#1
Watching the new company of the heartbreaking musical NEXT TO NORMAL, I finally saw what I didn’t see at Second Stage or at the Booth with the original company.
True, everything about Alice Ripley’s jaw-dropping performance was stuff of legend: her crooked smile, her expressive, crazed eyes, and a voice that sounded like it would break at any second. Ripley bulldozed her way through Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s script and score like a tornado, leaving no room for anything else in its path. And while J. Robert Spencer (and before and after, Brian d’Arcy James), Jennifer Damiano and Aaron Tveit were quite strong in their roles (Damiano in particular), the show was Ripley’s, TKO.
Was there emotion? Of course there was. I didn’t see it. And I thought that Michael Grief’s staging didn’t match the direction in which Kitt and Yorkey had taken their material post-Second Stage.
But that all changed watching the new company, as I found myself dissolving into a teary-eyed mess at multiple points throughout the first and second acts. What Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, Meghann Fahy and Kyle Dean Massey have done is turn NEXT TO NORMAL into an ensemble piece.
Mazzie’s Diana is far stronger a woman than Ripley’s. You wouldn’t think that she’s about to fall off the deep-end; she seems far-stronger, yet terribly addled. But ultimately, you can't help but think that she will get through it, and be better because of it. It's well-thought-out, sans rawness, but with knife-like precision. It was really interesting to hear how the songs sound when sung sans vocal flourishes. Mazzie’s beautiful rendition of “I Miss the Mountains,” is a true show-stopper.
Having her real-life husband, Danieley, play Dan, her stage husband, brings an interesting dynamic to the piece. Singing the role spectacularly, his Dan is just as much of a tortured-soul as her Diana, but you’re unsure if he’ll get by in the end. Together, they make a dynamite team, mutually trusting, sexy, and believable.
A strong, yet tortured woman and a strong, yet tortured man, have raised a very weak, very tortured daughter in Fahy's Natalie. That's not to say she's weak - FAR from it - but you could easily see her fragile Natalie walking down the same path, sliding into the mental instability of her mother feet-first.
Massey, who performed with the original cast, Adam Chanler-Berat and Louis Hobson are all quite solid in their roles and are still making interesting choices in their roles, years down the pike.
With NEXT TO NORMAL now as an ensemble piece, everyone has a chance to shine, and they do. It’s not just one person’s show anymore, it’s all of theirs.
Posted: 7/31/10 at 8:16pm
Watching the new company of the heartbreaking musical NEXT TO NORMAL, I finally saw what I didn’t see at Second Stage or at the Booth with the original company.
True, everything about Alice Ripley’s jaw-dropping performance was stuff of legend: her crooked smile, her expressive, crazed eyes, and a voice that sounded like it would break at any second. Ripley bulldozed her way through Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s script and score like a tornado, leaving no room for anything else in its path. And while J. Robert Spencer (and before and after, Brian d’Arcy James), Jennifer Damiano and Aaron Tveit were quite strong in their roles (Damiano in particular), the show was Ripley’s, TKO.
Was there emotion? Of course there was. I didn’t see it. And I thought that Michael Grief’s staging didn’t match the direction in which Kitt and Yorkey had taken their material post-Second Stage.
But that all changed watching the new company, as I found myself dissolving into a teary-eyed mess at multiple points throughout the first and second acts. What Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, Meghann Fahy and Kyle Dean Massey have done is turn NEXT TO NORMAL into an ensemble piece.
Mazzie’s Diana is far stronger a woman than Ripley’s. You wouldn’t think that she’s about to fall off the deep-end; she seems far-stronger, yet terribly addled. But ultimately, you can't help but think that she will get through it, and be better because of it. It's well-thought-out, sans rawness, but with knife-like precision. It was really interesting to hear how the songs sound when sung sans vocal flourishes. Mazzie’s beautiful rendition of “I Miss the Mountains,” is a true show-stopper.
Having her real-life husband, Danieley, play Dan, her stage husband, brings an interesting dynamic to the piece. Singing the role spectacularly, his Dan is just as much of a tortured-soul as her Diana, but you’re unsure if he’ll get by in the end. Together, they make a dynamite team, mutually trusting, sexy, and believable.
A strong, yet tortured woman and a strong, yet tortured man, have raised a very weak, very tortured daughter in Fahy's Natalie. That's not to say she's weak - FAR from it - but you could easily see her fragile Natalie walking down the same path, sliding into the mental instability of her mother feet-first.
Massey, who performed with the original cast, Adam Chanler-Berat and Louis Hobson are all quite solid in their roles and are still making interesting choices in their roles, years down the pike.
With NEXT TO NORMAL now as an ensemble piece, everyone has a chance to shine, and they do. It’s not just one person’s show anymore, it’s all of theirs.
Updated On: 8/1/10 at 08:16 PM
