It was announced this morning that Next to Normal will be back in DC during the next season at the Kennedy Center. I remember getting the demo CD at Arena Stage and falling in LOVE with this show. It was also my last show with Arena and I still went back to see it many time.
If you are in NYC or one of the many stops on the upcoming tour I hope you go see this production. From the producer of Wicked and the director of Rent this show is truly amazing.
If you didn’t get the chance to see it you can see it at The Kennedy Center.
I first heard of Mr. Abbott when I watched Elaine Stritch at Liberty. She was talking about working for him on a revival of his show On Your Toes.
George Abbott was born in 1887 and was a great producer, director, playwright and actor. He made his Broadway debut in 1913 in The Misleading Lady. He went on to act in several Broadway shows, and in 1925 the first play he wrote made it to Broadway. From there his career really took off. He was the original director of Chicago, Room Service, The Boys from Syracuse, Pal Joey, Sweet Charity, On the Town, A Funny Thing … Forum and many more. He also wrote On Your Toes, Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game, to name a few.
Abbott was known for being a show doctor. If a show was not working on its out of town try out or before opening on Broadway, many producers brought in Abbott to look at and help fix the work.
George Abbott died just days before his 108th birthday. In 1995 during the opening of the Damn Yankees revival on Broadway he was greeted by a standing ovation. As everyone was applauding he leaned over to someone he was with and said, “Someone really important must be here.”
It was announced this morning that Next to Normal will be back in DC during the next season at the Kennedy Center. I remember getting the demo CD at Arena Stage and falling in LOVE with this show. It was also my last show with Arena and I still went back to see it many time.
