Next to Normal

Title: Next to Normal
Author: Yorkey, Brian
Price: $24.95

Cast: 4M 2F
Character Ages: 16 - 18 & 30 - 40
Length: Full
Target Audience: Adult
Style: Musical
Themes: loss, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, strains of suburban life

Characters:

Diana - Sexy, Sharp. Delusional bipolar depressive. Thirties or Forties

Gabe - Her son. Dashing. Gentle. Bright. Playful. Everything a mother, etc. Almost eighteen

Dan - Her husband. Handsome. Genuine. Constant. Tired. Thirties or forties.

Natalie - Her daughter. Sixteen and trying to be perfect. It's not going well.

Henry - Musician. Romantic. Stoner. Slacker. Philospher king. Seventeen.

Doctor Madden - On the young side of ageless. Assured. A rock star.

Voices, Anesthesiologist, Nurses, Doctors and other are played by the company. A Psychopharmacologist (Doctor Fine) is played by the actor playing Doctor Madden.


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 thirty original songs, Next to Normal shows how far two parents will go to keep themselves sane and their family's world intact.

Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer prize for drama, and the most talked about new musical on Broadway. Next to Normal puts a woman's struggle with bi-polar disorder and depression center stage. The musical also addresses such issues as loss, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and the strains of suburban life, yet manages to be truly witty, psychologically astute and enormously entertaining.

Author Biography: Brian Yorkey is an American playwright, lyricist, and theatre director. He shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2009 Tony Award for Best Original Score with composer Tom Kitt, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Next to Normal. Yorkey graduated from Columbia University. Prior to bringing Next to Normal to Broadway, Yorkey was affiliated with Village Theatre, where he eventually progressed to a six-year tenure as associate artistic director. He is currently writing an untitled musical for Paramount. Brian's first feature film pitch, Time After Time, sold in a bidding war for high six figures to Universal.

Tom Kitt (composer):
received two Tony awards for Best Score and Best Orchestration (with Michael Starobin) for next to normal. Tom is responsible for the music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations for Green Day's American Idiot on Broadway and was also the string arranger on their most recent album 21st Century Breakdown. Tom is also the composer of High Fidelity (Broadway) and From Up Here (MTC).

Brian Yorkey (Librettist/Lyricist) received the Tony Award for Best Score fo Next to Normal. Theatre credits include the musical adaptation of Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet and the courtry musical Play It by Heart.

\"A brave, breathtaking nusical. It is something much more than a feel-good musical: it is a feel-everything musical.\" - Ben Brantley, New York Times

\"The best musical of the season by a mile! next to normal is mesmerizing - an emotional powerhouse with a fire in its soul and a wicked wit that burns just as fiercely.\" - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

\"The rarest of Broadway species: a thoughtful, emotional musical for grown-up.\" - Adam Feldman, TimeOut New York

Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
Publication date: 02/09/2010
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781559363709
Publishing status: OS In-stock BN