Before its incorporation into the theatrical form and its mainstream acceptance on Broadway, rock music was associated with social critique and counterculture, owing largely to the activism of musicians in the 1960s and 1970s. Bob Dylan, for instance, famously championed the protest and civil rights thrust of folk music before pivoting into the rock phase of his career, although he would continue to incorporate the influence of protest folk singers Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Other rock musicians like Patti Smith, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono would champion various causes in their music, from pacifism to environmentalism.

Rock arrived in the musical theater scene in 1967 when Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical depicted the counterculture of the hippie movement. The book writers Gerome Ragni and James Rado commented on many of the topical issues of the decade, including racism, the sexual revolution, pacifism, and political corruption. Another foundational rock musical is The Rocky Horror Show by Richard O’Brien, which premiered in 1973 and had a strong influence on sexual liberation counterculture movements. 

Though Broadway took quickly to the musical stylings of rock, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the social aspect of rock emerged through a rock musical renaissance. Rent by Jonathan Larson premiered in 1996, shedding a light on housing, gentrification, and the experiences of bohemian counterculture in the East Village of New York City against the backdrop of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Similarly, the 1998 Off-Broadway show Hedwig and the Angry Inch, written by John Cameron Mitchell, used rock to explore the theme of gender identity and individualism. By the following decade, musicals like Spring Awakening (2006) by Steven Sater used rock to comment on the tumultuous nature of sexual discovery, American Idiot (2004) used Green Day’s concept album of the same name to interrogate the American political and social response to the September 11th attacks, and Jagged Little Pill (2018) used the music of alternative rock musician Alanis Morissette to explore gender identity and substance use.

Next to Normal fits into this tradition by using rock music to depict the experience of mental illness and its impact on others. In the scene where Diana Goodman meets her new therapist, Doctor Madden, who has been described to her as a “rock star,” Doctor Madden alternates between regular speech and vocal riffing to represent the way that Diana’s mental illness affects her perception of the people around her. The rock elements also amplify the characters’ emotions, allowing Diana’s resentment towards Dan to take a new dimension when she accuses him of being unsympathetic to her experience in the song “You Don’t Know.” Dan subsequently reciprocates that frustration through the song “I Am the One,” allowing the music to represent the emotional challenges that mental illness sparks within the Goodman family. The upbeat power of Gabe’s songs, particularly “I’m Alive,” also provide a counterpoint to the traumatic nature of Diana’s memories of his death. The fact that Diana is, for most of the musical, the only character who can see Gabe underscores the emotional impact of his songs on Diana’s mindset.