Patrick A’Hearn, CEO and Producing Artistic Director 
presents

NEXT TO NORMAL

Music by Tom Kitt • Book & Lyrics by Brian Yorkey
Starring Adrianne Hick
Featuring Andrew Foote 

Stage Manager - Cody Medley
Props Master - Reilly Cooper
Sound Designer - Cheyenne Tenda
Wig Designer - Bethany Cheek
Costume Designer - Erin Welsh
Projections Designer - Duncan Scarpa-Friedman
Lighting Designer - Weston Corey
Scenic Designer - Christian Fleming
Music Director - Carson Eubank
Director - Penny Ayn Maas

Original Broadway Production Produced by David Stone, James L. Nederlander, Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo and Second Stage Theatre
Orchestrations by Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt
Vocal Arrangements by AnnMarie Milazzo

New York Premiere Produced by Second Stage Theatre, New York, February 2008
Carole Rothman, Artistic Director • Ellen Richard, Executive Director
Next to Normal was subsequently produced by Arena Stage in November 2008.
Developed at Village Theatre, Issaquah, WA 
(Robb Hunt, Executive Producer, Steve Tomkins, Artistic Director)
An earlier version was presented in the 2005 New York Musical Theatre Festival.
Support for the development of Next to Normal was provided by the Jonathan Larson Foundation.
Presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
www.mtishows.com

Any video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.
Riverside Center for the Performing Arts is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Hi Friends!  It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts.  As we begin our 27^th Season, we enter it with strength, resilience and gratitude. Theater Operations is now a 501(C)(3), nonprofit organization.  This allows us to join the ranks of all the professional regional theater companies in the country.  It also allows us to fortify our theater by being able to accept grants, sponsorships, and donations at all levels.  Riverside Strong allows us to look to the future with confidence while building additional streams of revenue.

The performing arts are an essential component of the health and well-being of a community.  Riverside takes that responsibility very seriously and relishes the role that we play in our region and community.  We have become a safe space for people to leave their cares behind for a few hours and be transported to another time and place while participating in quality entertainment.  “It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.”  We need you, and we are glad you are here.  You are just as much a part of the production as the performers and musicians on the stage.  That is why we choose these shows for you!

This Season brings a terrific mixture of fun and rock and roll with  Heartbreak Hotel, epic with Jesus Christ Superstar and To Kill a Mockingbird, edgy and riveting with the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Next to Normal and classic with The Sound of Music and White Christmas. Our Children's Theatre is back in full force with Seussical Jr. in February and Junie B Jones in the Fall.  As I always say, “We all get to do what we love to do here at Riverside because all of you love coming here to support us.”  Thanks for the vote of confidence.  Thanks for your generosity.  Thank you for supporting the live arts!

Patrick A’Hearn

CEO and Producing Artistic Director
Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Next to Normal is an American rock musical that opened on Broadway in 2009, winning three Tony Awards, including Best Original Score, and going on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2010 (one of only 10 musicals to have won this award). As a professor of theatre, I can tell you how important this show is in regards to the Musical Theatre historical canon, a groundbreaking show that blazed a trail for contemporary musicals that came after it with its largely sung-through rock score, and by expanding the scope of acceptable subject matter. It is one of the first major productions in the U.S. to explore mental health through a contemporary biomedical model, bringing previously underrepresented experiences into the light. I mention all of this because, despite the many accolades this powerful musical has garnered, it is rarely produced and is not well known to the general public. That is why I am so thrilled you are all here today to share in this intense story. I am so proud of Riverside and Patrick A’Hearn for taking a chance on this notable show. And I am honored to be at the helm.

Theatre is so important and impactful for society because our “communally shared and experienced stories”, especially the emotionally honest ones, are what profoundly remind us all that we are not alone in what we are thinking and feeling. Next to Normal dares to explore the emotional and psychological complexities of a modern, suburban family grappling with the challenges of mental illness, focusing on the impact that bipolar disorder can have on the individual suffering and on those around them. The musical also examines themes of grief, loss, depression, normalcy, and ethics in modern psychiatry - while also challenging us to advocate for ourselves and ask for help when we need it. It is undoubtedly heavy and intense at times. And it is a perfectly crafted mirror to reality. So if this story or any of the authentic and deeply relatable characters resonates with you and your life journey, we will have done our job well. And hopefully, it will make you think, feel, and potentially spark dialogue with your friends and family. That is what good theater is meant to do! 

Finally, despite the intensity and darkness of this story, fear not - we do end in hope. There is always the possibility for healing and change in our lives. In Next to Normal, we learn that it is the journey that is more important than the end result … as we all search for light and truth in our lives. We are reminded that we must accept life with all its contradictions, finding a balance between happiness and sadness, beauty and pain, love and loss, the future and the past, and ultimately, the light and the darkness. For it is only through integration of these contrary realities and experiences that we might be able to create a successful existence. As the cast eventually reminds us, “There will be light”. 

With gratitude, 
Penny Ayn Maas
Director

*Although this theatre does not have an ongoing contract with Actors’ Equity Association, the individual actor indicated appears through the courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Understudies
Understudies never substitute for listed players unless a specific announcement for the appearance is made at the time of the performance.
Elizabeth Butler (DIANA), Chris Florio (GABE, HENRY), Sasha Rosenbaum (NATALIE)

Act I

Prelude (Night)
Band

Just Another Day
Company

Everything Else
Natalie

Who's Crazy / My Psychopharmacologist and I
Company

Perfect For You
Henry, Natalie

I Miss the Mountains
Diana

It's Gonna Be Good
Company

He's Not Here
Dan

You Don't Know
Diana

I am the One
Dan, Gabe, Diana

Superboy and the Invisible Girl
Natalie, Gabe, Diana

I'm Alive 
Gabe

Make Up Your Mind / Catch Me I'm Falling
Company

I Dreamed a Dance
Diana, Gabe

There's a World
Gabe

I've Been
Dan

Didn't I See This Movie
Diana

A Light in the Dark
Dan, Diana

Act II

Entr'acte
Band

Wish I Were Here
Company

Song of Forgetting
Dan, Diana, Natalie

Hey #1
Natalie, Henry

Seconds and Years
Dr. Madden, Dan, Diana

Better Than Before
Dan, Diana, Natalie

Aftershocks
Gabe

Hey #2
Natalie, Henry

You Don't Know (Reprise)
Diana, Dr. Madden

How Could I Ever Forget?
Diana, Dan

It's Gonna Be Good (Reprise)
Dan, Diana

Why Stay? / A Promise
Diana, Natalie, Dan, Henry

I'm Alive (Reprise)
Gabe

The Break
Diana

Make Up Your Mind / Catch Me I'm Falling (Reprise)
Dr. Madden, Diana, Gabe

Maybe (Next to Normal)
Diana, Natalie

Hey #3 / Perfect For You (Reprise)
Natalie, Henry

So Anyway
Diana

I am the One (Reprise)
Dan, Gabe

Light
Company

Orchestra