Some stories entertain. Others reach into places people rarely discuss and give shape to emotions that are difficult to name. For Jimmy and Jessica Alexander, producing Next to Normal at Limelight Theatre is an opportunity to do both. The husband-and-wife team will produce and star in the acclaimed rock musical, playing Dan and Diana Goodman, a suburban couple attempting to hold their family together through mental illness, grief and years of unspoken pain. The production runs Aug. 13-30 and is rated PG-13.
Jimmy Alexander, a local dentist at Alexander Dental, first saw Next to Normal in New York more than a decade ago. He already loved musical theater, but this show affected him differently. At the end of the performance, Jimmy began crying. Thirty minutes later, he still had not stopped.
“It really just opens something up,” he said. “I think it does that for a lot of people.”
That experience stayed with him for 16 years. He knew he wanted to perform the role of Dan one day, but the character—a husband and father carrying the weight of his family’s pain—required a maturity Jimmy did not yet feel he possessed when he first encountered the musical.
With music by Tom Kitt and book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal is an emotional powerhouse of a rock musical about a family struggling to care for themselves and one another.
The story centers on Diana Goodman, a suburban mother diagnosed with bipolar disorder who experiences delusional episodes. Her illness does not exist in isolation. It touches every part of the Goodman household, affecting her husband, Dan; her daughter, Natalie; and her son, Gabe. Through an urgent contemporary score, the musical explores psychiatric treatment, depression, trauma, grief, marriage, motherhood and the complicated dynamics that develop when a family builds its life around surviving a crisis.
The show does not offer easy answers. Instead, it portrays mental illness with an honesty rarely seen in musical theater. Its willingness to confront painful and deeply human subjects earned Next to Normal the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an honor awarded to very few musicals. It was also nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won three.
For the Alexanders, the heart of the production lies in its ability to make private pain visible. Mental health challenges often remain hidden behind closed doors, Jimmy said, even though many families live with them every day. People may feel ashamed, unsafe or unsure of how to explain what they are experiencing. Art, however, can create a way into those conversations. The musical gives audiences permission to feel emotions they may normally avoid and an opportunity to better understand what someone else may be carrying.
“It gives them an excuse to feel some feelings or to experience some things that maybe they wouldn’t under normal circumstances,” Jimmy said.
Continuing the Conversation After the Curtain Falls
The Alexanders want the impact of Next to Normal to extend beyond the performance itself. Four mental health and community organizations are partnering with the production: EPIC Behavioral Healthcare, Here Tomorrow, St. Augustine Youth Services and Transformed by Grace. Representatives from the organizations are expected to attend performances and participate in post-show talkbacks, creating space for audiences to process the story, discuss its themes and learn about resources available within the community.
The partnerships are particularly important because the musical addresses experiences that can be difficult to discuss openly. By connecting the fictional Goodman family’s story with local organizations doing real work, the production can become a bridge between emotional recognition and practical support.
The opening-night performance is also planned as a charitable event, with a significant portion of proceeds benefiting the participating organizations.
Cast and Crew
The six-person cast brings together performers from St. Augustine, Gainesville and South Carolina. Jessica Alexander stars as Diana Goodman, with Jimmy Alexander playing her husband, Dan. Austin Bailly plays Gabe Goodman, Ella Escamilla portrays Natalie Goodman and DJ Wardlow appears as Henry. Matt Morgan plays Dr. Fine and Dr. Madden during the final two weekends, with Bryce Cofield taking the roles during opening weekend and serving as understudy.
Blake Osner directs the production, Keith Teepen serves as music director and Phedre Delinois is the stage manager.
The music will be performed live by Mark Dougherty on keyboard, Philip Pan on violin, Megan Herrman on cello, Evan Bowen on guitar, Aaron Kinman on bass and Jojo Maffia on percussion.
The orchestra is central to the production’s emotional power. The score moves from quiet, intimate moments to full-force rock numbers, mirroring the instability, love, frustration and hope within the Goodman family.
Philip Pan, a Juilliard-trained musician and retired concertmaster of the Jacksonville Symphony, will perform the prominent violin part. The production also incorporates a 4K digital screen and a professional approach that includes paying the performers and creative team.
Jimmy said the group felt an immediate sense that something special was taking shape during the first full read-through and sing-through. Morgan, an accomplished opera singer and vocal instructor, later told him that the kind of connection created in the room happens only once or twice in a performer’s life.
The Alexanders
The Alexanders met in college, where Jessica studied musical theater and played violin while Jimmy studied biology and played bassoon. Jessica had performed in musicals since childhood and once envisioned pursuing Broadway professionally. She introduced Jimmy to theater, beginning a creative partnership that has continued alongside their marriage and family life. Producing Next to Normal together brings those shared histories to the stage in a project that asks nearly everything of them.
The story is heavy, but it is not without hope. At its core, Next to Normal is about the imperfect ways people continue loving one another through circumstances they cannot easily fix.
The Alexanders hope audiences will leave moved by the music, impressed by the performances and more willing to acknowledge the mental health struggles unfolding in families throughout the community.
The production may begin with one family’s story, but its questions are universal: How do people care for someone who is suffering? What happens when love is not enough to make the pain disappear? And how does a family begin moving forward when returning to “normal” is no longer possible?
Next to Normal runs Aug. 13-30 at Limelight Theatre and is rated PG-13. For performance information and tickets, visit nexttonormalstaug.com.
