New West Theatre is branching out with composer Tom Kitt and playwright Brian Yorkey penned Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning 2008 rock musical “Next To Normal,” which runs Sept. 8-24 at the Yates Theatre.
“It’s a Tony Award winning musical about the impact of mental health issues have on a typical family. Everything seems perfect, but there is trauma that hasn’t been addressed yet,” said director Kelly Reay, who was excited to be able to stage the production as soon as the rights for regional theatre companies became available.
“The characters deal with depression. But in the end they are a really strong family who love each other,” he continued.
“Dad’s an architect; Mom rushes to pack lunches and pour cereal; their daughter and son are wisecracking teens. They appear to make up the perfect nuclear family. Yet life is anything but normal when we learn that mom has been struggling wth manic depression for the last 16 years. ‘Next to Normal’ uses powerful songs and music to take audiences in a heartfelt journey with love, sympathy and heart,” according to a press release from new West Theatre.
Reay noted “Next To Normal” is a departure for the long standing theatre company, which is best known for their always popular variety shows and somewhat lighter fare rather than this darker drama which has strong language and adult themes.
“It’s a really great musical. It’s such a well written play. It won a Pulitzer Prize for the writing,” Reay said.
“But is does have some nightly language in it,” he continued.
“We’re still going to do the other shows, but we hope to expand our audience. We’d like to build our student audience to more students and university students,” he said.