When my friend was diagnosed with bipolar last year, I didn't know much about it. Now I know that there are different types, and she has a type known as bipolar II, which is a milder form of the condition. It's treatable with medications and cognitive behavioral therapy, and doing things like writing in a journal can help. Although I've known her for years and knew she sometimes went through periods of depression, we never really talked about them. 

Mental illness is a subject most people don't talk about, let alone watch on Broadway. But Next to Normal, the show that deals with it, bravely and powerfully, is doing so in a phenomenal way, both onstage and online. Fans coming back for repeat performances line up afterwards to share how they relate to a character who has bipolar, a suburban housewife named Diana Goodman (played by Tony-winning Alice Ripley). Hers is a fragmented reality, shared by her family: husband Dan, and children, Natalie and Gabe. We see the impact of her illness on each of them, in her daughter's relationship with her boyfriend, Henry, and her husband, who sits up at night.

A rock musical about bipolar--that's a first, but also the first to have a Twitter version? And like its sold-out performances, N2NBroadway is attracting followers online, over 550,000 of them, in fact, and growing. More than a Broadway musical, Next to Normal has become an interactive experience, with lyricist and playwright Brian Yorkey and composer Tom Kitt, winners for Best Original Score, inviting fans to collaborate with them on a new original song. As their "tweeps" now debate who should sing the song and why, it seems that Next to Normal has suddenly got everyone talking about mental illness. A national tour is in the works too, planned for fall 2010.