Next to Normal (Original Broadway Cast)
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Free Music Notes for Next to Normal (Original Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: Better than normal
Hit: 4 Stars
The recording runs over two hours and sometimes becomes a bit banal, but overall it is a challenging, intriguing work, full of great moments. Alice Ripley won the Tony for best actress and the score also won--both well deserved.Free Music Review: Love it, Love it, Love it!
Hit: 4 Stars
Wow, what a show. Kinda a mix between alot of great rock/pop musicals, but with some really poignant music, lyric and storyline. Die hard musical theatre lovers will really enjoy this. Plus the double CD is excellent value.Free Music Review: An Admirable But Flawed New Musical
Hit: 3 Stars
There's good news and there's bad news with the new Broadway cast recording of "Next to Normal". The good news is that this is a totally original work not based on a movie, a cartoon or a catalog of kitschy pop songs. The subject matter is adult, challenging and thought-provoking. In this age of the the jukebox musical, that is something to be cherished. Unfortunately, N2N's ambitions frequently outreach its accomplishments. The score evokes the early 1970s era of light pop-rock musicals such as "Godspell", "Pippin" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona" in sound if not in substance. That's not necessarily problemmatic, but N2N consists primarily of mid-tempo rockers and folky ballads that all start to sound the same after a while. And in a score that musicalizes most of the show's narrative, lapsing into clumsy, rote recitative is almost an occupational hazard. Concise songcraft is sacrificed for rambling musicalizations of what amount to little more than through-sung monologues. This is not to say that authors Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey haven't provided some memorable moments. These two less-than-major talents have attempted to tackle the subject matter of mental illness in a creatively audacious manner. That's all to the good, but N2N is too much of a not-good-enough thing to sustain its lofty goals. Too bad.
For the most part, the performers on this recording are marvelous. However, it's curious that Alice Ripley, who has received so much award-winning acclaim in the role of Diana, is the least effective cast member here. Her wisp of a voice is often required to strain in belting out ersatz rock tunes and her wobbly contralto sometimes sounds overwhelmed. J. Robert Spencer, Aaron Tveit and, especially, Jennifer Damiano are just fine, though, and all of these actors paint a throroughly convincing portrait of a family in turmoil.
Whatever its shortcomings, "Next to Normal" deserves to be acclaimed for being that rare breed in 21st century musical theater...an honest to goodness original work that pushes boundaries and doesn't shoot for the lowest common denominator. In a Broadway season that included "Shrek the (cartoon) Musical" and the '80s jukebox travesty "Rock of Ages", that's an accomplishment in and of itself.
Free Music Review: Flaws
Hit: 3 Stars
There are real flaws in this musical. I'm a bit concerned that--once again--the storyline ends too close to normal. In that, while this woman is consistently referred to as a "bipolar mother," by the end of the performance we are are asked to suspend belief in that diagnosis. Maybe it is not her brain but her soul that needs to heal? Maybe her grief was not pathological and she did not need meds, doctors, or the overprotective spouse? Heal thyself? Not a great message, really. I'd rather have the character continue to struggle--not with the "normal" grief of losing a child--but with the next to normal grief of living everyday in a struggle with the bipolar illness and its "treatments." That would have been, for me, both more real and perhaps even more heroic (and optimistic?).Free Music Review: A great show but....
Hit: 3 Stars
Agreed...a great show....but is there a memorable tune?.....I didnt walk away humming anything and I had purchased and listened to the music before I saw the show. (I do that to tune my ear to the music and I find I usually enjoy the show more.)....some of the reviews here are more about the show than the CD or the music. Yep see the show! it was great! but I would hold off on the CD...just purchase a few of the MP3 songs recommended in other CD reviews here.