Alice Ripley Sets Departure Date from Next to Normal Prior to National Tour

Alice Ripley, winner of the 2009 Best Actress Tony Award for her performance in Next to Normal, will play her final performance in the musical's Broadway production on July 18. Ripley has signed on for the show’s entire 36-week North American tour, which is set to begin on November 23 with a six-week engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. Engagements will follow in San Diego, Seattle, Des Moines, Providence, Hartford, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, St. Paul, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Washington DC and more cities to be announced in the near future.

Also scheduled to play his final performance on July 18 is Brian d’Arcy James, who joined the production on May 17. No replacements for Ripley and James have been announced.

Ripley won every major theatrical prize for her performance as mentally ill mother Diana in Next to Normal. Her other Broadway credits include a Tony-nominated performance Side Show, The Rocky Horror Show, James Joyce’s The Dead, Sunset Boulevard, The Who’s Tommy and Les Misérables.

Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and three 2009 Tony Awards, Next to Normal features music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and direction by Michael Greif. After an off-Broadway premiere production in February 2008, the show was reworked before opening on Broadway on April 15, 2009, at the Booth Theatre.

The cast of Next to Normal currently includes Kyle Dean Massey, Tony Award nominee Jennifer Damiano, Adam Chanler-Berat and Louis Hobson.