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Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

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#1

Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 4:14am

I searched a bit and couldn’t find any other source mentioning this. In the theater section of the Dayton City Paper there’s a small write up on Alice Ripley (guess she has local ties) saying she’s been cast in Next to Normal. It also says Brian D’Arcy James has been cast in the show. Interesting, as I hadn’t heard of him being attached until now. She’s quoted as saying “I’m off to NYC after Thanksgiving” and “Brian is a dream come true, and I’m very excited about this project.”

Thought I’d share, and see if anyone else has heard substantiating information or other confirmed casting news for the show.
Here's a link to the article on the site. At least until the next issue is out, and it refreshes. Second page, under caption Alice Ripley.
#2

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 6:21am

I was really hoping to see Amy Spanger return to this show for the Second Stage run, but this is inceredible news. After seeing Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy together in the cast of Songs For a New World earlier this year, I think they are going to be perfect together in this.
Drench yourself in words unspoken. Live your life with arms wide open. Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten. "Unwritten" Natasha Bedingfield
#3

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 9:03am

Ripley sang a song from this show called "I Miss the Mountains" at her Town Hall concert, and it was beautiful. I've been hoping she'd be part of the cast since then. It's great to have her back in New York, doing theatre.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#5

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:43am

I'll miss Amy, she was fantastic, though I do see your point, Emcee. I've actually never seen Alice Ripley live, so can't say I know much or can predict how she'll be.

And I know Brian is wonderfully talented, but...*whines* I wanted Joooooe! He was so fantastic in this!

So does it seem likely that Anthony will be the only NYMF cast member returning?

Well, the Off Broadway production of the songs of William Finn that Joe is supposed to be in better not be postponed a year again.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
#6

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 11:31am

Amy is amazing, but is much too young. I think Alice will be perfect and I can't wait to see her. And adding Brian into the mix is all the better!
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
#8

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 1:08pm

How is Amy Spanger "much too young"?

She's going on 38, which would make her quite a plausible age to have a teenage daughter (though I conceed that she comes off as younger on stage.)

Alice Ripley, by the way, is only six or seven years older at 45.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.

Updated On: 8/16/07 at 01:08 PM

#9

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 1:23pm

I don't quite know if there are words to really express how exciting this is. The NYMF production of Feeling Electric is still one of my favorite theater experiences to date, and Brian is hands down my favorite actor. This will be incredible.

Sad not to see Spanger returning, but Alice Ripley will be amazing I'm sure.
#10

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 2:13pm

Is she really 38? I thought she was much younger. Maybe that's why they aren't using her. Haha.
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
#13

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 3:25pm

I loved the NYMF cast of Feeling Electric, but am ambivalent about this news of casting. The characterizations were done so well in 2005, it's hard to imagine how they can be topped, even though reinterpretation and recasting is obviously standard in the industry, especially in these sorts of situations. And of course, the material has changed. Spanger certainly did not look old enough to have teenaged children (even though in reality the numbers work out pretty well), but Cassidy was great and I wish he could've returned to the project.

That being said, I'm still excited to see the new production and am interested to see what changes Kitt and Yorkey have made, and what Greif has in store for us!
"I'll cut you, Tracee Beazer!!!! ...Just kidding. I'd never cut anyone." -Tina Maddigan, 9/30/06, WS stage door
Avatar: JULIE "EFFING" WHITE, 2007 TONY WINNER. Thank God. I'm thinking about legally changing my name to Lizzie Curry...
#18

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 6:43pm

I'm still amused that I stumbled onto casting information for this in my rinky-dink local community paper, when I've been searching the theater sites periodically since it was announced for Second Stage.

I'd really like to see it. It's gonna depend on further casting information and the dates, as to whether I can make the financial sacrifice to travel for it.
#20

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 7:25pm

I much prefer Ripley over Spanger, though I'm not familiar with the material so perhaps Spanger did great work with it before.
It's just nice to see Alice Ripley back on the New York stage.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#21

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 9:43pm

I agree with UptownGirl2. I figured this was an old article, but the date is recent enough that the facts in the article about Farragut North are wrong, so I don't know how reliable it is.
#22

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/16/07 at 10:28pm

Well, I'm not exactly subscribing to it faithfully, or I wouldn't have asked for substantiating information, but the piece wasn't about Farragut North so it's understandable if the anecdotal mention of it wasn't as accurate. Not good journalism, but understandable. However, it seems as if he got his Next to Normal information from Alice herself.
#24

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/17/07 at 1:01am

BTW... Alice graduated from West Carrollton High School ,same as me :), which is in Dayton,OH..which is why I bet she was in the city paper. Im so excited I love her work and I am a big fan!
#25

re: Alice Ripley and Brian D'Arcy James for Next to Normal

Posted: 8/17/07 at 6:41am

Craww, you started this thread asking about other casting for this show. I am interested as well. I know that my friend Caissie was involved in a reading or workshop earlier this year (although I doubt she's Wicked to do the show). I think I also heard a while back that a couple of Spring Awakening stars were possibly headed for this production (I believe Skylar Austin and Phoebe Strole). Can anyone elabaroate on that?
Drench yourself in words unspoken. Live your life with arms wide open. Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten. "Unwritten" Natasha Bedingfield

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