BWW Reviews: Midvale Main Street Stages Adventuresome NEXT TO NORMAL

For most avid musical-theatergoers, a thrilling night in the theater involves a cast of skilled singer-actors giving their all matched with a riveting score and story. More the better if the theater space is intimate and the musical selected for staging is adventuresome.

At Midvale Main Street Theatre, "Next to Normal" should not be missed.

Skilled singer-actors giving their all? Yes.

A riveting score and story? Yes.

The theater space is intimate? Yes.

The musical selected for staging is adventuresome? Yes.

A thrilling night in the theater? Oh, yes.

Sure, in this tiny 130-seat venue, the thin budget shows. The costuming is an odd mishmash, apparently from the actors' own closets, and the set pieces are equally hodgepodge. Instead, the focus is on a chamber-musical staging that allows the actors' voices to soar and a personal interaction with the characters they present.

There's no question that "N2N" is an expertly crafted musical. Nominated for eleven 2009 Tony Awards, the show won three, including Best Score. Then it was also awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama (despite not being a candidate). 

Midvale Main Street prides itself on staging unique-to-Utah musicals. This is only the second production of "N2N" in the state (after the professional staging at Pioneer Theatre Company), and it follows a gleefully macabre "Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street." The following two musicals in the season are "Rent" and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."

Leading the talented cast are Dustin Bolt as Dan and Sara McDonald as Diana. Bolt brings tender emotion to "I've Been," and McDonald is at her best in "I Miss the Mountains." The emotional high point is Bolt and McDonald in "You Don't Know," which merges to "I Am the One," with Aaron Ford as Gabe. But then the reprise of "I Am the One" by Bold and Ford near the play's end is tear-inducing.

The leads are capably supported by Cassidy Ross as Natalie and Mason Holmstead as Henry, who bring sweetness mixed with confusion to their roles. Ryan Fallis transforms from Dr. Madden to a scary rock star in an eye blink.

A backseat director might find fault with some of the choices by director Tammy Ross, but the actors' blocking on the small stage, along with second-story bedroom and attic sets, shows wise decision-making. Invention is seen in the staging of "My Psychopharmacologist and I" that involves the entire cast. The wit of putting Henry in a DARE t-shirt while he's smoking marijuana in a bong is not lost on the audience.

All in all, "N2N" at Midvale Main Street Theatre would be "Perfect for You."

For more information, visit midvaletheatre.com or call 801-566-0596. Watch clips from the production at youtube.com/watch?v=wF0LhepoewA and youtube.com/watch?v=tfqHXkXCCA8.

"Next to Normal," with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, plays at Midvale Main Street Theatre through March 31.

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