Village Theatre vet Brian Yorkey gets to Broadway

After an adolescence involved in youth programs at Village Theatre, six years as the Village's associate artistic director, and a lot of other theatrical toil, Brian Yorkey's hard work has reaped a Broadway success.

That an unlikely rock musical about the mental illness of a bipolar housewife has brought that success (and 11 Tony Award nominations), makes the payoff even sweeter.

The multitalented and genial Yorkey, an Issaquah native, chatted by phone from New York City about "Next to Normal" — for which he wrote the Tony-nominated book and lyrics (to go with Tom Kitt's music).

Like two earlier, less-accomplished Yorkey musicals ("The Wedding Banquet" and the Asian-American-themed "Making Tracks"), "Next to Normal" was developed at his hometown theater.

It had a reading at the Village in 2002, noted Yorkey, and its first workshop production there in 2005. But the idea for the show took root years earlier. "I saw a report on TV about ECT [electroconvulsive shock therapy], which I didn't know was still done, and how effective it can be for some bipolar patients," he recalled.

Fascinated that more women than men are prescribed ECT, Yorkey crafted a story about bipolar Diana, and how her extreme ups and downs were affecting her family.

To get the medical details right, Yorkey explains, "Tom and I had a psychiatrist and a psychologist look at every draft. We felt a tremendous obligation to tell the story accurately, and truthfully. These are hard problems so many people struggle with."

Eventually, the show spurred interest in New York, and was produced Off Broadway in 2008, to positive notices. But it was refined into a darker, more cohesive piece before a Washington, D.C., run last year. And when it opened at Broadway's Booth Theatre in April, The New York Times praised it as "brave" and "breathtaking."

Despite all the hoopla, Yorkey kept his commitment to direct a well- received mounting of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Village recently.

He now splits his time between New York and Los Angeles, but still gets homesick. "I miss the Village, my job there, being in Issaquah," he mused. "Everything I've learned about making musicals I learned there. And I'm still learning."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com