NEXT TO NORMAL

AN INTIMATE, NEW PRODUCTION OF THE AWARD-WINNING ROCK MUSICAL

October 25 - November 11, 2012

Studio 501 @ CAP21, 18 West 18th st

Music by Tom Kitt

Book & Lyrics by Brian Yorkey

Original Broadway Production Produced by David Stone, James L. Nederlander, Barbara Whittman, Patrick Catullo and Second Stage Theatre

Scenic Design Joseph Croghan

Lighting Design Michael O'Connor

Sound Design Jacob Subotnick

Orchestrations Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt

Music Direction Jeremy Robin Lyons

Production Stage Manager Arysbells Figueredo

Direction & Musical Staging David Norwood

The highly acclaimed, edgy rock-musical comes back to New York City in an intimate, new production. Heralded as “a brave, breathtaking musical” (The New York Times) that “pushes Broadway in new directions” (Rolling Stone) this emotional powerhouse portrays the intricacies of a family trying to take care of themselves and each other in the face of a mother’s deteriorating mental state. With a pulsing, exhilarating, and contemporary score, this TONY Award winner also took home the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

NEXT TO NORMAL was nominated for eleven 2009 Tony Awards and won three, Best Original Score, Best Orchestration and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Alice Ripley. It won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, becoming just the eighth musical in history to receive the honor. In awarding the prize to Kitt and Yorkey, the Pulitzer Board called the show "a powerful rock musical that grapples with mental illness in a suburban family and expands the scope of subject matter for musicals.”

You can learn more about Mental Illness and the resources available through the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

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

"Grade: A. Agonizingly beautiful." — Entertainment Weekly

"A hallmark of a great musical is that it can grab you, shake you and take you into its world. NEXT TO NORMAL did before - and still does." — New York Daily News

"The future of American Musicals." — The Washington Post

"Rock is alive and rolling like thunder in NEXT TO NORMAL. The best musical of the season by a mile." — Rolling Stone

The Cast

NICOLE POWELL (Diana) last appeared in New York as Martha in the award winning NYMF production of Central Avenue Breakdown. Broadway: Ragtime (revival), Hairspray. National Tours: South Pacific. Regional credits: Raisin in the Sun (Ruth), Sweet Charity (Helene), The Owl & the Pussycat (Doris), Dreamgirls (Deena), and Hair (tribe). Film/TV credits: Blue Bloods, Delocated, Are We There Yet?, Spike Lee’s Drop Squad. Thank you to my loving and supportive husband Ron. www.nicolepowell.com

CHRISTOPHER RYAN (Dan) Credits include the 1^st National Tour of Young Frankenstein in title role of Dr. Frankenstein, the Las Vegas production of Spamalot, and touring productions of My Fair Lady, The Music Man, and Camelot starring Robert Goulet. In New York City: Red Hot & Blue, If You Could See: The Alice Austen Story, and The Bone Wars. Regional shows have included My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, The 1940’s Radio Hour, Beauty and the Beast, Annie, Chess, and Evita. Thanks to my incredibly supportive family and friends. All my love to my fiancée, Jillian!

ERIC MICHAEL KROP (Gabe) Grateful to be able to do this show! Broadway: Godspell. Credits include Hair (Claude) and Miss Saigon (Chris). Band: The WD (@TheWDband). Love and thanks to my family, friends, ITM, Jen, Telsey, Mom, Dad, Carol and Rich. www.EricMichaelKrop.com. For my grandma who taught me to sing.

ELENA RICARDO (Natalie) just returned from the national tour of Mamma Mia! and is thrilled to be a part of Musically Human’s season! Favorite credits include Spring Awakening (Wendla) and the World Premiere of Bring it On: The Musical (Ensemble u/s Campbell/Eva) at the Alliance Theatre. Thanks to my beautiful family and friends for your unwavering patience, love, and support in all that I do. www.elenaricardo.com

SAM HELDT (Henry) is thrilled to be a part of this production. Previous credits include Claude in HAIR at Burning Coal Theatre, and touring the country as Herbert in Junie B. Jones for TheatreWorksUSA, as well as countless concerts and readings around New York City. BA, Oberlin College. Proud AEA member. Much love and thanks to my friends and family! www.samheldt.com

CRAIG FOSTER (Doctor Madden / Doctor Fine) is ecstatic to make his Musically Human debut! He most recently was stuck in a cave as Floyd Collins at Kentucky Rep, Cruised across the world as a Singer for Holland America Line, Joined a Jugband as the swing in Emmett Otters Jugband Christmas at Goodspeed Opera House. Fought on a Barricade in Les Miserables at TUTS, and said Hello to Dolly at TUTS. He would like to thank his amazingly beautiful and supportive wife Lucia, of which this would not have been possible.

Creative Team

TOM KITT (Music & Orchestrations) received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as two Tony awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations (with Michael Starobin) for Next to Normal. His music for next to normal also received the 2009 Frederick Loewe Award for dramatic composition and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Score. 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 21^st Century Breakdown. Tom is also the composer of High Fidelity (Broadway), The Winter's Tale (The Public's NYSF), From Up Here (Manhattan Theatre Club) and The Retributionists (Playrights Horizons). As a musical director, conductor, arranger, and orchestrator for Broadway, Off-Broadway and beyond, his credits include 13, Debbie Does Dallas, Everyday Rapture, Hair, Laugh Whore, Pippin (Deaf West), and Urban Cowboy. He is the proud leader of the Tom Kitt Band, whose songs have been featured in film and TV.

