Bipolar Disorder on Broadway?

“One family is about to meet the music.” next to normal has opened on Broadway at the Booth Theatre following its sold-out engagements at both NY’s Second Stage Theatre and DC’s Arena Stage.

The tale of this musical is “the lengths to which two parents will go to keep themselves sane and their family’s world intact … this groundbreaking new musical explores how one suburban household copes with crisis.”

The very interesting twist is that the mother Diana, played by Alice Ripley, is a mother apparently careworn and possibly struggling with bipolar disorder. Boris Kachka, writing for New York Threatre, asks Ms. Ripley, “How does one play ‘bipolar’?” To which she shared, “It’s definitely in me, not that I suffer from this disorder, but it’s in my family lineage.”

So I’m really excited about this musical. I wish I had some time for a get-away weekend in New York to catch this production. Our Medical Editor, Kate Grossman, has tickets and she’s promised to share her thoughts and insights after she sees the production. Have any of you seen this yet? Diana is billed as “Sexy, sharp and trying to hold on to her family.” Did the lyricist, Brian Yorkey, nail the realities of bipolar disorder? ~Kimberly