Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Next to Normal Tour Understudies
#1Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 7:04pm
They have finally posted the cast of the Next to Normal tour on the website. http://nexttonormal.com/tour_cast
And as I scroll down to the understudies I am surprised to see the the Diana understudy is Asian! Now I am Asian myself, but she doesn't work since both the kids are white.
Comments? Concerns?
For those who thought NEXT TO NORMAL wouldn't have a life outside Broadway, well it's now playing in 4 cities, 9 different countries and has been translated into 6 languages.
#2Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 7:13pm
I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see an Asian Diana within a white family. I don't know why, it just seems awesome.
I have no problem suspending disbelief. That said the Natalie looks asian*ish* and Gabe.....how about overanalysis that PearlSun!Diana is imaging her son to look like his father :P.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 11/3/10 at 07:13 PM
#3Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 7:53pm^The thing is that I knew this would happen. Eventually a minority would have to play Diana, but I hoped that they would do it correctly by having the kids actually being half Asian, not necessarily changing the ethnicity of Dan. This is all for the sake of the plot.
For those who thought NEXT TO NORMAL wouldn't have a life outside Broadway, well it's now playing in 4 cities, 9 different countries and has been translated into 6 languages.
#4Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 7:55pmAs long as the actress (Pearl Sun) can sing and act the role of Diana, I don't think that her ethnicity will be a major concern. Too bad the tour isn't coming anywhere near NY...
rmusic11322
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/07
#5Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 8:20pmnexttotheheights, let's just be happy that more of us Asians are making our way to the stage. :)
#6Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 8:27pm
Too bad the tour isn't coming anywhere near NY...
Hartford is 90 minutes away, and Philadelphia is 2 hours away.
#7Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 8:43pm
Pearl Sun, who's covering Diana, is incredibly talented, but she also reads unbelievably young on stage.
I would have guessed she was in her late twenties, having seen her in HAPPINESS and tick, tick... BOOM! previously.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Updated On: 11/3/10 at 08:43 PM
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
#8Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 8:48pmrmusic11322, Amen to that!
For those who thought NEXT TO NORMAL wouldn't have a life outside Broadway, well it's now playing in 4 cities, 9 different countries and has been translated into 6 languages.
#9Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 9:37pm
"Hartford is 90 minutes away,"
It's actually 2 hours and 15 on a good day, however there's usually a bit of a delay just south of Hartford, and sometimes around the Cheshire area on 84 making the trip almost three hours.
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#10Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 9:40pmRace in this day and age shouldn't matter.
#11Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/3/10 at 10:52pmFrom the city its about 2 hours, from upstate (in college and its not during a break) the drive would be far worse.
#12Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/4/10 at 3:01amI would still think that it's close enough not to immediately reject any possibility of catching the tour :P.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#13Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/4/10 at 12:28pmI am so proud of Pearl! This makes me very excited to see the tour. I really hope she gets a chance to go on :)
peopleofpaper
Swing Joined: 11/4/10
#14Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/4/10 at 12:40pmi think it's awesome. i don't mind if other races are in the roles, it wouldn't throw me out of the story. as long as they have the talent for the role i don't care what race they are. i found this clip on youtube of her which made me like her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO_4j0xSQXw
#15Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 11/4/10 at 2:05pm
She also sounds great here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA4lAVIC2FE&feature=related
rmusic11322
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/07
#16Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 12/1/10 at 6:53pm
If there were ever a mixed-family cast, here are your Gabe and Natalie. Real life siblings!
Adam Jacobs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHy1JcKruHI
Arielle Jacobs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZK3yYlqV7k
Imagine both of them belting it out in Superboy And The Invisible Girl... *sighs* 
#17Next to Normal Tour Understudies
Posted: 12/1/10 at 7:09pmPearl Sun could barely handle the score of tick, tick, BOOM, in which she only had one major solo ("Come to Your Senses"). I can't imagine how she'd fare in a voice-shredder like Diana. Good thing Ripley is usually reliable.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
