Next to Normal to Now Play Broadway's Booth Theatre

The musical Next to Normal — featuring music by Tom Kitt and book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey — will now play Broadway's Booth Theatre, instead of the previously announced Longacre Theatre. Previews will still begin March 27, with an opening date set for April 15.

The Booth became available due to the recent closing of The Story of My Life, which previously occupied the theater.

The musical, which addresses issues of mental illness and a suburban family's efforts to cope with loss, previously played New York's Second Stage Theatre and Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage, with both productions directed by Michael Greif, who will also helm the Broadway production. An earlier version was presented at the New York Musical Theatre Festival under the title Feeling Electric.

The entire Arena cast will return for the Broadway run: Alice Ripley, J. Robert Spencer, Aaron Tveit, Jennifer Damiano, Adam Chanler-Berat, and Louis Hobson. The musical was reworked between its Second Stage and Arena stagings, and the Broadway production will feature five new songs not seen in the previous New York mounting.

The creative team includes Mark Wendland (set), Jeff Mahshie (costumes), Kevin Adams (lighting), Brian Ronan (sound), Sergio Trujillo (musical staging), Charlie Alterman (musical direction), Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt (orchestrations), and AnnMarie Milazzo (vocal arrangements).