NEXT TO NORMAL Reviews

Today is Wednesday, the 15th of April, which marks the official opening of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkley's much-acclaimed, heavily-anticipated 'baby' NEXT TO NORMAL. After successful runs at Off-Broadawy's 2ST and Arena Stage, the Booth Theatre is the new home for this new tuner. Let us welcome the enchanting and uber-talented Alice Ripley back to The Great White Way where she undoubtedly belongs, joined onstage by J. Robert Spencer, Aaron Tveit, Adam Chanler-Berat, Louis Hobson, and of course, Jennifer Damiano. I'd like to personally take a second and wish this one the absolute - all personal ties and bias aside - this is truly an original piece of theatre, I haven't seen the latest incarnation yet, but let me say, that I surely welcome it with open mind and open arms. Break legs, all! Love and best to the cast and crew! Post the OFFICIAL reviews here!

which has gotten a little out of hand. Lets leave the other thread, and just repost that review here.

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I knew it.

Did Brantley review this? I hope so. I know it's biased, but for reason his reviews mean more to me than Isherwood.

Brantley was at the Saturday matinee, so one can assume he'll be writing the review.

Makes sense to me.

Matthew doesn't like it (surprise!):

You might wish that this ordinary family, which lives in an ordinary house on an ordinary street in Ordinary Town, U.S.A., would want to include you in their world - but no. If this clan, the doctors that treat and mistreat them, and the lovestruck teen neighbor who populate Next to Normal are too consumed with their own concerns to pay attention to each other, you won't have a much better chance.

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/index.html

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Variety is Positive:

Unlike the bipolar manic-depressive at the center of "Next to Normal," who draws no lasting salvation from her trials with different medications, this original new pop-rock musical has benefited unequivocally from treatment. Composer Tom Kitt, writer-lyricist Brian Yorkey and director Michael Greif have made a lot of smart changes en route to Broadway, giving the show a more assertive personality, a more consistent tone, sharper focus and greater depth to its relationships. While its weaknesses have not been entirely erased, they are outweighed by the intimate musical's ambition, sincerity and heightened emotional involvement

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940055.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

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I like [title of show], but I love how David Rooney describes it, in a list of failed small-scale musicals, as "self-congratulating artistic masturbation."

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Very Positive from Chicago Tribune

"The show?s lyrics ponder memory loss, depression and confusion. A typical musical number is ?My psychopharmacologist and I.? 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 a 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. "

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2009/04/next-to-normal-on-broadway-when-normal-is-so-achingly-out-of-reach.html

This is all very promising.

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Word of Mouth:

http://www.broadway.com/Broadway-com-VIDEO-ON-DEMAND-Word-Of-Mouth-Reviews/broadway_information_html/5015935

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He bugged me in the review as well. I was hoping that Barbara was one of the three Word of Mouth reviewers. She is always entertaining to watch.