Alice Ripley to Reprise Tony-Winning Role in Immersive Production of Next to Normal in Spain

Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal will premiere in Barcelona next summer with an immersive production. The staging, directed by Simon Pittman, will be led by Alice Ripley, who won a Tony Award in 2009 for originating the role of Diana. Additional casting will be announced later.

Kitt and Yorkey have created a 60-minute version of the musical, in which the actors and audience share the same space. It will play the IDEAL Center in Barcelona, a 20,000-square-foot venue designed for immersive experiences. With no set or props, the audience will experience the story alongside the actors, surrounded by a sound system of 36 speakers and projections over the walls, floor and ceiling.

"I hope this new immersive experience will intensify the brilliance of the original, offer a thrilling new perspective to the story, and place the audience inside the mind of bipolar central character Diana Goodman," Pittman said in a statement.

In addition to her Tony win for Next To Normal, Ripley was Tony-nominated for her performance in Side Show. Her other Broadway credits include Sunset Boulevard, Les Misérables, The Rocky Horror Show, American Psycho, James Joyce's The Dead, The Who's Tommy and more.

Next to Normal, which takes an unflinching look at a suburban family struggling with the effects of mental illness, opened at the Booth Theatre on April 15, 2009.