April 16, 2009
Broadway review roundup for 'Next to Normal' musical
 “Next to Normal,” the bold new musical rotating around a bipolar mom, opened on Broadway last night and split critics into the “bold-and-breathtaking” camp or “other.”
“Next to Normal” last year played Off-Broadway’s Second Stage Theatre and won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score and nominations from the Drama League, Drama Desk Award and Lucille Lortels. The production was then significantly reworked and staged at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage before heading to Broadway.
It stars Alice Ripley, J. Robert Spencer, Aaron Tveit, Jennifer Damiano, Adam Chanler-Berat, and Louis Hobson. The music is by Tom Kitt; book and lyrics are by Brian Yorkey. Michael Greif directs.
“Next to Normal” has an open-ended run at the Booth Theatre, located at 222 W. 45th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $36.50 to $115. Premium seats are $176.50 and $201.50. There are $25 front-row and box seats available for every performance. Producers’ age advisory: “May be inappropriate for audiences 13 and under.”
The “Next to Normal” reviews:
Daily News - “A story of a mom’s mental illness and the toll it has taken on her and everyone around her may not sound like one that sings, but Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics) have created an exceptional show that says something meaningful and powerful about surviving in a world of problems.”
New York Times - “Such emotional rigor is a point of honor for “Next to Normal,” sensitively directed by Michael Greif and featuring a surging tidal score by Tom Kitt, with a book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey. With an astounding central performance from Alice Ripley as Diana Goodman, a housewife with bipolar disorder, this production assesses the losses that occur when wounded people are anesthetized — and not just by the battery of pharmaceutical and medical treatments to which Diana is subjected, but by recreational drugs, alcohol and that good old American virtue, denial with a smile.”
Hollywood Reporter - “It would be nice to report that the musical is an artistic triumph, but it remains a decidedly mixed bag despite many laudable aspects.”
Newsday - “Next to successful.”
Variety - “But the creative team here poses a potentially hackneyed question — is it better to feel pain or smother it? — and gives it freshness, urgency and emotional integrity.”
Associated Press - “That newfound clarity has ratcheted up the show’s effectiveness, making “Next to Normal” one of the most adventurous and satisfying musicals of the season.”
Bloomberg - “The result is a better show, though still one that’s easier to admire than love.”
Post - “Michael Greif’s sleepy direction doesn’t help. Typical is his over-reliance on Mark Wendland’s banal three-tiered set, all chrome tubing and walls of lights. And, yes, a character does sing a power anthem while fiercely gripping a railing.”
amNewYork - “Simply put, “Next to Normal” is truly one of the most powerful, surprising and invigorating original musicals in recent memory, reminding us how it’s possible for contemporary musical theater to hook an audience entirely through the strength of its storytelling.”
Chicago Tribune - “This not only is a serious, substantial, dignified and musically sophisticated new American work, intensely staged by Michael Greif, but a frequently moving picture of an empathetic nuclear family whose members are struggling, like many of us, to take care of themselves and each other, and to keep the stitches in the fraught daily fabric of their everyday lives.”
Canadian Press - “What these performers all have in common are powerhouse voices, able to negotiate a pulsating pop-rock score. Actually, pop-rock doesn’t do justice to Kitt’s often haunting melodies and Yorkey’s intelligent lyrics. Both are infused with a theatricality that helps define who these people are.”
Picture credit: Aaron Tveit (top,) Alice Ripley and Louis Hobson in “Next to Normal.” Picture by Joan Marcus/Barlow-Hartman.
April 16, 2009 7:09 AM in Broadway, Midtown
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