What a big surprise this show is: Next to Normal was a musical written for the Theatre (usually musicals are adapted from other medium); It has a cast of 6 (a rarity for a Broadway musical); It has garnered 11 Tony Award Nominations including Best Musical,Best Original Score written for the Theatre, Best Score, Best Director, Best Lead Actor & Best Lead Actress, Best Featured Actress, etcIt is a non-stop look into the stop/start life of a suburban bi-polar mother and the hell her unreality wreaks on her husband, daughter and son as she rides the sharp edge between coping and insanity.
Alice Ripley (Sunset Blvd, Company,
Rocky Horror Show) is the mother, J Robert Spencer(jersey Boys) the father, Aaron Tveit(Wicked & Hairspray)is the son and Jennifer Damiano(Spring Awakening) is the daughter. Direction is by Michael Greif, the Director of Rent and Gray Gardens.The New York Times said: "No show on Broadway right now makes as direct a grab for the heart-or wrings it as thoroughly-as "Next to Normal" does.This brave, breathtaking musical focuses squarely on the pain that cripples the members of a suburban family, and never for a minute does it let you escape the anguish at the core of their lives. "Next to Normal" does not, in other words, qualify as your standard feelgood musical. Instead this portrait of a manic-depressive mother and the people she loves and damages is something much more: a feel everything musical, which asks you, with operatic force, to discover the liberation in knowing where it hurts.
If you wish to discuss it further, please give us a call at Applause. 800-451-9930Bill
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