Kyle Dean Massey is Next to Normal's Rising Son

Age: “17 going on 28”

Hometown: Jonesboro, Arkansas

Currently: Spending the summer as Gabe, a troubled family’s beloved teen son, in the hit Broadway musical Next to Normal.

Nutcracker? Sweet! Massey got his start onstage at age six, the year after he’d seen his older sister in a local production of The Nutcracker. “I said, ‘I want to be in that!’” he recalls. “Of course, you have to take ballet classes to be in The Nutcracker—it’s a package deal—so they signed me up.” He studied ballet and tap for five years, “until it wasn’t cool for boys to dance,” then became a nationally ranked swimmer and first-chair singer in the all-state high school choir. “I always knew I wanted this,” he says of acting, “but I didn’t know anyone in Arkansas who did musicals for a living, so I didn’t think it was possible.”

Triple Threat: A co-worker of Massey’s father steered young Kyle Dean to the theater program at Missouri State, where the budding actor refined his skills. “I was kind of a mess before I went to college,” he says now. “I had a dance background and I knew I could sing, but I didn’t have any acting training, and putting those three things together just wasn’t meshing. College set me straight. If I had moved to New York at 18, I would have left a long time ago.” Three days after graduation, Massey booked the featured role of Billy Lawlor in an international tour of 42nd Street, and was soon off for three months in Japan. “I loved touring,” Massey says. “It was a fantastic way to get into the business. We opened in Japan, so we all got very close quickly; we were the only English-speaking people we knew. Some of my best friends are from 42nd Street.” Massey later spent a year on the road in Wicked and, again, had a fabulous time. “We’d stay in each place a minimum of a month, so I got an apartment in almost every city. You make twice as much money on the road as on Broadway, so you can save a ton and fly wherever you want.” Back in New York, Massey enjoyed stints in Altar Boyz (“a real challenge because it’s just endless choreography”) and Xanadu (“I learned to roller skate like a pro”).

Wicked World: For the past year, Massey has understudied Fiyero in the Broadway company of Wicked, and he plans to return after his summer stint in Next to Normal. Though he’s covered the role of the young prince for two and a half years, he’s only played it about eight times. “If you’re feeling under the weather in a role like Elphaba, you can’t come to work, but Fiyero? You can definitely make it through,” he says. “It’s a nice featured part, but you’re not onstage that long. One night [current Broadway Fiyero] Kevin Kern and I timed it, and it’s about 30 minutes for the entire play.” When it’s pointed out that he's a tad younger than Kern, Massey says with a laugh, “Kevin was the standby for Dan, the father, when Next to Normal was off-Broadway. We joke about that because if I went on stage with him playing my father, it would be too funny.”

Mommy Dearest: When original cast member Aaron Tveit departed Next to Normal for the Seattle tryout of Catch Me If You Can, Massey (who’d understudied him in Wicked) got the call. Speaking carefully to avoid revealing a surprise element of N2N, he says, “As one of my lyrics says, I am what Diana [the manic-depressive mother played by Alice Ripley] wants me to be throughout the show. She likes Gabe’s rebellious quality because she was that way herself.” Asked about Ripley's Tony-winning performance, Massey says, “I’ve never worked with anyone who is as focused as she is. She forces a better performance out of you because the stakes are raised when you’re onstage with her. She’s amazing. There’s no other word for it.”

Standing Os: Much as been written about the emotional impact of Next to Normal, and Massey marvels at the response the show gets every night. “I love our audiences, because I think it takes a special person to see a show about a woman with bi-polar disorder," he says. "Anyone who comes will love it by the end, but our audiences are totally with us the whole time, and it’s so rewarding to meet them after the show. The other day, there was a girl in the front row who was literally convulsing with sobs at the end, and Bobby [Spencer, who plays the father] and I just broke down. There’s a wonderful energy that goes back and forth.”