hearts of the protagonists, to be understood and to empathize with their sensibilities and unfulfillments.

How much lucidity is needed to accept reality as it is? The musical “Next to Normal” does not offer answers, but only another perspective to look at things.