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Next to Normal

Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, nominated for 11 Tony awards and winner of three — best score, orchestration and leading actress — the rock musical Next to Normal arrives at Stages Repertory Theatre, telling what its director Melissa Anderson calls “a story about finding your humanness and trying to keep your connection to your family.” Mom is bipolar and as she gets worse, this translates into more and more stress for her family. But all is not depressing, Anderson promises. “I would call it seriocomic. There’s definitely humor. I think there always is in great tragedy,” she says. “I think it examines what is normal today, what do we consider normal.”

The six-actor show boasts five actors from Houston and one from New York City. That one is Happy McPartlin (playing Diana), who is coming straight to Stages from the first national tour of Memphis. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursday, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Through June 24. Stages Repertory Theatre, 3210 Allen Parkway. For information, call 713‑527‑0123 or visit stagestheatre.com.
Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: May 16. Continues through June 24, 2012

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