review - NEXT TO NORMAL - Mesa Community College Music Theatre

Lindsay Decoste, Austin Stuart, and Riley Thornton
photo by Melody Stuart

highlights from local critics reviews - (click link at bottom of each review to read complete review)

This production ran from September 22- 25

"With a fantastic score and an emotionally rich story that focuses on the impact of mental illness on a family, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's Pulitzer Prize winning Next to Normal is one of the best contemporary musicals of the past 20 years...With a superb cast, clear direction, impressive creative elements, and a sensational orchestra, Mesa Community College's recent production of this musical was stellar....Lindsay Decoste beautifully captured the wide range of constantly changing emotions of Diana...As Dan, Austin Stuart did an excellent job portraying the compassionate and caring husband and father. ...Jayla Quartullo was exceptional as Natalie, showing a young woman desperately seeking some kind of connection but also possessing an amount of assurance that everything will be okay. Riley Thornton did an excellent job portraying Natalie's brother Gabe, who serves, somewhat, as the antagonist of the piece...Bennett Smith was fun and charming as Henry, the stoner, nerdy boy who falls for Natalie. ...Trevon Powell and RJ Gray did good work portraying two of Diana's doctors, with Powell delivering a crowd-pleasing and compelling performance....Under Darin Shyrock's music direction the cast's vocals soared and the nine-piece orchestra, which was larger than the original Broadway orchestra, delivered the best sound I've heard for a production of this show as well as one of the tightest-sounding orchestras I've heard in town....This is the first live production I've seen at MCC since Tregoney Shepherd has taken over their Music Theatre department and, based on how moving, rich and rewarding an experience it was I can't wait to see what she's got planned."   -Gil Benbrook, Talkin' Broadway (click here to read the complete review)