The beauty and the magic of this show is there's no good guy and there's no bad guy.

And so it was very interesting to see who people latched on to based off their own lived experience, who they felt was in the wrong who they felt was in the right, what that gray area is like, much like the issue of mental health, which is what our show is all about.

There's so much gray area an there isn't a clear cut answer.

And the show doesn't try to do that.

It doesn't try to present anything in this very concrete way.

It's just here are these people, here are their struggles, and let that wash ove you and take away what you will.

And that's part of the magic.

We often go to see a musical to escape and I think this musical you go to to to delve in even further, ♪ Im alive, Im alive, I am so alive ♪ ♪ And Ill tell you the truth...♪ The Donmar Warehouse has an incredible tradition of staging musicals.

And because of that, I was really keen to try and program a musical each season when I was there.

I never saw the origina production of “Next to Normal.” I knew of it.

It's the show that I was most asked to program at the Donmar Warehous because it hadn't been to the UK and the superfans were clamoring for it.

What the heck?

One of the producers in my team told me to listen to it and I put it on my earphones one night runnin and it just instantly sunk in.

I think the pandemic shifted British consciousness and the conversation around mental health and mental illness significantly.

When we returned, I found that with colleagues, with friends and become much more commonplac to talk about being in therapy or being on medication and have done plays about mental illness, and I've sort of experienced the extreme outpouring that play can have on its audience.

The reaction of the audience is huge, and I think it really demonstrate something in the British psyche about the taboo of not talking about mental illness I think is still really strong.

The shame attached to it about how we hide those things and the struggles.

And so I felt it was a story that really would resonate.

It's been four weeks and I' like to try something new today.

Sometimes when these stories are hard to tell.

Hypnosis can be helpful.

I had just got back to the U after recording the cast album for my Broadwa revival of “Caroline or Change,” and it had just been Grammy nominated and we were all very excited, and I was sitting listening to repeat on my kitchen and I could just hear Caissie Levys perfect vocal, delivering the tinies catch of emotion in her voice, suggesting fathoms of feeling that she didn' like deflect away some comedy.

And I just thought I think she's Diana.

Sitting right next to me here is Caissie Levy, who I mean, where do you even start with Caissie?

Casey's work?

Truly!

Caissie's work.

it really speaks for itself.

Caissie has originated much of amazing roles as the original Els in “Frozen” musical on Broadway.

Incredible in the “Hair” revival in 2009.

Thanks sweetie.

I mean, amongst so many other things, “Caroline or Change,” “Leopoldstadt.” And this is incredible.

But I think more so than this work is like the most human, the most kind, the most like ready present actor to work with.

Needless to say as well, incredibly intimidating to turn up to rehearsal to know that Caissie Levy was going to be there.

So then to find out that she become such a quick best pal is a huge joy.

So we're very lucky to have you like.

Thank you.

You know the, Trevor Dion Nicholas, We have a veteran of huge scale theater who can hold his own in some of the biggest houses and concert halls that are available.

And we know that with your personality and your talent, your voice, you can fill it.

But we also now know that we can play in a small, intimate space and keep things just on a completely naturalistic level and that amazing, combined with the generosity that we found in the company, is this is a real treat, kind of the best you can hope for as someone to work with.

I wanted to think about who Gabe would be in this production.

I think the idea of the American jock is not a trope or a type we have as much of in the UK and I was thinking about perhaps now, 15 years later, who would be the son of the Diana might be imagining she had that her son would grow up to be and Jack delivered something He just played the truth of it.

But his presence is extraordinary and I was so excited to have him take the role ♪ The memories will...♪ This man needs no introduction.

But for those who know Jack, I think everyone, everyone knows part of who you are if not like what you represent.

I think you're so warm and so lovely and I love you and admire you.

And to take such an iconic role.

Yes.

And to completely reshape i not only takes such braveness, but also to be able to do it so impeccably that you would never know that there was a completely different persona to Gabe.

You redefined it.

Absolutely redefined it.

And that is beautiful to watch and was beautifu to witness in the room as well.

Yeah.

Jamie Parker, I know i an amazing Shakespearean actor as Harry Potte in the original “Cursed Child.” But I did know him as a musical theater singer, crooner, perhaps originally.

♪ ♪ I have to take my dad, bro, Jamie Parker, as well.

Like, I love this man.

Okay, So if you have seen of course, “The History of Boys” and like the legend of that, but also it's this is Harry Potter, like opening it here on the West End, going to Broadway and playing one of the most iconic characters in literature and bringing it to life.

To take a role that has so much expectation and subvert all that expectation by just playing it honestly and playing it beautifully.

And I've been I've been a fa of your work on multiple levels.

Your work is is impeccable and you, you, you go with your details down to the fingernails.

And I will always appreciate the depth of nuance that you put in there.

And the chance to meet the younger actors through a really thorough audition process.

I mean, Eleanor Worthington-Cox won the Olivier, age 12 as Matilda.

So, you know, she's no stranger to musicals, but it was when she walked in the door and showed herself to be so clearly her mother's daughter with Caissie Levy.

We knew we were on to something.

This is Eleanor Worthington-Cox.

She is an incredibly accomplished woman.

She won an Olivier for being the original Matilda.

Went on to many, many television roles, many theater roles.

