SpeakEasy Extends NEXT TO NORMAL Through April 22

Featuring a pop rock score, NEXT TO NORMAL shatters through the façade of a family dealing with the direct and indirect effects of mental illness. Winner of three Tony Awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this intense, emotional and ultimately hopeful musical makes a direct grab for the heart with its story of a family coming to terms with its past and bravely facing its future.

NEXT TO NORMAL is the creation of composer Tom Kitt and bookwriter/lyricist Brian Yorkey. Mr. Kitt was responsible for the music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations for Green Day’s American Idiot on Broadway, and is also the composer of the music for High Fidelity (Broadway), The Winter’s Tale (NYSF), From Up Here (Manhattan Theatre Club) and The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons). An alumnus of the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, Brian Yorkey has theatre credits that include Making Tracks, a musical version of Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet, and the country musical Play It by Heart.

SpeakEasy Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault directed this Boston premiere production of NEXT TO NORMAL. Nicholas James Connell will continue as both music director and conductor.

All of the original SpeakEasy cast - Chris Caron, Christopher Chew, Kerry A. Dowling, Sarah Drake, Michael Levesque, and Michael Tacconi – will play the final week.

The SpeakEasy design team for this production is Eric Levenson (scenic), Tyler Kinney (costume), Jeff Adelberg (lighting), Aaron Mack (sound), and Seághan McKay (projection). Amy Louise Spalletta is the Production Stage Manager.

NEXT TO NORMAL performs in the intimate Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St. in Boston’s South End.

Ticket prices start at $30. There are discounts for students and seniors. Persons under age 25 are $25 at all times. For tickets or more information, the public is invited to call
617-933-8600 or visit www.SpeakEasyStage.com.

Featuring a pop rock score, NEXT TO NORMAL shatters through the façade of a family dealing with the direct and indirect effects of mental illness. Winner of three Tony Awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this intense, emotional and ultimately hopeful musical makes a direct grab for the heart with its story of a family coming to terms with its past and bravely facing its future.

NEXT TO NORMAL is the creation of composer Tom Kitt and bookwriter/lyricist Brian Yorkey.  Mr. Kitt was responsible for the music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations for Green Day’s American Idiot on Broadway, and is also the composer of the music for High Fidelity (Broadway), The Winter’s Tale (NYSF), From Up Here (Manhattan Theatre Club) and The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons).  An alumnus of the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, Brian Yorkey has theatre credits that include Making Tracks, a musical version of Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet, and the country musical Play It by Heart.

SpeakEasy Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault directed this Boston premiere production of NEXT TO NORMAL.  Nicholas James Connell will continue as both music director and conductor.  

All of the original SpeakEasy cast - Chris Caron, Christopher Chew, Kerry A. Dowling, Sarah Drake, Michael Levesque, and Michael Tacconi – will play the final week.