Review Roundup: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Musical NEXT TO NORMAL at East West Players
East West Players (EWP), the nation's longest-running professional theatre of color in the country and the largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work, is pleased to announce Nancy Keystone as director of our upcoming production of Next To Normal, which begins performances on May 11 and runs until June 11, 2017, with opening night on May 17. Next to Normal-music by Tom Kitt, and book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey-tells the story of the seemingly perfect Goodman family. However, Diana, the mother, is a little too happy. Her husband Dan constantly worries. Her daughter Natalie is awfully intent on getting that scholarship to Yale. And her son Gabe, well... This Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize- winning rock musical is a heartbreaking, humorous, and unflinchingly authentic look at a suburban family struggling with the effects of bipolar disorder.
Let's see what the critics had to say!
BroadwayWorld (Gil Kaan): Deedee Magno Hall utilizes her unwavering vocals, backing it up with her passionate acting expertise, in her most vivid portrayal of Diana. Magno Hall makes you feel every specific pain, each individual heartbreak and the frequent bouts of confusion of a person not fully in control of her mind. Magno Hall's solo on "I Miss the Mountains" simply rips open your heart. Cliffton Hall nails his role as her very supportive rock of a husband, Dan, having stood by her for years of unnerving episodes. Hall transparently exhibits Dan's devotion and sometimes conflicting frustrations with his mentally unstable wife.
LA Times (Margaret Gray): Any such confidence, however, is over-optimistic. Deedee Magno Hall's Diana also is capable of reducing audience members - first timers or not - to blubbering wrecks with her searching fragility and voice like warm honey. Hall's real-life husband, Clifton Hall, also is moving in the rather thankless role of Diana's well-meaning but benighted husband, Dan. As the couple's rebellious teenage son, Gabe, Justin W. Yu delivers an unsettling combination of charm and menace.
LA Downtown News (Jeff Favre): Keystone drives the pace but without unnecessary chaos. Instead, she trusts her cast to find the heart in each scene, whether it's Deedee Magno Hall's delicate moment when Diana's problems with delusion becomes clear, or Briones' gentle exchanges as Natalie begins to trust her new boyfriend Henry (Scott Keiji Takeda). The director makes the most of Hana Sooyeon Kim's two-tier set, with balanced spacing of actors and staging on both levels in ways that enhances the action and tension.
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