She she's nominated for her performance in this.

Yes.

She's brilliant.

She's kind.

She's all heart.

Im gonna cry!

And I love our scenes together.

- I love ours.

This is Jack, who is starting in “From Here to Eternity” and then has now had his Palladium debut.

I remember these things!

And is now our wonderful, Henry, and couldn't be more magical.

As a person and a partner on stage.

I felt held every single night.

It's not easy.

Yeah, literally, just while I sob onto your shoulder and literally snot and cry onto you every day.

And that's so special that we were able to hold that every single night and look after each other while also abusing each other and calling each other silly names.

So thank you.

The rehearsal process began with the company familiarizing themselves with Toms amazing music.

I think his score is rocket fuel to an incredible story, to some really punchy things.

But it's complicated.

It's hard.

You need to be powerhouse singer.

So we start the process.

When I got to musical with that a week of learning the music with director, Musical Supervisor, When anybody asked me like in these months what the experience was like, I've been like, I've never felt so safely supported by a creative team, but also by like the full company.

There's this beauty in what we were able to trust and explore and play with, with each other in the room.

And I think the whole way we approach the process of we spent that first week just making sure we're all on the same page.

I am really grateful to a company called “Applause for Thought” that we worked with that Donmar Warehouse to support the acting company and the company more widely when we're taking on a play with issues of this seriousness.

I was really struck by how once we started working on the piece day after day, people would share stories in the company and the wider company, the creative team and production staff.

People would just start saying, “Oh, I've experienced that.

I had a period of my lif when that my depression was bad.

I was on medication for this.

I have bipolar.” It's things that people don't share people were sharing and the work was something that being channeled, and I think we felt that in the room.

But the company “Applause for Thought” gave us a really supportive process.

We both sort of looked at bipolar from a clinical perspective and looked at the kind of diagnosis the character and understood it from that.

But also they did some sessions with the cast to support them in the playing of it.

And I have never felt cast, feels so safe and strong in what they were doing, which I think is essential.

In the last rehearsal process with Mike and Ann and Nigel, they created this space and we hear a lot these days about like safe space.

But trul I feel like that rehearsal room had some magic to it because we had the luxury of time to really get to know each other and like, make this piece what it should be now, which is very different than when it debuted in 2010.

You know, or 2009.

And then I brought rehearsal room experts to the rooms.

We brought professionals from the health care industry, psychiatrists, people who specialize in bipolar who, um, delivering EST to help us really try and get into the character's mindsets and to empathize with what they were experiencing.

For me, a lot of the challenge was the authenticity of these health car professionals in different ways.

And like there was a fun challenge in that there was like, we know the pills, that was its own thing, but then there's that feeling of triumph in it when you nail it and like that was exciting to me.

Then I try to get on my feet and play with my movement director and let the characters live in space.

Once all the parts were together, we had all of our team together, the family and the cast, and it was exciting.

I didn't have concerns about th gravity of the subject matter.

I had concerns abou representing it authentically.

As a director, you're always trying to honor the author's intentions and to represent the themes, the subject, the people authentically.

And millions of people live with bipolar and their story is important.

And there is that stigma often attached to how bipolar is represented famously, on screen, in stories.

So getting that right was really important to me.

I'm up for doing one more.

So yeah, yeah.

I loved filming this show.

I've had the opportunity to capture digitally several of my productions and each time I do it, I really enjoy the process of watching actors adapt their performance for the camera and thinking about where the camera needs to be placed and the rhythm of the edit and all those amazing things.

We've shot it over three evenings and then two afternoons we built over the stools that we have all the movie camera shots that we wanted and it a seven camera set up and it was really amazing to have that amount of material and tha number of options in the edit.

I think so often in capturing the stage productions, the shot choice just can't be interesting enough to do the work justice.

But we were really able, I think, to get the shots we needed to do justice to the production and the performers and their performances stand up so beautifully.

In extreme close up, I thin is a testament to those actors.

I think it is incredible what they do.

So the chance to capture that in a new medium that has new rules is the chance to grow as an artist, is a gift.

And I haven't spent as long on an edit on anything else.

And it was a joy to keep that close to its material so far.

Tom Kitt was able to join u in London when we were creating this live capture to spend time in Pinewood Studios with him.

As we mastered the audio, it was a thrill watching him dig into his own arrangements and orchestrations and pull out tiny bits of different instrumentation was just incredible.

♪ Use may be fatal ♪ It is a real gift.

When you get to work with authors who are excited to see how their story can be reinterpreted 15 years later in a new production, especially after the phenomenal success of the original production.

I'm forever grateful for his and Brian's openness to letting me approach the material from my lens from my perspective in my time, from my country.

And I hope the sort of thin we found the specificity of that its time in this place and will allow it to travel and see American audiences successfully.

And ♪ There will be light ♪ I'm so excited that this production is included in PBS Great Performances Broadways Best initiative.

I think the capturing of live work on screen is essential in terms of sharing it, giving access to wider audiences.

You couldn' get to the original productions, whether that's becaus it was in a different country.

But those access means those cost barriers that they had to bring.

I think it is essential that we share this work as widely as possible, and I'm so grateful for PBS for doing that and for deeming us worthy to be part of this series of works.

♪ Light ♪