BRIAN YORKEY (Book & Lyrics) received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as the 2009 Tony Award for Best Score, for Next to Normal. Brian was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Next to Normal, and his work on the show earned him the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Score. Theatre credits include Making Tracks, which has played off-Broadway and regionally, the musical adaptation of Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet and the country musical Play It By Heart. Film and TV projects in development include the features Time After Time for Universal, Love Undercover for Pandemonium Films and Overture, Fashion Show for Parkes/MacDonald and Paramount and Chase for Anonymous Content and Rosenzweig Films. He has directed off-Broadway and regionally and for seven years was associate artistic director at Village Theatre in Washington state, one of the nation's leading producers of new musicals. He's a graduate of Columbia University, where he was artistic director of the Varsity Show, an alum of the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the WGA.

JOSEPH CROGHAN (Scenic Design) Film: Two Dudes in a Van, Piss Apostle. Off-Broadway: Proof (Cubanita), Flanagan’s Wake (Rare Breed), Beirut (Athena Theatre Co.) Opera: The Mark of Cain, Abraham and Isaac (Chelsea Opera Co.) Off-Off-Broadway: 1931 (Regroup Theatre), Rent a White Guy (Fish out of Water) (The Wall, (1242 Pacific Productions) Where’s My Money, (Animus Theatre Co.) Honestly Abe (La Muse Venale). Regional: Bye Bye Birdie (Lyric Stage, Dallas). Other NYC productions: The Color Purple and Honk (St. John’s University). Joseph would like to thank his friends and Amber for their support. www.Josephcroghan.com.

MICHAEL O'CONNOR (Lighting Design) Recent projects include: A Celebration of Harold Pinter Irish Rep, Jimmy Titanic Drilling Company, American Clock AADA, Lend Me A Tenor Gallery Players, New Works Studio LAByrinth Theatre, Mary Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Moonfleece 45th Street Theater, In and Out Danspace Project, Oliver David F. Clune Center for the Arts, Snapshot Plays Theatre 54, Cover Boy Danspace Project, Spring Awakening AADA, Noctu Irish Rep. Michael is the resident Lighting Designer for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts NYC and Tere O’Connor Dance.

JACOB SUBOTNICK (Sound Design) Selected NYC theatre: Off-Broadway: Any Given Monday (59E59). Off-Off-Broadway: Body Language, The Violet Hour, Bridgeboy, Two Rooms, Romance/Romance, Magnetic North (The Active Theater); Venus Observed, Endless Summer Nights, Uncle Vanya (Boomerang Theatre); Lend Me a Tenor, Macbeth, A Raisin in the Sun, Othello (The Gallery Players); The Empress of Sex (Planet Connections Theater Festivities 2012); Tulpa or Anne and Me (PCTF 2011); The Picture of Dorian Gray (PCTF 2010); TokenCollective’s Nesting; The Culture Project’s The People Speak. Regional: Hair, Damn Yankees, Hairspray (Mt. Washington Valley Theatre); Recovery (Minnesota Fringe 2011). Jacob received his Bachelor of Music from NYU. www.jacobsubotnick.com

MICHAEL STAROBIN (Orchestrations) Leap of Faith, Queen of the Mist, People in the Picture, Sondheim on Sondheim, Next to Normal (Tony®), Glorious Ones, Grinch, Adrift in Macao, Bernarda Alba, Spelling Bee, Assassins (Tony®, Drama Desk), Tom Sawyer, A New Brain, A Christmas Carol (MSG), Hello Again, Guys & Dolls, My Favorite Year, Falsettos, In Trousers, Sunday in the Park with George (Drama Desk), Once on This Island, Closer Than Ever, Legs Diamond, Romance Romance, Carrie, Birds of Paradise, Rags, Three Guys Naked, Von Richtofen.

ARYSBELLS FIGUEREDO (Production Stage Manager) Recent Theatre Credits: Swing State (Lisa Dozier Productions, performed at NYMF), Ryan Scott Oliver's 35MM (Very Intense Productions), and Baby (performed at the inaugural ICTF portion of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe). This past spring she completed a Professional Internship with the Manhattan Theatre Club concentrating in Production. She holds a BA degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Florida. Arysbells sends many thanks to her family, David Norwood, Rebecca and wonderful boyfriend Jason for their always continued love and support.

JEREMY ROBIN LYONS (Music Direction) Thrilled to be joining the MHTP team! Recent: …Ridiculously Talented… with William Finn (Barrington Stage); It’s Only Life (Momentum Rep). Favorite MD credits: Ragtime, Into the Woods, Aida, A Chorus Line, Children of Eden. Created new piano reductions for A Tale of Two Cities (post-Broadway), and new orchestrations for A Doll’s Life (New Ohio Theatre). Jeremy sings with Essential Voices USA, the chorus in residence with the NY Pops at Carnegie Hall. Graduate of CCNY. www.jrlmusic.net.

DAVID NORWOOD (Direction & Musical Staging) is the Founder & Producing Artistic Director of Musically Human Theatre Productions. He has directed & choreographed productions of Ragtime, Promises Promises, [title of show], Nevermore and NighoftheLivingDead the Musical. David has studied at Point Park University, The Ailey School, the Joffrey Ballet School and Earl Mosley's Institute for the Arts. He has performed on stage with Broadway legend, Carol Channing and has also worked with many esteemed artists such as Milton Meyers, Sidra Bell and many others.