Last call: The Pianist of Willesden Lane and Next to Normal

These shows must close this Sunday, October 12.

The Pianist of Willesden Lane at the San Diego Rep. Mona Golabek’s “concert drama” is one of 2014’s best. She tells the story of Lisa Jura, a 14-year-old aspiring pianist in Vienna just before World War II. Jura was the only one in her family to escape the Nazis. She went to England and, with an indomitable spirit, she followed her dream and found her way. Golabek’s an extraordinary pianist and, we learn, is Lisa Jura’s daughter.

The connection, including with her grandmother, Malka, pervades the 90-minute piece. As do brilliant renderings of Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Grieg’s “Piano Concerto in A Minor.” Although she speaks in various voices — which ring with authenticity — Golabek doesn’t “act.” Instead she’s more like a gentle host inviting you to hear an amazing story told, and performed on a black Steinway, by an amazing person.

Next to Normal at San Diego Musical Theatre. It’s always a kick to see a big, tough-to-stage Broadway hit come to town and watch locals do it full justice. Normal won three Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. SDMT’s fine production shows why. Diana Goodman has “bipolar depression with delusional episodes”: Bipolar II. And the medical “cures” to make her “normal” could induce similar responses in the audience (the musical began as a 10-minute sketch, Feeling Electric, about the evils of electroshock therapy).

From the time slices of bread fall from a table and she starts making sandwiches on the floor, to her moving journey through emotional hell, Bets Malone shines as Diana, at once fragile and courageous. But Normal’s the opposite of a star vehicle. Tom Kitt’s music and Brian Yorkey’s book and lyrics involve everyone. Diana’s bipolar episodes send her family into extreme denial, drug-fog, or rage. And the SDMT cast reflects these points of view: Robert J. Townsend, Eric Michael Parker, Geno Carr, Eddie Egan, and especially Lindsay Joan (whenever she sings, and rocks the stratosphere off its rocker, keep telling yourself she’s “only” 16; yeah, right…).

A San Diego connection: Michael Greif, former artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse, directed the Broadway versions of Rent and Next to Normal. Both won Pulitzers: Rent for 1996, Normal, 2010.