How do you help someone who refuses to be helped? It’s a question that can baffle the most devoted loved ones of someone facing mental illness or a daunting medical diagnosis. And it’s a topic treated with great care and gentleness in “Never Better,” the latest developmental musical to be staged in a full production at Theo, directed by Landree Fleming. Preston Max Allen began writing the book, music and lyrics to “Never Better” in 2014, a few years before “Dear Evan Hansen” opened on Broadway and won six Tony Awards.
Both shows portray the heavy toll that depression and suicidal ideation take on young people, but I find “Never Better” much more authentic and moving. With some tweaks to the narrative arc of the first act, Allen’s musical could be everything I’d hoped “Dear Evan Hansen” would be. Emma Samuelson, a recent BFA graduate and newcomer to Chicago’s theater scene, stars as Davy, a college sophomore who’s struggling to beat a flu-like illness.
Davy sleeps the days away while her roommate, April (Melody Murray), films upbeat makeup tutorials for TikTok. When April convinces Davy to finally go to the clinic, a nurse practitioner named Aynsley (Liz Bollar) shows concern over her initial exam and bloodwork, urgently referring her to a hematology lab for further tests. Through panicked googling, Davy determines she likely has leukemia — and then does nothing.
Frozen into inaction through fear, depression and past trauma, she passively loos.