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Sunday, June 26, 2016

Next to Normal

About 6 months ago, I became obsessed with the musical Next to Normal - the story of a woman with bi-polar disorder and how the illness affects her family.  It doesn't sound like the basis of a beautiful musical, but after hearing just a song or 2 I was hooked.  And that was just seeing it on YouTube (while I wholly disagree with Broadway bootlegs in principle, in practice I will admit to watching them repeatedly...), I had completely missed the opportunity to see it live.  So being the hopeful musical theater junkie that I am, I googled it and found that it was playing at the Keegan theater this month. I purchased the tickets then, and have been waiting anxiously for tonight ever since.

And let me tell you, the show absolutely did not disappoint.  I was blown away by the talent of this cast. I didn't think the Keegan was considered a regional theater so I assumed it would be actors that were doing this for fun.  But I was very, very wrong.  The actors had some serious shows beneath their belt already, and their ability to sing the extremely complicated score was nothing short of amazing. The set decoration, consisting of upside down steps, and off-kilter doors was the perfect way to show that Diana was slowly losing her grip on reality.   Even the theater itself was fabulous.  The Keegan is tiny, only having about 50-75 seats in total.  But it was comfortable and intimate, which made you really feel like you were part of the action happening on stage.  And since most of the songs are so heartfelt, it makes you feel that much more for the characters and what their going through.

Overall, I can't find a single thing to not like about this evening.  The show always hits me pretty hard, and I will admit to tearing up (though, not as much as I would have if I didn't know what was going to happen.)  And ordinarily I don't go for shows that choke me up, but there's just something about this one.  I'm so happy that we got the chance to see this amazing cast act their hearts out and will be anxiously awaiting their next production.

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