NEXT TO NORMAL Headed to Broadway's Longacre Theater, Previews Start March 27 — Page 6

Show times will be Tuesday-Saturday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2 PM and Sunday at 3 and 7:30 PM. --from Playbill

There's a show on Sunday evening but no show on Wednesday afternoon.
Would that be only during the preview or entire run?

Anyway, YAY for Next to Normal! I'm glad that they've still got life and can't wait to see this again. WOOOT!

Um.. make sence.
And it's also good for me since I only can be there on the weekend. Hope they don't reschedule it.

I won't waste my breath debating the merits of this show. I think Spring Awakening is crap too but it won a bunch of Tony's, so...who the eff knows if this show will take awards home? It doesn't DESERVE to, but that doesn't really seem to matter anymore.

The good news is that this show won't run for longer than a year or two, and 9 to 5 won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

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I'll have to make it back to the city to see this. I saw it at 2nd Stage last March, but Alice Ripley was out. But her understudy, Jessica Phillips, was more than capable.

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I think Spring Awakening is crap


Well what do you know, we agree on something, spring awakening was absolutely terrible.



The good news is that this show won't run for longer than a year or two,

edit, actually, that's not really mean, it just shows that you are completely delusional because you think 9 to 5 will run for 2+ years.

Updated On: 2/18/09 at 01:11 PM

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Updated On: 2/18/09 at 01:29 PM

Jessica was not an understudy at Arena.

Arena understudies were:

Michael Berry ~ Dan and the Doctors
Meghann Fahy ~ Natalie
Mary Mossberg ~ Diana
Timothy Young ~ Gabe and Henry

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I wish/hope Morgan Weed returns to understudy Natalie. From what I've heard she was sensational. Whoever understudies Aaron will have quite a feat on their hands...

I was able to see both Michael Berry covering Louis Hobson and Timothy Young covering Aaron Tveit. Saw the show 3 times at 2st and 2 times at Arena.

Michael was great in my opinion...I almost preferred him to Hobson, who just doesn't do it for me. It's not secret that I still wish Somers was in the role.

Timothy was a mess in regards to covering Gabe. Vocally he couldn't do it, utilizing ALOT of head voice. His movement around the stage was a little weird as well, trying to copy Tveit's but not succeeding. He didn't develop the character strong enough in my opinion and needed to work a bit on "manning up" to come across as stronger.

I think NO ONE can really do what Aaron does in terms of movement around the stage haha. The guy is like a gazelle or something! He's SO smooth in everything he does! That's like.. a fairly large part of what makes him so unique and memorable (plus he's obviously just a great actor and has a great voice)

So yeah, I think the understudy for Gabe would definitely have to find his own way to do the role so that it doesn't just come off like "trying to be Aaron!Gabe and not succeeding" :)

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For real, it was so bizarre. Aaron seemed to be out quite a bit at Arena (6 or 7 times at least, with three having to do with the final Hairspray performance) so others should be able to back this up.

Timothy was just like...not able to do it.

Did anyone ever see Meghann Fahy on as Natalie?

Meghann never went on for Natalie during the run at Arena

Was Timothy's first time on on the 1/4/09 matinee? I was there for that performance and I'm pretty sure it was his first time. Personally, after seeing Aaron twice previously at Second Stage, I was thoroughly convinced that no one could match his unbelievable and almost inhuman performance. I was right, but not by far! I WAS STILL VERY VERY PLEASED with Timothy! (Especially if it was in fact his first performance that day!)

I thought he handled the stage very very well. His vocals were also very good, although that was one area Aaron clearly won out in comparison. I also felt that, an important aspect of that character is the "haunting" feel that he gives to Diana and the entire audience. Timothy could've used a little more work in that area-- he didn't quite put Diana (or me) into as much of a trance like Aaron did. But his acting was still quite good and he would definitely be able to improve his small quirks if he had more time with the role.

I hope Timothy continues as the understudy because he was truly great, and I'm sure he would also do justice to Henry's role if he were put in that position.