Next to Normal is a contemporary musical that explores how one suburban household copes with crisis. With provocative lyrics, and an electrifying score of more than 30 original songs, Next to Normal shows how far two parents will go to keep themselves sane and their family's world intact.
N2N maps the road from this queasy drugged stability through crackup to a cautiously hopeful final picking up of the pieces. Unusual for a musical, this narrative has affinities to TV drama and to recent nonmusicals like Lisa Loomer's Distracted. But N2N, which has gone through some astute reworking since its debut at Off-Broadway's Second Stage in 2008, cannily employs musical-theater tactics to push its quirkily specific story up toward general meaning. It doesn't totally succeed at this, but does achieve several very big moments when the performer, the song, and the larger intent combine, forging the empathetic bond between audience and show that gives musicals a spark of transcendence.
The downside is that we never really experience the terrors lurking inside a tortured mind. Instead, the show focuses on the grief that played a central role in Diana's collapse and continues to haunt her. When the subject of her sorrow delivers the song 'I'm Alive,' the threat to her sanity is clear. This darkness is the show's most intriguing aspect, as if it were referencing Daphne du Maurier rather than the DSM. It's also the most underdeveloped and sentimentally resolved. For behind its surface grimness, 'Next to Normal' ends up relying on soothing conventions.
2008 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
2009 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2010 | US Tour |
1st National Tour US Tour |
2010 | US Tour |
2nd National Tour US Tour |
2013 |
Weston Playhouse Production |
|
2020 | Washington, DC (Regional) |
Kennedy Center Broadway Center Stage Production Washington, DC (Regional) |
2024 | West End |
West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | The Pulitzer Prize | The Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Tom Kitt |
2009 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actress in a Musical | Alice Ripley |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Book of a Musical | Brian Yorkey |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Michael Greif |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Kevin Adams |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | David Stone |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Ellen Richard |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Carole Rothman |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Second Stage Theatre |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Patrick Catullo |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Barbara Whitman |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | James L. Nederlander |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Michael Starobin |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Tom Kitt |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Michael Starobin |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Tom Kitt |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Tom Kitt |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Brian Yorkey |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical | J. Robert Spencer |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical | Jennifer Damiano |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Alice Ripley |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Musical | Mark Wendland |
2009 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Musical | Brian Ronan |
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