November 22nd, 2009 
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Album Description
Next to Normal has been described as a contemporary musical that explores how one suburban household copes with crisis. With provocative lyrics and an electrifying score of more than 30 original songs, Next to Normal shows how far two parents will go to keep themselves sane and their family’s world intact. Next to Normal recently received five Helen Hayes Award nominations for its Arena Stage engagement, including Outstanding Non-Resident Production, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production (Alice Ripley), Outstanding Lead Actor in a Non-Resident Production (J.Robert Spencer), and Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Non-Resident Production (Aaron Tveit and Jennifer Damiano). For its sold-out Second Stage Theatre engagement, Next to Normal won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score and also received the following accolades: Lucille Lortel Award nominations for Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Featured Actor (Aaron Tveit), and Outstanding Lighting Design (Kevin Adams); Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley) and Outstanding Music; Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical and Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley); and a Drama League nomination for Outstanding Musical, among others.
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The music and most of the lyrics in Next to Normal are inspired and thought provoking but as is the case of most theater performances today there are parts that are not suitable for all audiences. I love the music and lyrical themes but the language prevents me from listening to it or sharing it with my children and grandchildren. The brilliant handling of a delicate subject is marred by filthy language pandering to the lowest common denominator in our society today. Such a shame.
Rating: 2 / 5
This is by far some of the worst music I have ever heard in any genre in all of my life. It’s unbelievably ugly, trite, insipid, amateurish and just plain horrible.
Rating: 1 / 5
This won the Tony for best composer and lyricist? The Tony voters need their head examined.
Sorry folks. I could barely get through the two discs. The music is trite and the lyrics aren’t really lyrics, they’re boring monologues and dialogues. They say Alice Ripley is brilliant. Unfortuneately, it isn’t apparent on the disc.
Save your time and your money.
Rating: 2 / 5
There are real flaws in this musical. I’m a bit concerned that–once again–the storyline ends too close to normal. In that, while this woman is consistently referred to as a “bipolar mother,” by the end of the performance we are are asked to suspend belief in that diagnosis. Maybe it is not her brain but her soul that needs to heal? Maybe her grief was not pathological and she did not need meds, doctors, or the overprotective spouse? Heal thyself? Not a great message, really. I’d rather have the character continue to struggle–not with the “normal” grief of losing a child–but with the next to normal grief of living everyday in a struggle with the bipolar illness and its “treatments.” That would have been, for me, both more real and perhaps even more heroic (and optimistic?).
Rating: 3 / 5
This cast album perfectly invokes the emotions that you feel during the show. The amazing cast lead by Alice Ripley grabs hold of you throughout the entire album. Though, like many rock-like musicals of today, some of the songs start to blend together and bring nothing exciting. But even those have something to offer thanks to Aaron Tveit, Jennifer Damiano, J. Robert Spencer, and of course Alice Ripley. For the style of music it is in there are very strong songs an some weaker ones which bring it down slightly which is why it gets 4 insted of 5 stars, but the best songs on this album deserve somewhere near 10 stars!
Rating: 4 / 5